The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 5 : § 1.1-2

Chapter 5 : The Fourth 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)

That she is the Spouse of the Holy Ghost

A threefold cord is not easily broken, says Solomon.[1] The threefold relationship that the MOTHER OF GOD has with the Holy Trinity is an indissoluble link and a knot stronger than the Gordian knot. All the powers of Hell are incapable of undoing it. We have completed our discussion of the first two links. There only remains the third, the one that she has with the Holy Ghost.

§ 1. The Holy Virgin is truly the Spouse of the Holy Ghost

 1   Why take the trouble of proving this truth since all the Holy Fathers preach it unanimously and it is the ordinary magisterium of the Catholic Church? St Ildephonsus, St Bernard, St Bonaventure say it so frequently that it is a wonder to hear their words. St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople,[2] calls her in this context the spotless Bride without blemish[3]. Other writers call her the royal and nuptial couch of the Holy Ghost. 

The Blessed Holy Ghost, says St Anselm[4], is the love and the link between the Father and the Son; there is in Him everything that we rightly want to love. He came down in person upon the glorious Virgin in His own substance and, by a special privilege beyond our comprehension, He chose her to the exclusion of every other creature, took her as His Bride and as a result she became Queen and Empress of the universe.

St Gregory of Nyssa makes a characteristically subtle observation about this.[5] He says that on the day of the Incarnation, a day of limitless joy for heaven and earth, the nuptial couch was nothing other than the purity of the sacred Virgin, who was free of all sin and all corruption; that the canopy of the bed was the power of the Most High[6] which overshadowed the Virginity of the Spouse most chaste; and that the mysterious lamp was the splendour of the Holy Ghost. St Lawrence Justinian notes pertinently[7] that the glorious St Joseph acted in this as delegate and minister of the Holy Ghost, responsible for preserving His Spouse pure and unspotted, being as it were the Guardian Angel of her body. Tertullian[8], Eusebius of Caesarea[9], St Epiphanius[10] and St Gregory of Nazianzus[11] refer to this same Holy Ghost speaking through Isaiah, and put into His mouth these words of the same Prophet[12]: And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son.

Footnotes

[1] Eccles. iv. 12.

[2] Orat. de Præsentatione B. Virg.

[3] Cf. Eph. v. 27.

[4] Lib. de Excellentia Virg., c. 4.

[5] Homil. 18 in Cant.

[6] Luc. i. 35.

[7] Lib. de Casto connubio Verbi et animæ.

[8] Lib. de Trinit.

[9] Lib. VII de Demonstr. Evang., c. 7.

[10] Hæresi 78.

[11] Orat. in Pascha.

[12] Isai. viii. 3.

 2   But what could be more explicit than the infallible word of the Angelic Envoy[1] Gabriel who told the Virgin[2] on behalf of his Master that the Holy Ghost would come upon her, and the power of the Most High, none other than the same Holy Ghost, would overshadow her. He would place her under His royal cloak, that is to say, in the shelter of His protection, giving her the power to bear His name and to call Him her Spouse for ever.

The Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee, St Bermard says[3], meaning that 

He will strengthen thee so as to be able to withstand the dazzling light of the Divinity that shall spread within thee.

That is to say, according to the same writer[4]:

Do not trouble thyself trying to understand how this mystery shall be accomplished in thee; for He who will give effect to this divine work will serve thee as Spouse and Teacher; He will shelter thy spirit from His light inaccessible[5], enabling thee to look upon that which others dare not approach.

That is to say, according to the learned Euthymius[6],

His coming upon thee will be like a cloud gently condensing its waters imperceptibly into the veins of the earth, rendering her fertile but without doing her any violence. 

That is to say, as St Augustine explains[7]: 

He will protect thee and defend thee from every possible attack on thy purity but in such a way that through this immaculate conception thy purity and integrity will be greater than ever.

We have perhaps spent enough time on this point, so let us pass on to the divine espousals.

Footnotes

[1] In original French, Paranymphe. From Lat. paranymphus [< παράνυμφος] 1. attendant at a wedding (also fig).b groomsman; c (fig.); d bridesman.  Eng. paranymph: 1. perhaps: a person who ‘gives away’ a bride. 1602 Our blessed Ladies paranimphe Saint Gabriell. 2. a spokesperson or orator who speaks on behalf of someone else. Now historical and rare. Complete OED.

[2] Luc. i. 35.

[3] Homil. 4 in Missus.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Vide. Who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: 1 Tim. vi. 16.

[6] In Lucam ; Maldon. in 1 Matth.

[7] Lib. 50 Homiliarum, homil. 44.

 

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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