Chapter 8 : The Seventh 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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin
§ 1. The MOTHER OF GOD was exempt from original sin
The fourth proof, based upon the authority of the universal Church
21 I have deliberately kept this proof last for those who may have been resistant in some way to the other proofs. Once they see this final proof arriving like a rear-guard in full battle array, they should no longer have any difficulty in yielding to reason. You will have the pleasure of seeing file after file of them coming from all points of the compass. These are valiant soldiers armed and specially equipped so as to form the principal force marching against the powers of hell. You will note that in every age are found these well-formed minds who are worthy of esteem for their holiness and their teaching and have gone into battle for this truth. You will be astonished to discover how the army they have formed has been continually reinforced through the ages up until our own time when we have the joy of seeing them marching victoriously under the banner of the Immaculate Conception. The officers and other ranks of this army form an elite force and are more numerous than the stars in the firmament. In order to keep my promise in a satisfying way for readers, I would urge you first of all to remember it was not without good reason that the holy Virgin is compared in the Canticles[1] to Dawn, the Moon and the midday Sun. We may understand from these terms that the honour given to Mary by Holy Church had a beginning, a period of development and a finally a settled state. God’s providence has been most gentle and no less wise in the way it nurtures the majority of the truths of the Faith, especially the mystery of the Virgin’s Conception which we are discussing. I believe there are three main reasons why God wanted the truth of this mystery to be revealed using the image of the dawn of day, when the rising Sun imperceptibly chases away the darkness with its beauteous rays and little by little climbs higher until it reaches its high point at moon.
Footnotes
[1] Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? Cant. vi. 9.
22 The first of these three reasons is one routinely advanced by Theologians who argue as follows. The Church was not founded primarily on our Lady but on her Son, our Lord. Now, God goes before the Church enlightening her wonderfully from the everlasting hills, as the Prophet David sings[1]. It is therefore fitting that God, before anything else, should illuminate the fundamental truths of our salvation and that afterwards, in His abundant goodness, He should enable us to see clearly certain other truths. These other truths are less important than the fundamental ones but help our minds and hearts along the path of knowing Him better and loving Him more dearly.
St Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres[2], puts forward a second reason, saying it was not without design that in venerable antiquity people held back from developing and promulgating ideas about the purity of the Virgin’s conception. This was done for fear of allowing heretics to seize upon these ideas. They had already started with their chattering and were arguing haughtily that Our Lord had never had a real body like ours but only the appearance of one; and that Mary was not a woman but an Angel incarnate. They would have spoken much more boldly on this question if they had heard people speaking in their day as favourably of Mary as we do today.
As for the third reason, we must recognize its importance since it was declared by our Lady herself to the Blessed Saint Bridget[3], a widow of great virtue, when she spoke as follows :
The truth is that I was conceived without original sin, but here is the reason why it was not made known to all from the outset : God willed that the law promulgated by my Son should not come before the natural law with its voluntary choice between good and evil, followed afterwards by the written law which clearly prescribed and ordered what should be done and what should not be done. In the same way, it pleased God’s will that His best friends should have doubts about the innocence of my Conception since by this means each person’s zeal would become apparent until the truth was finally revealed in its entirety.
The truthfulness of this revelation will become apparent by what I have to say further on this question.
Footnotes
[1] Ps. LXXV. 5.
[2] Serm. 2 de Ortu Virg.
[3] Lib. VI, c. 4.
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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.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2024
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