Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 2 : § 4.3 & § 5.1-2

Chapter 2 : The First Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power 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).

She alone had the power of drawing down to earth the divine Word

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

§ 4. The third quality of the Holy Virgin which drew down the divine Word: Humility

 3   It seems that now I can begin to understand why the prophet Isaiah said that this flower would rise up out of the root of Jesse[1], contrary to the nature of others which all come forth from their stem or their stalk. Pliny states that the only flower that grows in this way is called the Marguerite. For our purposes, this Marguerite was Heaven’s beautiful flower which budded firstly in the bosom of the Eternal Father and then opened up in the womb of the most sacred Virgin. The Marguerite was attached to the root in a way that prompted Saint Bernard to say[2]:

The holy Virgin was indeed pleasing to God through her purity, but it was through her humility that she conceived.

What humility! exclaimed the holy Abbot Guerric[3]: most rigorous and demanding of herself, but most generous and open to the divinity; poor and wretched in her own eyes, but fully sufficient for Him who encompasses all things; destitute and impoverished in her own estimation, but richly endowed in the judgement of Him who nourishes the Angels, and who never feasted more splendidly than when a guest of her dear humility. I have sought repose in various places, says the King of Heaven, but finally I have found it here, in the house of the humble handmaid. No one has ever been found who is comparable to her in the grace of her humility. This is why the plenitude of my divinity has made its abode in the abundance of her humility.

Her humility is thrice Blessed, declares Saint Augustine[4], for she brought God to men, restoring life to the dead, bringing renewal to the heavens, purifying the world, opening up the gates of Paradise and delivering men from hell.

What more can be said about this humility of the truly glorious Virgin? She is the ladder by which the Lord of the universe descended from Heaven to earth, as is shown in what she herself declared: He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid[5], wherein he found singular pleasure.

Footnotes

[1] Isai. xi. 1.

[2] Serm. 1 in Missus : Virginitate placuit, sed humilitate concepit.

[3] Serm. 3 de Assumpt.

[4] Serm. 35 de Sanctis.

[5] Luke i. 48.

§ 5. The fourth quality of the Holy Virgin which drew down the divine Word: Her obedience and assent to the divine will

The desire of the heavenly Spouse

 1   The qualities which we have been considering so far have been only those which disposed and prepared the holy Virgin for the last one, which put the seal on all the others and which was so powerful, that as soon as it had been perceived, it caused the descent from Heaven of Him who was to be our unique joy. For as Saint Peter Chrysologus remarked most appositely[1]:

It was most fitting and with good reason that before she conceived the eternal Word of God, He subjected Himself to her temporal word.

Another Doctor remarked most wisely that:

Because the Lord of all things was coming down on earth not to command but to obey, reason required that His conception should begin through the obedience of His Mother.

This obedience showed itself through the consent she gave to the words of the Angel: a consent which God required because otherwise nothing would have been done; For as much as, as he noted by William the Little[2] in what he wrote on the Canticles,

God did not want to take our nature from the glorious Virgin in the way he had once formed the first woman from Adam’s rib; but he wanted that this should come about with her free will and consent.

The angelic Doctor explains the reason, saying[3]:

Since the Incarnation was nothing other than a solemn marriage between the divine Word and our nature, the consent of the two was absolutely required, and to this end the embassy[4] was sent to the holy Virgin who replied for the entire human nature.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 2 de Annuntiat. : Merito concepit Verbum, quæ credidit verbo.

[2] William of Saint-Thierry:  Cant. 4. of Exposition of Canticle of Canticles.

[3] II p., q. 30. Resp. 4º in order to show that there is a certain spiritual wedlock between the Son of God and human nature. Wherefore in the Annunciation the Virgin’s consent was besought in lieu of that of the entire human nature.

[4] embassy:A message sent or delivered by an ambassador. archaic and rare after 17th cent. (OED)

 2   With regard to this, her great ancestor the prophet David urged her to pay great heed to this invitation from Heaven and to the response that she would give. Hearken, O daughter, he said to her[1], and incline thy ear to this paranymph[2] from God, consider how the king shall greatly desire thy beauty. Chrysippus, priest of Jerusalem, reveals the meaning of these words in the following paraphrase[3]: 

The Eternal Father wisheth to have thee for His Spouse, the Holy Spirit seeketh the governance of this union, and the Son desireth to have thee for His Mother: For thou shalt  not conceive a child who is man only, but thou wilt be Mother of Him whom thou adorest as thy Lord and thy God.

We cannot even begin to understand the ardent desire with which the three divine Persons want to see this marriage concluded, especially the uncreated Word, whose chaste desires surpass in an inexpressible manner the most passionate ardours of all the children on earth. It is beyond the power of the human heart to conceive in what manner He caused the heart of this angelic Princess to burst into flames, addressing her with the words of the Canticle of love[4]: O my beloved, thou that dwellest in the gardens of holy contemplation, it is too much to wait and find out what thou hast resolved; make me hear thy voice, for our friends hearken and await thy decision. This is an incomprehensible privilege pointing to and arising from the beauty and the greatness of the holy Virgin: that He in whose presence the pure spirits are as if lacking in grace and beauty, that He who is adored by the stars of the morning and who is the unique beauty of all the world – that He should have desired the beauty of a mortal creature, and that He should have made her so comely and so exceptional that He could not prevent Himself from being captivated by her sweet charms.

Footnotes

[1] Ps. XLIV. 11-12.

[2] paranymph: in ancient Greece and in the Middle Ages, a name given to the lord or young man charged with escorting the bride to the dwelling of her spouse. (OED and Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 9e édition - actuelle)

[3] Homil. de Sancta Maria Deipara.

[4] Cant. viii. 13-14.

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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 2025