Chapter 9 : Devotion – an eighth feature of the gratitude we owe the Mother of God
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 2. Second sign of devotion : to approach the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar frequently and with every tender affection
1 I have just been writing about the oblation of the most holy sacrifice of the Altar in honour of the most sacred Virgin as being the most religious and noble form of devotion that can be shown towards her. I should nevertheless like to say more on this but focusing now on the Blessed Sacrament which is so popular in the devotions of the faithful where the Son of the same Virgin makes Himself present so as to dwell amongst us and to be the consolation and nourishment of our souls. This is in order to show how we have no pledge more precious than this Sacrament and how much she wants her dear children to show their devotion towards it.
2 I maintain this a most precious pledge that we have from her forasmuch as it is the common view of the Holy Fathers that this divine Sacrament is a gift we have from her, and that (after her beloved Son) it is to her that we are indebted for it. We are indebted to her, they say,
• like unto the Virgin soil which without human seed and without any cultivation, apart from that supplied by the hand of God, brought forth the pure wheat from which this bread of life was formed;
• like unto the housewife[1] who kneaded the leaven of her faith into the three measures of flour[2] of the Lord’s body, soul and divinity;
• like unto the blessed Tent of Abraham[3] or his good wife Sara[4], where this bread was baked under ashes in the fire of Divinity;
• like unto the intellectual kiln[5] fired by the divine ardour from which He was taken taken warm in order to restore us to life;
• like unto a spiritual Bethlehem[6], meaning the house of bread from Heaven where He was placed for the nourishment of mortal men;
• like unto the golden vessel[7] where this heavenly manna was kept; and
• like unto the altar and the table with the loaves of proposition[8];
This most noble Sacrament is given to us not only under the species of bread but also of wine and the Holy Fathers have not forgotten to point out the links this has to the Virgin. It is for this reason that St John Damascene[9] and St Epiphanius[10] call her:
the fertile vine bringing forth the grapes of sweetness and the nectar of life eternal.
St Germanus[11], Patriarch of Constantinople, said:
She is the mystical vine planted by the hand of God to supply Churches with the grapes of incorruption.
St Ambrose[12] takes the image of the round bowl spoken of in the Canticle of Canticles[13] and says:
This represents the womb of the Virgin in which divine Wisdom hath mingled her precious wine that she promises at her solemn feast[14].
Finally, other writers declare that
• if the Holy Sacrament is the tree of life, then Mary is the Paradise where it grew;
• if it is the fruit of eternal life, then Mary is the tree which bore it;
• if it is the Lamb of the mystical Pasch, then it is Mary who supplied it;
• if it is the live coal borne by the Seraph in Isaiah[15], then Mary is like the tongs with which it was taken from the Altar of Divinity;
• if it is the oriental pearl of great price for our salvation, then Mary is the Mother-of-Pearl[16]
With regard to the last point, I cannot omit to mention the striking observation made by an inquisitive-minded lapidary who writes in our time:
Pearls are formed in the sea, but not conceived in the mollusc’s nacre as a result of dew dropping down from the heavens (as was commonly believed until recently[17]), but from the actual milk of the mother-of-pearl, which is responsible for its colour and appearance.
This image represents in a truly exceptional way the true Eucharistic Pearl, formed from the blood and milk of His most gentle Mother : from her blood, when He was in her sacred womb ; and from her milk, after His birth therefrom.
Footnotes
[1] S. Greg. Taumat., Orat. de Annunt. ; S. Epiph., de Laud. Mariæ ; Andr. Hierosol., Serm. de Annunt.
[2] Luke xiii. 21.
[3] Gen. xviii. 6.
[4] S. Bern., Serm. 2 de Annunt.
[5] S. Joann. Damasc., Orat. 2 de Dormit.
[6] S. Epiph., de Laud. Deiparæ ; Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.
[7] Idem, ibid.
[8] S. Epiph., de Laud. Deiparæ.
[9] Orat. 1 de Nativit. Mariæ.
[10] De Laud. Mariæ.
[11] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.
[12] De instit. Virg., c. 14.
[13]Cant. vii. 2.
[14] Prov. ix. 1-5.
[15] S. Joann. Damasc., Orat. 1 de Dormit. Virg.
[16] Boet., de Gemmis.
[17] Pliny, Nat. Hist. Bk. 9, Ch. 54.
3 You may note, however, from the way the Holy Doctors speak that it is not only by reason of the Incarnation that they attribute this sovereign benefit to the Virgin – as to her who formed and provided the precious flesh which we receive receive in communion – but also because of her link with the Sacrament, as their words make clear. Even though it is more difficult to identify her influent effect upon the Sacrament (to use the language of the Schools[1]) so that it may be attributed to her in this connection, there are in fact two or three reasons which in my judgement shed light upon this devout interpretation by the Holy Fathers.
The first of these presupposes the truth of the rich words of praise coming from the Angelic Doctor[2] when he calls the Blessed Sacrament the fulfilment and the final perfection of God’s deed of gift when He promised to give us His Son in the Incarnation. The Eternal Father wished to give us His Son in His entirety and the Son wished to make a perfect gift of Himself; it was therefore necessary for Him to find the wondrous means that love had suggested to Him that would enable Him to give Himself to each man individually and to be incorporated with him. This reason presupposes moreover what the Holy Fathers, whom I quoted in relation to another subject[3], declared by their common consent : namely, that we are indebted for this deed of gift and its fulfilment not only to the Father, who is its first principle and origin, and to the Son who offered Himself, but also to the Holy Virgin who, by conforming her will to that of the Father and the Son gave Him to us as something which was truly hers by right of Maternity. From this I concluded elsewhere that this union and harmony of wills on something which was hers in common with the Father was enough for her to be regarded as having offered Him with the Father in sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, and for us to be obliged and indebted to her for our salvation. In the same manner and in virtue of the same proofs, I now conclude that this union of will with the Son who gives Himself to the Sacrament allows us to say that it also comes to us from the Mother not only because it is the fulfilment of the first gift which she made of Him at the Incarnation – giving her Son to us in all the ways and in all the perfection with which her Son had determined to give Himself – but also because (since that which is given to us belonged to her) it was not given to us by the Son except with the consent of His Mother, for in becoming man He placed Himself under her power. This is what, if I am not mistaken, Saint Epiphanius[4] wanted to tell us when he gave to the Holy Virgin the name and office of Priestess,
who, he says, offered on the Holy Altar the bread of Heaven for the remission of sins.
Footnotes
[1] In the Middle Ages: a body of teachers and scholars engaged in giving and receiving instruction in one of the higher branches of study; esp. one of the various bodies of this kind which jointly constituted a university; a faculty.
[2] Opusc. de S. Sacram.
[3] Part II, ch. 6, § 3 et 4.
[4] Serm. de Laud. Virg.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.
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