Chapter 10 : The Ninth Star or Splendour of 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 is the Queen of virtues
§ 2. It was reasonable for the MOTHER OF GOD to be also the Mother of Virtues
4 This is the only reason that made St Bonaventure say[1]:
She is with good reason called Mary, that is to say Enlightener, since she enlightens the whole world through the shining example of her incomparable virtue.
This idea prompted a beautiful and noble thought in the mind of the Blesse Saint Hildegard, who said that:
the Virgin was the precious gemstone from which the divine Word drew forth all the virtues – just as at the beginning of the world He had drawn all creatures out of chaos.
It is for this reason that St Gregory Thaumaturgus decided to call her[2] the perfect example for pious souls. In short, it is the reason that impelled the pious Idiota to call her[3] the Idea and the model for the moral life, that is, for the life of virtue. The Idea is in fact the image or portrait on which we fix our thoughts when we want to do something in a considered or creative way. Do you want to know what Mary is? In truth, Mary is a Virgin full of humility and modesty, inspirational through her acts of love and her other virtues. She is not just that but she is the actual Idea and model for these very virtues and for all the others that I have not mentioned. If the idea we have, or more accurately that God has of perfect humility could take on a body and interact with us, try to picture how she would look at others and speak to them; how she would walk, what she would be like in her manner, her bearing and her actions; what opinion she would have of herself, and what honour she would show towards those with whom she had dealings, and so on. Let us try to do the same with regard to charity and then in a similar way with obedience, purity, piety, modesty and all the other maidens from Heaven. Spend a moment now giving thoughtful consideration to all their associated actions and behaviour. You will have to acknowledge that the Holy Virgin, being the Idea of all the virtues, did not conduct herself in any way differently when she was here on earth than the Virtues would have done were they to have taken on the form of virgins.
Footnotes
[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 3.
[2] Orat. 2 in Annuntiat.
[3] Contempl. de B. Virg., c. 1.
5 How wonderful it would be to look upon this holy family of virtues under the guidance of their mother charity and to see them so arrayed in our midst! But what is the point of wishing for that when we already have a model who is all the more perfect for being the MOTHER OF GOD herself in person? Those noble habits we have mentioned, all of them being virtues, would be unable to do anything more than she has done to set before us an admirable representation of virtue. I will refer now to St Ambrose[1] who does not want us to have any other idea than this. For us to aspire to
the most perfect virtues, he is happy for us to have the example of the Holy Virgin before us:
Focus your thoughts on this, he says, and make use of the image we have of the virginity of the MOTHER OF GOD and her life, for it is a complete picture of every virtue and it will repay study throughout your whole life. Therein you will find doughty features of exceptional holiness; you will learn what you need to correct or to shun and what you must embrace. Now, having a good teacher is a great help to those seeking the courage to learn and improve; but you could not wish for a more noble or perfect teacher than the MOTHER OF GOD. Those are the words of this great Archbishop and Saint.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. II de Virginibus.
6 To all this I would add only three things, but they are extremely important. The first is that when God chose the Holy Virgin to be mother of His Son, He was obliged to raise her in holiness to such a degree that the incomparable virtues discernible in Our Lord might be attributed to the education He received from His Mother – at least during that private time in His life, before He was recognized as Son of God. This seems altogether reasonable to me seeing that the Saviour received no formal training and therefore the honour of inculcating His exceptional virtues must go to His most holy Mother and to the glorious Saint Joseph.
Secondly, although the examples in the life of our Redeemer far surpass those of his Mother, we can nevertheless truthfully say that Our Lady had one advantage over her Son in that she was first to raise the standard of the evangelical virtues, which were not then known. Her Son later put the finishing touches to them, giving them a new form and making them altogether divine by reason of the person from which they took their origin.
Thirdly, we may note that the virtues of the Saviour were of divine origin and were manifested in exceptional circumstances. This being so, we cannot deny that as such they had a more visible and striking impact than those of the Virgin. We can however note, whilst observing what is due in honour and respect, that Mary’s virtues had a certain sweetness and were better adapted to our nature and abilities than the examples of her Son. If this seems somewhat audacious, I should say that I am following what the Blessed Saint Anselm said :
Mary provided us with models of virtue which were in a certain fashion more gentle and more on a human level than those of her Son.
For even though there is a great difference between the amount of light from the Sun and that from the moon, we find the latter is in a certain way more pleasing since it is easier on the eye than the former. In the same way, we perceive the virtues of the Lord as being less accessible to us because of their refulgent splendour and the close link they have to their divine origin. It is easier for us to pluck up the courage to approach the virtues of Our Lady because we find she is just like one of us. We can therefore become more familiar with her virtues because they seem more achievable and more on our scale. This takes nothing away from the honour we owe to the King of virtues because ultimately everything comes back to Him as the source of all virtues. In fact, far from losing anything by making a Mother so great, He actually receives in return all her gratitude along with our own and the love of them both for as long she shall bear the title MOTHER OF GOD, Mother of virtues and Mother of the King of virtues.
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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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