The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 3.1

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in 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 Mary is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 3. Mary’s final grace : the culminating point

The testimony of the Holy Fathers

 1   There remains only this last question which is perhaps the most important and the most difficult to fathom. By the words last grace or final grace I am not referring to the last favour she received or the last successful intervention by God, nor to the final assent she gave to Heaven’s request. What I have in mind is the final perfection of sanctifying grace in Mary, that is to say, the state and the measure of the grace in her soul at the hour of her death, following the continual increases in grace that I have been discussing. Concerning this grace, the Holy Doctors have written wonderful words which they they nevertheless feel are quite inadequate:

She received the plenitude of grace, says St Ildephonsus[1].

She is a limitless source of grace, says St John Damascene[2]; she overtakes the Cherubim and surpasses the Seraphim; there is no-one who draws closer to God than her.

Her grace is infinite, says St Epiphanius[3].

The privilege she received in her merits defies explanation, says St Bernard[4].

There is no-one among men or Angels who could reveal the heights achieved by her grace, says St Anselm[5].

The Holy Virgin is called the sea, says St Dionysius the Carthusian[6], because just as no-one could count the drops of water in the sea, in the same way it would be impossible to plumb the excellence of the grace and the glory Mary received from God.

There is no heart that could take in this mystery, says St Augustine[7], nor tongue that could speak of it worthily enough.

To God alone does it pertain to know this mystery in its fulness, says St Bernardino of Siena[8].

St Bonaventure[9] says that the grace of the MOTHER OF GOD was altogether true in its nature, most precious in value, exceedingly great in extent and most beneficial in its effects. It received in abundance the outpourings of the gifts of the Holy Ghost; it was most pleasing in how it manifested itself outside her soul, most singular in the privileges which accompanied it, and most glorious in the rewards which flowed from it. The Virgin was full of grace as she showed by her wisdom, by the way the Holy Ghost flooded her soul, by the holiness which was hers, by the tenderness of her gentle heart, by the fruitfulness of her womb, by the instruction she gave to Masters of the Church, by the odour of her saintly life, by the way God’s glory cascaded through her and by her enjoyment of the beatific vision in eternity. The Angel hailed her as full of grace, the Holy Ghost filled her with grace and she was possessed of the divinity in its fulness.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 6 de Assumpt.

[2] Orat. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[3]Orat. de S. Maria Deipara.

[4] Serm. 4 de Assumpt.

[5] Lib. de Excellentia Virg., c. 3.

[6] Lib. III de Laudib. Virg., art. 30.

[7] Serm. de Assumpt. Virg., t. IX operum.

[8] T. I, Serm. 51.

[9] Speculi B. Virg., c. 2, 5, 6, 7.

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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