The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 3.2-4

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

A demonstration of the unquantifiable extent of the Holy Virgin’s grace

 2   We have already mentioned briefly the continual growth of Mary’s grace, but I am sure that if the human mind would swoon in astonishment if tried to comprehend just how far this grace advanced. If the mind cannot grasp this, then far less will the pen be able to describe it. Nevertheless, I would like to give you a rough idea by making use of a practical example by way of demonstration. Concerning this, I should say firstly that anyone who is not familiar with the incredible increases that occur very quickly when numbers are doubled will not fail to be amazed at what is possible.

Imagine a great King who has a favourite whom he cherishes so tenderly and with such ardour that in order to see him more frequently he makes him a promise : the first time he comes to greet him, the King will make him a gift of one gold coin and he will double this gift on each subsequent visit. One gold coin is little enough for a great King and I am not even talking here of a long period of time but only twenty-four hours, during which the gentleman is to present himself once every hour. What do think the final price of this generosity will be? It is possible you will not believe me when I tell you, even though I am not exaggerating the truth in any way : he will have received from the King 8,388,608 gold coins. Now, imagine the king continued for one more day with this level of generosity, doubling the last number each time. I would be able to show that, even if the King had all the gold in Peru as well as that buried beneath the earth or in the depths of its abysses, he would not be able to keep his promise, even for only two twenty-four hour periods. 

 3   Now, to return to the matter we were discussing, let us firstly consider the amount of grace received in baptism by a little child who contributes nothing for his part and let us call this amount one degree of grace. Secondly, let us assume that the grace of the MOTHER OF GOD at the moment of her conception amounted to one degree, even though she actually had millions. Thirdly, let us take just one period of twenty-four hours and say that each hour she did only one act of love for God; even though she did much more, it does not affect our argument. At this count, such as it is, she would find herself enriched after the first day to the extent of 8,388,608 degrees of grace. In your opinion, what would she have gained after the second or the hundredth day, or by the last days of her life, when almost at every moment she was doubling quantities unimaginable and beyond explanation? Would we not be approaching infinity? As your mind is starting to reel in astonishment, I shall add that arithmeticians show those who have the patience to listen to their reasoning that writing twenty-one figures consecutively makes a number bigger than the number of grains of sand needed to fill the whole capacity of the world between the surface of the earth as far as the highest point in the atmosphere. For my part, I would go further and say that adding even more to this figure, if we apply the reasonable calculation I have explained, it would still not equal the number of graces which filled the blessed soul of the most sacred Virgin at the end of her life.

 4   This thought leads me to another : several serious Theologians, for all the reasons I have cited above, find no difficulty in supporting the proposition that the Holy Virgin possessed in herself more graces than all of the Blessed taken together. Doctor Francisco Suarez was a religious in this Society[1] and he was no less known for his remarkable piety than for his profound knowledge. In the course of a public course in Theology, Martin Guttierez, of whom I shall have more to say later, was moved by the exceptional devotion that Suarez displayed towards the MOTHER OF GOD. He encouraged Suarez to undertake a proof of this proposition in an introduction to his lessons in Theology that he gave in the university of Salamanca. This request had such a successful outcome that the Holy Virgin was happy to show her gratitude to Fr Guttierez for this mark of affection he had signalled to her. Heaven was so favourable to this pious belief as to cause a goodly number of Catholic Doctors[2] to embrace it. The upshot is that it has been warmly welcomed in the schools of Theology and among the various Christian assemblies. On countless occasions Churches all over the earth have echoed with the sound of this teaching.

    For my part, I am readily persuaded that all well-ordered minds which have even a moderate affection for the Queen of heaven’s honour will embrace it without hesitation, if only they are prepared to read attentively what has been said of her grace up to this point. In the second place, it should always be remembered that here we are discussing the MOTHER OF GOD, a woman whom God chose to give proof of His magnificence. He raised her so as to be higher than ordinary souls than the highest cedars of Lebanon are above bushes and brambles. In the third place, we must reflect on what several distinguished Doctors have declared, that the first Angel received more graces from God than all of other pure spirits and all men taken together. He was the first of his kind and was like the Sun which, being the first luminous body, has more light in itself than all the stars and all the fires in the world, taken together. In the fourth place, we need to consider how Mary is unique in her kind and how she, alone amongst creatures, enters with her most honoured Son into an order of personal union. She surpasses quite incomparably in grace and glory all that we can imagine in terms of ordinary holiness. Finally, we must see her as a universal cause along with her Son, for she is Mother and Queen of all the elect; she is therefore like a source of grace from which all others can draw but which never runs dry.

Footnotes

[1] The Society of Jesus : La Compañía de Jesús.

[2] Suar., t. II in III p., disp. XVIII, sect. 4, c. 2.

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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