The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 1 : § 1. 7-8

Chapter 1 : On the title of the Mother of God, true source of all the great Dignities of the glorious Virgin

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

 § 1.  On the excellence of the title MOTHER OF GOD

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

 7   Other writers such as St Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna,[1] maintain that he who does not know how to contemplate with delight the sublimity of his Blessed Mother has little understanding of the greatness of God.

Great God! says this saint. How can this be? The heavens are afeared, the Angels tremble, all creatures lose their faculties, nature is confounded and yet in this emotion which is general one maiden alone feels no fear; not only does she provide a home for God in her womb but she confidently asks as payment for this lodging an agreement for universal peace, forgiveness for criminals on earth, life for those who have died, membership for men of the family of blessed Spirits and the incarnation wherein the Word is made flesh. What does this confidence seem like to you?

 8   Among this assembly of Saints, there are some who are more astonished than all the rest. They find themselves overcome and can only cry out in amazement: This is a wonder! A miracle! The great Patriarch of Antioch, St Ignatius,[2] calls it a celestial prodigy and a sacred sight; St John Chrysostom,[3] a great miracle; St Bernardine,[4] the miracle of miracles; St John Damascene,[5] the most profound of miracles.

 

O miracles! O prodigies! Cries St Augustine,[6]  the laws of nature are changed, God is born in man, the Virgin conceives from the word alone of God; she becomes a mother and yet remains a virgin! She is a mother, but remains undefiled; she is a virgin but has a son; she remains wholly virgin but is none the less fruitful; and the unique child who amongst all the children of men is born sinless, comes into the world not through concupiscence of the flesh but through obedience to the spirit.

Miracle! Says St John Damascene,[7] but this is the newest of all miracles; a woman is raised higher than the Seraphim just as God stoops beneath the Angels.

O most Blessed Virgin! Says St Epiphanius,[8] thou hast stopped in their tracks all the multitudes of the angelic army[9] and caused them amazement in their hearts! For in truth it is a quite extraordinary prodigy in heaven to see a woman cradling the Light of the world in her arms; to see a woman with her Son who is the Father of his Mother in the same way He has been through endless ages; to see the nuptial couch of the Virgin made ready to receive her heavenly Spouse who is both her Son and the true, only-begotten Son of God.

Let us open our ears, says St Anselm,[10] and make ready to hear how admirably the Eternal Father prepared for the Blessed Virgin, giving testimony thereby to His limitless love for her. In your opinion, could He have done any more? He had His only begotten Son, in all things and everywhere equal to Himself and of the same substance. Would you believe that His love could extend so far as to be willing to share His son with Mary, in such a way that she would have Him as a true Son by nature, as He was for His heavenly Father?

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[2] Epist. ad Joann

[3] Serm. de B. Virg.

[4] T.-I, conc. 61, art. 1, c. 11.

[5] Orat. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[6] Serm. 11 de Tempore.

[7] Orat. 1 de Nativit.

[8] Orat. de Sanct. Deipara.

[9] Au même instant, se joignit à l'ange une troupe de la milice céleste. Luc ii. 13.

[10] Lib. de Excellentia Virg., c. 3.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

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.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

© Peter Bloor 2024