The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 4 : § 1. 10

Chapter 4 : The Third Star or Splendour of the Crown of Excellence of 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).

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

§ 1. The first title, whereby the Holy Virgin is called the Daughter of the Eternal Father

The Holy Virgin possesses this grace of filiation in a unique way.

 10   On the basis of what we have discussed thus far, it might be possible to find someone who takes a more limited view of the state of grace given to the Blessed Virgin, arguing that it is in fact available to all. The holy Virgin, however, possesses this grace in a unique way. This is the case, firstly, because she is the firstborn, being the one on whom God fixed his gaze before anyone else when He decided to use His only-begotten Son as a preparatory sketch or model for creatures who would become His children by grace and by adoption. Mary was the first creature to whom God applied this remarkable idea, as I showed earlier.[1] The traits of the divine exemplar were followed more perfectly in her alone than in all other persons combined. 

She is, moreover, the only person who from the moment of her conception became part of God’s family without ever having set foot in the house of Adam, the sinner. This means she has always been God’s adoptive daughter and chief heiress to the goods of her Father and Creator. In my view, this is why God gave her the name MARY before she was even conceived. St Gregory of Nyssa[2], St Jerome[3], and several others have commented on this. God did this to show that henceforth she was His exclusively, that she belonged to His house and that He recognized her as His beloved Daughter. The golden pen of Ravenna[4] writes that boundary stones are engraved with titles and coats of arms showing who are the landowners. Similarly, I have no hesitation in saying that the name MARY, which the Archangel brought from heaven before she was even conceived, showed clearly that she belonged to God and that He had received her into His family through an act of adoption the like of which will never be seen again. 

But perhaps the main feature of Mary’s filiation is the following: she received the grace of this adoption to a far higher degree than all others, in that she not only acquired the purest and most beautiful portion of God her Father’s inheritance, but she was also made the Mother for all her brothers, giving them their share, for she was charged with administering their portion of the estate and with safeguarding the inheritance which fell to their lot by a heavenly rebirth.[5] Accordingly, all children of adoption find themselves taking part in Mary’s choice: since she is not only their elder sister insofar as she is God’s firstborn or eldest daughter, but she acts moreover as mother, governess, teacher and guide in all their affairs.

Footnotes

[1] Cap. 2.

[2] Homil. de Christi Nativit.

[3] Historia de ortu Mariæ.

[4] St Peter Chrysologus. Serm. 154.

[5] Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Ioh. iii. v.

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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