The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 2 : § 3. 3-4

Chapter 2: The First Star or Splendour of the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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

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

§ 3. The relationship between the Blessed Virgin and our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby it appears that she is the Firstborn of mere creatures

First title whereby the Holy Virgin is the Firstborn of mere creatures

 3   I say therefore that she is the Firstborn of mere creatures by virtue of the same titles which oblige us to acknowledge the Saviour as Firstborn of every creature. I say this recognizing the inequality and dependence which must be understood proportionately between them both. Mary has this title because she surpasses them all in dignity, excellence and perfection. St Bernard, little child of Mary that he is, having considered the Son as I said previously, sets himself to contemplate the Mother and to say, altogether transported with joy and happiness:

Holy Lady, thou art chosen like the Sun. I am not talking here of the physical Sun which giveth light to us, but of Him who didst create it. He is chosen among millions of men and thou among millions of women. He is chosen among all who have been created, and thou among all He hath created.

 

This caused St Bonaventure to say:

Were all the Saints to grow as much as is possible for each of them according to their rank and in order, they would never equal the perfections of the MOTHER OF GOD.[1]

The reason is that forasmuch as holiness, grace and greatness have been divided among the Saints, each one of them has taken a share, some more and some less. The Blessed Virgin’s lot must be viewed as separate for she does not share these with anyone; for with her Son, and by means of her Son, she enters into the fulness of the holiness, grace and greatness of God. This provides me with the chance to make heard a great thought of St Augustine[2] who, with admirable emphasis, calls this the Work of an eternal design. By this he means, in my opinion, that if God were to have needed time like us in order to form in His mind the idea of such a noble and perfect creature, then He would have needed no less than an eternity.

Second title whereby the Holy Virgin is the Firstborn of mere creatures

 4   In the second place, she can be called the Firstborn of (mere) creatures because along with her Son she is their centre. They all regard her as the target they aim for. Listen to the words of the blessed Archbishop of Crete[3] and take note of how the great Saints speak of this Lady:

I do not consider her as being anything less than the declaration uttered from the depths of divine incomprehensibility as God’s aim from before time began.

     

He means to say that God is like an abyss where the depths of His Greatness are unfathomable to our crude understanding. He has made a creature in whom we can contemplate all His perfections more easily since they are more in proportion to our weakness. In this connection, He has had her in His mind's eye from the beginning, alongside His incarnate Son, as the aim and objective of His works and the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies and figures.

Do not take my word for it, says St Bernard, believe the Sacred Scriptures. Take the trouble to go though them and see if it it is not true that just as they speak of Mary from beginning to end, in the same way they have been written to make her known to us.[4]

Whoever wants to gain the satisfaction of following the advice of this great Saint and to explore his Holy Writings, will find that if the new and heavenly Adam is formed, He is formed from the virgin soil that is none other than Virgin Mary; that if He dwelt in an earthly Paradise, then this Paradise is the same Virgin; that the Spouse given to him is Mary, who justly bears the title of Mother of the living, which the ancient Eve abused, making herself mother of the dead; if the just man Noe is carried away from the waves and impetuous floods of suffering, it is with the Ark, that is to say with His blessed Mother who keeps Him faithful company; if innocent Isaac bears the wood for the sacrifice and proceeds courageously towards his death, Sara his mother is present and gives her assent to God’s will in its entirety; if Jacob crosses the Jordan, his beautiful Rachel is never far away. In short, we must conclude with Blessed Andrew of Jerusalem:[5] 

Mary is the mysterious Tabernacle whose design was given by God; in her the ancient prophecies have been accomplished and the figurative characters cast into the fire on the arrival of the Truth; she is the true Mercy Seat that the two Cherubim look towards unceasingly;[6] she is the expectation of all past centuries, the desired of nations,[7] the desire of the everlasting hills,[8] the fulfilment of the promises made to the Patriarchs and the accomplishment of the immutable designs of God.

Footnotes

[1] In I, dist. 44.

[2] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[3] S. Andræas Cretensis, Orat. 1 de Dormit. B. Virg.

[4] Serm. 1 in Salve.

[5] Orat. 1 de Dormit. B. Virg.

[6] Exod. xxv. 17-20.

[7] And I will move all nations: AND THE DESIRED OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME: and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of hosts. Aggeus ii. 8.

[8] The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; Gen. xxv. 26

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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