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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
She is singularly blessed
§ 4. Mary is uniquely blessed among all creatures
1 King David the Prophet expresses this point well[1] when he describes how God opens His hand and it is like a fountain of blessings pouring every grace and favour on His creatures. In fact I derive more consolation at the sight of Him in His creatures, following St Hilary (Bishop of Poitiers)[2], St Paschasius (Cardinal Deacon of the Roman Church), St Gregory the Great, St Theophilus (Patriarch of Antioch) and several other ancient Fathers.
There is no place, says the first of these, where God is not and which is not in God. He is in Heaven, He is in the lower world, He is beyond the seas; He is inside, He is outside in such a way that nothing can comprehend Him and He comprehends everything.
The ineffable greatness of God, says the second[3], penetrates, fills and exceeds the depths of the underworld, the wide expanse of the sea and whole extent of the earth.Being omnipotent as He is, says the third[4], He thinks in such a way about the general that nothing escapes Him of the particular. He is so attentive to the needs of each and everyone that He provides sufficiently for all. He surrounds the outside in such a way that He does not fail to fill the inside. He rules in such a way over the highest things that His care reaches down to the smallest. He is by nature retiring but He becomes known through His works. The effects he produces reveal Him in such a way that those who see Him want to understand Him. He allows Himself to be seen through His creatures but as through a glass in a dark manner, restricting His light so that He appears only as in flashes of lightning. He raises created understanding so that it draws closer to Him and then He causes it to draw back in fear and trembling, so that it is content to see as best it can what it cannot yet contemplate face to face.
The last writer compares God and the world of men to a pomegranate which contains and preserves a multitude of ruby-like seeds wondrously arranged – even though these little grains are not aware of the surrounding skin that protects them like a wall. St Augustine develops this idea to reveal the greatness of God and the great good He does for His creatures by keeping them in Himself and by their being kept within Him – granted that their whole happiness consists in His keeping them near Himself and in never being far from them. It is in this way that He keeps them safe, that He works with them and in them, that He perfects them and blesses them. It was by this sign that the Patriarch Jacob[5] recognized God when he awoke from the mysterious sleep that had overcome him. From the wondrous effects of divine providence that he had noticed, he judged that God’s Majesty had been present in the place where he had slept.
Footnotes
[1] Thou openest thy hand, and fillest with blessing every living creature. Ps. CXLIV. 16.
[2] Lib. I de Trinitat.
[3] Lib. I de Spiritus Sancto, c. 12.
[4] Lib. XVI Moral., c. 5.
[5] Gen. xxviii..
2 Now, in order to speak of this more clearly and also to show how far the blessings of the Holy Virgin exceed those of all other creatures, we must first of all remark with St Thomas[1] that there are three ways in which God is in and with His creatures, namely:
• through His essence which is no less infinite with regard to place than it is to time, as St Fulgentius notes, and it therefore must of necessity be everywhere;
• through His presence, meaning through the most perfect knowledge He has of all that happens within His State;
• through His operation, supporting them and leading them to their perfection, in a way the Master sent down from Heaven described when he said[2]: My Father worketh until now; and I work...Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.
The same is to be said of the Holy Ghost, following the rule of Theology teaching that the actions God performs ad extra are performed individually by the three persons of the most holy Trinity.
In the second place, it must be noted that there are three particular ways in which God is found in His rational creature. The first is a special protection with which His Majesty honours the creature as a result of the excellence of its nature and, much more, of its virtue. Thus He said to the Prophet Isaiah[3] His faithful servant : Fear not, for I am with thee. St Augustine[4] and other Fathers speak wonders of this protection to arouse the confidence of the friends of God. The second of these ways is grace, a grace which Solomon prayed for under the name of wisdom when he said[5]: Send, O Lord, wisdom out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me, and may labour with me. The third way is the extraordinary closeness that He has with His dearest friends. The beneficial effects of this close friendship can be described only by those who have experience of it. The Prophet Baruch speaks of this other ineffable way when he says that He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men[6]. I shall not speak further of this for the time being.
Footnotes
[1] I p., q. 8, art. 9.
[2] John. v. 17 & 19.
[3] Isai. xli.10.
[4] Medit., c. 38.
[5]Wisdonm. ix
[6] Baruch iii. 38.
3 When considering the various degrees of presence, close friendship and communication of God with His creatures, upon which they depend for all the blessings they receive and the happiness they enjoy, the pious St Bonaventure places over all of these the glorious Virgin, to whom He speaks as follows[1]:
The Lord is with thee, O Holy Lady : the Lord most powerful is with thee most powerfully, and He hath given all power to thee, being with Him and close to Him. The Lord most wise is with thee most wisely, with thee in whom are found all the treasures of His knowledge and His wisdom which a simple creature is capable of receiving. The Lord in all His richness is most richly with thee, who art the recipient of all the richness of His kindness and His generosity. The Lord most immutable is with thee most immutably, who art the throne of His glory and the triumphal chariot of His Majesty. The Lord most gracious is with thee most graciously, and from thee we graciously receive the sweet and tender Mercies of God. The Lord most just is with thee most justly, and through thee He crushes the head of all His enemies and thine. The Lord most faithful is with thee most faithfully, for with thee He hath made a most firm covenant for the well-being and security of His creatures. The Lord most glorious is with thee most gloriously, and on thee do shine the most brilliant rays of His glory and His greatness. The Lord is with thee, that is, the Father, whose most noble daughter thou art; the Son, whose most wondrous Mother thou art; the Holy Ghost, whose most beloved Spouse thou art; and the entire Trinity most holy, whose most humble handmaid thou art. The Lord is with thee as the Sun with the morning rising, as the flower with its stem, and as the King with His Royal Bride.
The Lord is with thee, saith the Archangel Gabriel as recorded by the pen of the great St Augustine but in a way more beautiful than I could write. For the Lord is in thy heart and at the same time He is in thy womb; He possesses thy sweet, angelic spirit no less than He fills thy sacred womb.
In this way the blessed Virgin is raised above all that has been created; in this way she surpasses all the ranks in the Church militant and all the Hierarchies in the Church triumphant, going forward to receive immediately from God a unique blessing, with the privilege of being unique in all the blessings she receives. Let us pray we may have the satisfaction of approaching the source of these blessings, there to offer our adoration to the most blessed Jesus, the one true source of all the blessings in the world.
Footnotes
[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 8, 9, 10, 11.
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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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