The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 9 : § 2.8-9

Chapter 9 : The Eighth 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)

She is singularly blessed

§ 2. The Holy Virgin was singularly blessed among women

Fruitfulness, the second blessing of the Mother of God

 8   Do you have the heart to contemplate[1], without shedding tears, the disconsolate daughter of Jephte, the war leader? She was a young woman aged around eighteen to twenty who was forced to die before her time as a result of a rash vow made by her impulsive father. She asked for a two months stay of execution and here we see her almost at the end of this period. She spent this time with some of her most faithful companions in the woods, telling her troubles to the oak and cyprus trees. She is the very image of death itself, for her rosy colouring has faded away, her cheeks are drawn, her eyes are sunk and haggard, her whole body looks weak, her strength has dissipated, her countenance has fallen and her voice is dying away – as though she were in the final stages of death. If you asked her what she is doing in these woods, she would reply that she is arranging for her funeral while still alive.

According to one reputable Historian[2], this used to be the practice in pagan antiquity with virgins who abandoned their service of Jupiter for a worldly life. Clement of Alexandria[3] says this was also the case with with those pupils of Pythagoras who abandoned Philosophy. 

If you would press her for a fuller reply, she would say that she mourns her virginity[4], not through having lost it (for she was a most prudent girl with an excellent reputation) but for the condemnation she believed she would receive from her family. She is not so much distressed by the thought of dying as by leaving no posterity, which she considers to be a tribulation much worse than death itself. She is convinced she will be viewed as a tree that dies fruitless and that there will be no memory of her, just as though she had never existed. She believes she will incur the greatest opprobrium possible in her nation – namely, barrenness. This is what is making her feel sick at heart.

Footnotes

[1] Judic. xi.

[2] Strabo., lib. XVII.

[3] Lib. V Stromat.

[4]  she mourned her virginity in the mountains. Judic. xi. 38.

 9   It is indeed true that barrenness was held in great ignominy among the Jews, so much so that the most Holy among them experienced powerful and painful feelings about the condition. I do not wish to examine here whether they were right or wrong about this, saying only it is undeniable that fruitfulness is a good thing. The unfortunate thing is that it can only come to fruition through the loss of something infinitely greater. There is one Phoenix[1] in the world, and one MOTHER OF GOD uniquely remarkable for all her great qualities, who had issue but without losing her virginity.

A thing unparalleled both before her and after her, says St Cyprian[2], and something never before heard of – the harmonization of these two qualities in one person: virginity and fruitfulness.

Accordingly, as Mother she was granted the fulness of grace and as Virgin she received a glory which is beyond our conception, namely bearing within her body and her soul the corporeal and the spiritual presence of the Saviour.

In this she was uniquely blessed among women, says St Augustine, never to have known man and yet to bear a man in her womb.

In this she was uniquely blessed among women, says St Peter Chrysologus[3], for having preserved the honour of her purity and for having acquired the glory of motherhood; for having added to the crown of her virginity the grace of her fruitfulness; for having been made mother by the operation of the Holy Ghost without ceasing to be Queen of chastity.

In this she was uniquely blessed among women, says the venerable Bede[4], for having been Mother and Virgin at the same time, and for having had as her only son God Himself – a privilege which was due only to her fruitful virginity.

Footnotes

[1] A person or thing of unique excellence or matchless beauty; a paragon. OED.

[2] Serm. de Nativit.

[3] Serm. 43.

[4] T. VII Homil. in Evang. Missus est.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 9 : § 2.4-7

Chapter 9 : The Eighth 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)

She is singularly blessed

§ 2. The Holy Virgin was singularly blessed among women

Exemption from the curses pronounced against women, first Blessing of the Mother of God

 4   In the midst of this deluge of evils and curses, let us take not to imagine the MOTHER OF GOD in any other way than as the true  Ark of Noe, floating on the waters; the waves serve only to raise her still higher and show her as being even more astonishing in her singularity.

Reason demanded this must be the case, says St Leo[1], granted that the conception and the birth of the Saviour were altogether exceptional.

When would anyone speak of punishment, asks Richard of St Victor[2], in a case where there was no fault?

But to focus in particular on the three scourges decreed as punishment for the disobedient woman, St Bernard[3] says at the outset we should :

distance our thoughts from these painful and distressing pregnancies that are the first punishment for her sin. In the case of the MOTHER OF GOD, all is heavenly and divine. Just as she is the first flower of virginity and has become pregnant without defilement, so then it is reasonable to conclude she bears her charge effortlessly and without inconvenience.

St Fulgence could not have put it any better, in my opinion, than when he said on this point[4] that:

her womb was no more burdened than her soul, that the fruit in her womb gave her a feeling of lightness, and that it was impossible for her to be weighed down by the light who had His abode within her.

St Bernard[5] adds that this little infant actually carried her rather than being carried by her. Just look at her in the mountains of Judah at a time when she should have found such a journey too demanding. She does not walk, but she hurries; she does not hurry but she flies; she does not fly but seems to be borne by the hands of Angels,  or to have become as light as fire, from the moment the divine fire was lit within her womb.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 1 de Nativit.

[2] Lib. II de Emmanuele, c. 28.

[3] Serm. in Signum magnum, etc.

[4] Lib. de Laudibus Virg.

[5] Loc. cit.

 5   As far as labour pains are concerned, you will never see any trace of such in the case of Mary. But, as St Cyprien sagaciously remarks[1]:

why even look for them since the contractions experienced in childbirth are only enforcing God’s sentence and they would never do this to the innocent?

St Gregory of Nyssa[2] adds that these pains were fitting for the mother of death but not for the mother of life, and the words of the heavenly messenger speak only of joy, grace and blessedness.

St Fulgentius, it seems to me, puts it even better[3], saying that:

He who came to raise the world out of the distress into which it had sunk could not possibly bring sorrow into her who had provided such a loving home for Him and treated Him so well for the space of nine whole months.

I must admit how pitiful it is to hear poor Rebecca when she was carrying her twins fill the house with her disconsolate cries. But what can be done in such a case? She has to be patient because she had wanted so impatiently to become a mother. As for Mary, she conceived only through the will and movement of the holy Ghost. We should therefore not be surprised for her to be exempt from such cries as well as from the mess that accompanies childbirth. Neither the Holy Councils[4] nor the Holy Fathers allow us to have any other opinion of her.

What? Asks St Zeno[5], Bishop of Verona, do you really want to picture the MOTHER OF GOD overwhelmed in labour, worn out and exhausted by the demands arising from bringing little infants into the world? Would the mess of childbirth be in any way fitting for the Son or the Mother? He who came to cleanse a world infected with sin would never have countenanced anything like this around him.

St Augustine[6] has marvellous things to say on this matter when he is addressing a certain Manichaean (with whom he had a conversation earlier):

The golden rays of the Sun dry the mud on public roads, but hast thou ever seen the rays besmirched through contact with the mire? Now if that could not possibly happen, how canst thou dare to say that the bright ray of eternal light could have been sullied while passing through this virginal crystal? Tell me, poor man that thou art, whence might the Holy Virgin have contracted filth, she who was purer than the Angels?

St Ildephonsus[7] goes so far as to say:

If there was anything unseemly or indecent about the Virgin’s delivery of her Son, then He who would have partaken thus of the effects of the first curse could not bear the name of the natural Son of God.

I have in fact already made clear in a parallel context the meaning to be given to this statement.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de Nativit.

[2] Homil. 3 in Cant.

[3] Loc. cit.

[4] Concil. Trullanum, can. 79.

[5] Serm. 3 de Nativit.

[6] Lib. de quinque Hæresibus, c. 5.

[7] Loc. sæpe cit.

 6   We now come to the dominant role given to the husband and the status of the wife which is subservient rather than honourable. This is the third consequence of sin, and was not an established order within a well-regulated nature. This is what we learn from the Angelic Doctor after he has already given his word to us that it has no place in the case of the MOTHER OF GOD, any more than the other punishments for the first sin. From this he concludes that it was with good reason that St Joseph, spouse of the blessed Virgin, learned the mystery of the Incarnation from the same Virgin, and not the other way round.

 7   I am bringing this first discussion to a close with words altogether worthy of a great Pope, Alexander III, in a Brief he addressed to the Sultan of Iconium in Lycaonia:

Great indeed, he says, and worthy of every praise was the blessed Virgin Mary, who was found worthy to bear the Mediator between God and ourselves, and who among women had no peer, there being none even like unto her. For she conceived free from any shame, she gave birth without any pain, she passed over from this life to the next without suffering corruption, so that :

    • the word of the Angel might be perfectly accomplished in her 

    • she might be found not partially but entirely full of grace, and

    • the Eternal God, who willed to be her Son temporally, might Himself render to His Mother the honour he had preordained long before.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 9 : § 2.1-3

Chapter 9 : The Eighth 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)

She is singularly blessed

§ 2. The Holy Virgin was singularly blessed among women

 1   St Bonaventure says[1] that the glorious Archangel Gabriel, with His glorious greeting to the most holy Virgin, filled her to overflowing with blessedness, saying : Blessed art thou among women. The great St Athanasius[2] attaches considerable weight to this greeting and declares that :

Heaven echoes to its sound without ceasing and Holy Church learned from the blessed Spirits to incorporate it in the public liturgy as well as in private prayer.

In this regard, I shall follow Albertus Magnus[3] and note that there are four main ways that the word Blessing is used in Scripture : firstly, it means deliverance from some misfortune. Thus, King David the Prophet says to God[4]: Lord, thou hast blessed thy land: and in the second part of the verse he specifies the blessing : thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. 

In the second place, it can refer to fruitfulness. In this sense, God blesses the animals He created at the beginning of the world; similarly, in the story of Tobias, the venerable Raguel blessed the newly-weds[5], saying to them : The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with you, and may he join you together, and fulfill his blessing in you.  This blessing appears in Genesis[6] and is referred to as the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 

Thirdly, it can mean a general abundance of every kind of good thing. This was the blessing God gave to Abraham after his remarkable act of obedience that everyone knows about. It was the blessing that the Lord granted to Laban when Jacob arrived, to Putiphar the Egyptian on the arrival of the chaste Joseph and to Obededom when the ark of the Covenant came into his house. 

Finally, it can mean praise and pubic acclamation. We can understand in this sense what the people cried out to the Lord when He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 

These four meanings will form the basis of the following discussion where I aim to show how the Holy Virgin has been in just as many ways singularly blessed among women.

Footnotes

[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 8.

[2] Serm. de S. Deipara.

[3] Super Missus.

[4] Psal. LXXXIV. 2.

[5] Tob. Vii. 15.

[6] Gen. xlix. 25.

Exemption from the curses pronounced against women, first Blessing of the Mother of God

 2   The Fathers are of one mind on this point, that the Holy Virgin was completely and utterly free of the common curse affecting womankind. St Bonaventure[1] says of this:

In truth, there is more, for the blessing of the Virgin halted the course of the curse that the first woman brought into the world.

Eve’s curse, says St Augustine[2], is changed into Mary’s blessing.

According to St Fulgentius, this is what the Angel Gabriel meant when he called her full of grace.

By these words[3], he says, the Angel gave her to understand that God’s anger and vengeance were going no further and out of regard for her He would now be speaking of peace and friendship.

Footnotes

[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 12.

[2] Serm. 1 de Annuntiat.

[3] Serm. de Laudibus Mariæ.

 3   Moving on to the details, I note from the Abbot Rupert that the first woman had no sooner sinned than punishment swiftly followed, for God imposed a triple curse in response to her threefold sin. 

Having hearkened unto the father of death, she gave her consent and thereby ceased to be the Mother of the living and became the Mother of the dying. The first article of her condemnation was then pronounced[1]:  I will multiply thy sorrows in childbirth. Multiple hardships and problems shall afflict thee in thy deliveries. Disappointments, weariness and weakness will be thy constant companions; thou wilt suffer pains throughout thy body and torment from swelling; thou wilt be afflicted by the stillborn; the deformed and the disfigured will cause thee shame; the unnatural and disobedient will be the death of thee. 

For coveting the forbidden fruit in a disordered manner and for the sensual delight she took in the sight and taste of it, she was punished with the labours of childbirth and the following sentence was pronounced : in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children[2]. But this pain shall be so intense that it will cause thee to let out terrible cries and it will often take thee to the point of death. Thy confinements moreover will be the image of the filth and contamination in thy soul. 

Finally, because she was not content with sinning herself but wanted to involve her husband as well, she was made subject to him in a new way. She was told[3]: thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee. For thy spirit would have been stronger and more stable if thou hadst not sinned, but now it will become noticeably weaker and his will have ascendancy over thee as thy lord. As a result, he will often treat thee not as his companion but as his servant, roughly and imperiously. Behold how sin is always followed by its punishment riding pillion behind; behold too how sin’s bitter roots only ever produce unpalatable choke-pears[4]. 

Footnotes

[1] Gen. iii. 

[2] in dolore paries filios. Gen. iii. 16. Knox transl. has: with pangs thou shalt give birth to children.

[3] Gen. iii.16.

[4] The French text has poires d’angoisse [lit. ‘pears of anguish’] which are bitter tasting pears originating from Angoisse in the Dordogne. choke-pear is the English equivalent, being a name given to rough, harsh, and unpalatable varieties of the pear, used for perry. Coincidentally or otherwise, angoisse means anguish, and a pear of anguish was the nickname for an instrument of torture producing considerable pain.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 9 : § 1.1-3

Chapter 9 : The Eighth 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)

She is singularly blessed

Archdeacon of Bath and London, Peter of Blois also served as Chancellor to the Primate of England. He spoke of the MOTHER OF GOD using the figure of the sheep pool, often called the Piscina Probatica, where all sorts of illnesses could be cured once the waters were set in motion by the Angel appointed by God for this purpose. He draws a subtle parallel, saying[1] that :

the Angel of great counsel[2], none other than the divine Word, came down into the virginal womb as though into a heavenly bath which He set in motion in three ways: firstly, through the union of our nature with His divine person; secondly, by extinguishing the fires of original sin; and thirdly, by pouring blessings over her whom He had chosen for His Mother.

Having discussed the first two of these in the two previous chapters, I feel duty-bound by the plan I adopted to speak now of the third, all the more so since grace and blessedness are like two sisters-german who are inseparable companions : for grace never comes down into the soul without bringing blessedness, and blessedness itself always brings or preserves grace.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 1 in Adventu.

[2] LXX. Isai. ix. 6.

§ 1. The abundance of blessings accorded to the MOTHER OF GOD, and the plan of the discussion to follow

 1   I could easily pause here and show, along with several others[1], that the Holy Virgin inherited and surpassed 

    • all the blessings of her ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

    • those which the good and venerable Jacob gave to his sons, the twelve Patriarchs;

    • those which Balaam gave to the armies of Israel;

    • those granted to all the famous women in antiquity

in a word, all that has been written of blessings in the Old Testament and the New Testament. I prefer to say with St Bonaventure[2]:

that she was blessed in the fullness of the grace she received, in the multitude of mercies conferred, in the dignity of the person she conceived and in the glory she possesses to the highest degree. She is the blessed one of God, of the holy Spirits and men, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; of the Angels, the Archangels, the Principalities, the Powers, the Virtues, the Dominions, the Thrones, the Cherubim, the Seraphim; of the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, the Married, the Widows, the Virgins and of every manner of person, whatever their state or condition. She is blessed in that by her God is glorified, the Angels are filled with rejoicing, men are uplifted and Demons are vanquished. She is blessed in her humility, in her outstanding charity, in her most loving kind-heartedness, in her promptness to offer help and care, in her wondrous generosity, in her diligent self-control, and in her most perfect purity.

 2   I should add that she is blessed in her election, in her conception, in her birth, in her motherhood, in all the mysteries of her life, in her dormition[3], in her assumption and in her glorification. She is blessed in her thoughts, her intentions, in her words, in her conversation, in her repose, in her activity, in her contemplation, in the practice of the contemplative and active lives, in her beginnings, in her progress and in her end. She is blessed in her memory, in her understanding and in her will; in her interior senses, in her eyes, in her ears, in her mouth, in her chest, in her breasts, in her hands, in her feet, in her knees, in all her faculties and in every part of her body. She is blessed in the fruit of her womb, in herself, in her ancestors, in her friends, in her posterity and everything that has any connection with her. She is blessed in the eternal designs of God, in the womb of her Mother St Anne, in her mortal sojourn on the earth and in the rank she occupies in the highest of Heaven heights.

 3   Nevertheless, it would be an endless task to examine every one of these considerations and, since most of them are addressed elsewhere, I shall focus on three special favours where this Blessedness shows she was uniquely privileged:

She was most advantageously and singularly blessed

    • among women

    • among the just; and

    • among all creatures

Footnotes

[1] Albertus Magnus in Missus est, etc.

[2] Speculi B. Virg., c. 12, 13.

[3] dormition: French text has trépas. Sleeping; falling asleep; figurative death. "A large sculpture..representing the death of our Lady; it is called the dormition or trépas de Notre Dâme." OED.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 3.19-20

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).

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

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 3. That the Holy Fathers say that the MOTHER OF GOD was incapable of sin, and how this is to be understood

The third principle, namely the external protection provided by God

 19   Do not however believe that the King of Heaven, who had chosen Mary for His Mother and His Spouse, was so confident in the garrison troops He had provided that He did not keep a personal watch over her Himself. He had promised this to King Solomon[1] under the figure of the Temple, telling him : I have sanctified this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there always. David does not stop there but goes on to say that God[2] in person guards the keep of this fortress and recognizes none except Him as Governor of mystic Sion. If you enquire as to the reason, he will say that God keeps her safe, He personally supervises the changing of her guards, He posts the sentries, He quells tumults, He takes away fear of the enemy and He ensures that she can always enjoy gentle peace. Perhaps you think I could be clearer on this question, but do not worry – just listen carefully to St Bernard and St John Damascene. The former[3] explains that :

God was so obliging to the Holy Virgin, anticipating her needs, guiding her and helping her, that she never had to make a choice – of wanting or rejecting something – before receiving insight from the divine Wisdom. This meant she always loved God with the fervour that she knew He desired from her.

The latter[4] describes how

God’s way was to fill her understanding continually with holy thoughts. The effect of these was such that they were immediately followed by pious inclinations and noble resolutions.  In this way, all points of entry to sin were closed off in such a way that :

    • her eyes were always turned towards her Lord, contemplating the light inaccessible which He inhabits[5];

    • her ears were open to hearing the voice of God and the harmony of His holy will;

    • her heart yearned passionately for Heaven

and so it was with all her faculties both physical and spiritual.

The learned Galatin[6] adds a notable comment, and I honestly do not know the source for it but I have read serious-minded authors[7] who find no difficulty in accepting it as altogether worthy of belief. He says that: 

the Holy Virgin was endowed with a spirit of prophecy so remarkable that she foresaw everything that could even in the slightest way affect her peace of mind or prejudice the purity of her soul. Because of this, she would shut her eyes at the sight of anything improper or unseemly, she would block her ears rather than hear something she she would not wish to hear, she would turn her nose away from the slightest whiff of anything salacious. The same would be true of all those other things that affect our senses and feelings, which are like the first footholds habitually gained by death so as to infiltrate our souls.

I know well that St Ambrose did not accept the testimony of demons but I also know he sometimes ordered them to speak, in cases where this would confound and defeat them. In fact, we have heard of several instances where demons, speaking through the mouths of possessed people, admit they have no power to launch any attacks on Mary.  They have been able to attack all the other Saint except when the Holy of Holies, which is to say the Word Incarnate, has granted them an exemption. I will take up this topic further in the second Treatise[8].

Footnotes

[1] III Reg. ix. 3.

[2] Psal. 45.

[3] Serm. 5 in Cant.

[4] Serm. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[5] Who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and empire everlasting. [1 Timothy vi.16

[6] Lib. VII de Arcanis.

[7] Canisius, de B. Virg., lib. I, c. 13 ; Salazar, in c. 31 Prov., nº 140, etc.

[8] Cap. 9, § 7.

 20   I think that all this should be more than enough to confirm the truth of something which can no longer be doubted, which is that the Holy Virgin never committed any sin. 

God raised Mary on high for her glory and for our good; may He make us feel the effects of the prevenient grace which He bestowed upon her, and may He grant us strength to deal with our foes visible and invisible who attack us to the right and to the left, from in front and behind; in our prosperity and in our adversity; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening; through our own selves and through our close friends; indoors and outdoors, without regard to time, to place or activity; with neither respite nor intermission. 

Having been thus favoured with the preservation from our enemies of the treasure we bear in earthenware vessels, grant that we may ever gratefully acknowledge Mary as our deliverer – after Him whom she herself acknowledges as her guardian and her Saviour.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 3. 18

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).

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

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 3. That the Holy Fathers say that the MOTHER OF GOD was incapable of sin, and how this is to be understood

The third principle, namely the external protection provided by God

 18   That is not the end of the story. We still have to consider the forces earmarked for the defence of this fortress, namely the external protection God provides. This is the third strength of our fortress, rendering it impregnable to the assaults of sin. Sacred Scripture tells[1] how King Solomon entrusted the protection of the bed where he took his repose to threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, all having swords at their sides and partisans[2] in their hand. According to the opinion of the learned Rupert, this bed is none other than the Blessed MOTHER OF GOD, where the true King of peace reposed for nine whole months. These soldiers so well suited for warfare represent the heavenly host arrayed in battle order around her by God so as to safeguard her from surprise attacks in the night. There can be no doubt that these squadrons were deployed to defend her against any adverse encounters. St Bernard[3] recognized this, saying:

this was so that none might presume to enter the privy chamber of the Prince of Heaven.

St Anselm lends his support and says that it must be held as a certainty that:

through the ministry of the Holy Angels, the Virgin Mother’s body most pure and her soul most innocent have been preserved from all sin, for they were the chamber wherein the King of glory was to have His abode and to be joined to man in the unity of one person.

 

Is it not well known, he asks, that there is a custom observed everywhere that when the Prince wishes to go somewhere, his guards go before him to carry out an inspection of the place and to guard the approach roads for the duration of his visit?

The great King Himself says the same to the Holy Virgin under the figure of Jerusalem in the following words of Isaiah[4]: Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace. Here we can note two ministries performed by  these Blessed guardians, for apart from their duty as soldiers to defend her, they sing heavenly hymns, sustaining the mind of this Princess night and day with holy thoughts and bringing joy to her heart with their divine Canticles. Could this be what the same Spouse wanted to say when He asks in the Canticle of Canticles[5]: What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but choirs of soldiers[6]? This is as though He were to have said that the royal bodyguard of the Virgin His Spouse was made up of indomitable soldiers and the foremost musical performers of His holy Chapel. What a sweet consonance, O Lord, was achieved between these companies of warriors and these harmonious choirs! How inspiring to see the soldiers’ formations and to hear the voices singing in concert! Or perhaps we should say how pleasing it was to see the winged troops’ orderly manoeuvres as they engaged the enemy to the sounds and rhythms of their voices, singing the praises of the Spouse and His Bride – at the same time as playing by hand their musical instruments! In the last Chapter of the Canticles, there is a reference to lamps of fire[7]. The pious Byzantine Emperor Matthew Cantacuzenus read these words as meaning points of fire[8], explaining this with reference to the Holy Virgin :

surrounded, as he says, by a company of protective spirits shooting flames who never desert her side.

Footnotes

[1] Cant. iii. 7-8. 

[2] A type of spear similar to a halberd used in the 16th and 17th centuries, with a long, triangular, double-edged blade, with two (more rarely one) upturned flukes.

[3] Serm. qui inscribitur : Laus Mariæ.

[4] Cap. lxii. 6.

[5] Cant. vii. 1.  

[6] The French text has choeurs de gendarmerie; the Vulg. has choros castrorum; the Douay-Rheims has companies of camps.

[7] Cant. viii. 6. 

[8] créneaux de feu : crenelles or embrasures (openings) on a parapet allowing defenders to keep watch or fire upon the enemy.

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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

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 3. 15-17

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).

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

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 3. That the Holy Fathers say that the MOTHER OF GOD was incapable of sin, and how this is to be understood

The second principle : Mary continually shows a most ardent love of God

THE SUPERNATURAL LOVE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN

 15   St Ildephonsus[1] actually compares the Holy Virgin to iron, which

when it is taken out of a fire where it has been left for a long time, is so red-hot and glowing that it looks as though it has had a change of nature and has turned into fire. 

St Ivo, Bishop of Chartres[2], says almost the same as St Ildephonsus, namely:

being so intimately united with God who is a consuming fire, it followed necessarily that what He is by nature she became by grace and charity.

St Bernard, reflecting[3] on her being in the heart of the Sun as described in the Apocalypse[4], declares:

It is impossible that her own soul was not pierced by the fiery rays of divine Love shooting forth everywhere from the true Sun of Justice.

These Fathers have as their aim only to make us appreciate the sublime level of her unceasing contemplation which was accompanied by acts of love to which she never permitted any interruption. By means of these she was continually rising above herself and uniting herself in an incomprehensible manner to the principle of Holy Love. Now, you may ask me how she could cope with all this whilst remaining continuously fired up with never a moment of relaxation, not even in the domestic chores that filled her day. My answer to this question is to point you to the burning bush of Moses which was on fire and in flames but was not burnt. I share on this the thinking of the same St Bernard who said :

Put off from thy feet the shoes of thy base and common thoughts; for this vision whereon thou doth gaze is wondrous and this ground is altogether holy. God hath preserved the bush in the midst of flames without it being burnt; He hath in a similar manner infused the soul of the Virgin with an extraordinary capacity, and He giveth support to her imagination, along with all her spiritual and corporeal faculties, which He draweth to Himself with such gentleness that through them everything seemeth altogether natural to Mary.

We should not be astonished by this since we are speaking here of the MOTHER OF GOD, who had so many other privileges even higher than this that we can have no reason to question it.

Footnotes

[1] Orat. 1 de Assumpt.

[2] Serm. de Nativit.

[3] Serm. in Signum magnum.

[4] Cap. 12.

 16   Let us now move from fire to water, and from the effects of the one to the violence of the other. Here is how the Holy Virgin speaks in Ecclesiasticus[1] about her love : I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a channel of a river, and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise. They say that this is a reference to the mighty river Euphrates which swells with the waters it receives from tributaries and surges onwards with such power that it breaks through dikes, sweeps away embankments and all obstacles in its path, there being nothing capable of halting it. There is little to add to what St Augustine has to say on this, and after him, St Bernard and St Bonaventure[2]:

The God of love made His abode within her for the space of nine months; it would therefore  be an injustice to Mary were anyone to doubt that her blessed womb did not thereby become a womb of love and her heart be transformed into the tender affection of charity.

This means we should not consider the Holy Virgin so much as a soul blazing with charity but as becoming charity itself which sets on fire with love all it encounters.

Footnotes

[1] Eccli. xxiv. 41. 

[2] Speculi Virg., c. 14.

 17   How can anyone talk now of sin when it comes to a love so ardent, or find coldness amid such fires of charity? With us, it is the norm for sin to gain entry and remain in us through the slothfulness of our lives; but in this divine heart there is no more likelihood of finding lukewarmness than of finding ice in the middle of the volcanoes of Sicily. 

We can only conclude from what has been said that we must banish all thought of associating sin with the Holy Mother. As for those Lilliputians who in the darkness of their ignorance make so bold as to raise such questions, we should tell them that they will receive such a welcome that they will curse the hour they embarked on such a foolhardy undertaking.

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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