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