Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 3 : § 1.5-7

Chapter 3 : The Second Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

It was from her alone, as His Mother, that the Eternal Word wanted to take our nature

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)

§ 1. How the general power of the MOTHER OF GOD over all creation is shown in the mystery of the Incarnation

 5   What a wondrous novelty, and what a novel wonder – for us to be able to say in a real sense that a creature gave something to her Creator before receiving anything from Him! I know well that the Apostle Paul was eager for an answer to his question: Who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him[1]? But I am also aware of the reply given by Blessed Methodius, Bishop of Tyre and Martyr[2]:

This refers to the Blessed Virgin when from her own substance she formed a garment of flesh to clothe His divine majesty;

and of what the holy Archbishop of Milan said[3]:

the Holy Virgin had something to give to God, inasmuch as she offered something which came not from others but was her very own and of all things something quite ordinary she had produced in her womb – but with a tender love in an altogether extraordinary manner.

Who will not agree with me when I say this is what St Cyril[4] called the most sacred enigma and what St John Damascene[5] called the novelty of novelties?

Footnotes

[1] Rom. xi. 35. The Fillion commentary (1888-1895) says of this verse: “The sacred writer envisages the impossible, that a man has made a gift to God and receives a reward in return.”

[2] Orat. de Hypapante.

[3] Ambros., lib. I de Incarnationis dominicæ Sacramento, c. 9.

[4] Epist. de Fide ad Reginas.

[5] Lib. III a Fidei, c. 1.

 6   What a wonder we see in the union of two things so different: I am speaking here about the union of the impassible with the passible, the immortal with the immortal, Heaven with earth and God with man! A union which Saint Augustine[1] calls a wondrous commingling. For my part, I do not know any better way of representing this than what we find in the words of the great Saint Leo[2].

It is our Catholic belief, says this Doctor, that these two natures are so closely joined together and that, whilst their respective properties remain distinct, there is formed so tight a union between the two substances that from that happy moment when, for the good of the human race, the Word was made flesh in the womb of the most sacred Virgin, it is no longer possible for us to separate man from God or God from the man whom He has chosen, not even in our conceptions. It is indeed true that each of these two natures make themselves known by the different actions which are proper to each, and which distinguish one from the other – and yet there is no disunity between them. All that proceeds from the one and the other is joined together in common, so that majesty is resplendent in lowliness, abjection in greatness – without there being any sort of disruption to unity, and without their different qualities taking anything away from their union. There is a passible nature with an impassible nature; and, to develop this point, glory with contumely, and honour with dishonour, belonging to the same person; the weak and sickly is none other than the strong and powerful, and the victor over death is the one whom death has laid low.

In your judgement, is this not the marvellous exchange and the ineffable union that holy Church preaches so resoundingly[3], that the Patriarchs longed for, that the Prophets proclaimed, but which was reserved for the Sons of predilection of the New Law? This aside, if you were to ask me who is the author of this mysterious union, I would reply that in truth the first and foremost author is God, who drew this miracle out of the treasure-store of His omnipotence; but I would have no fear in adding, along with Saint Epiphanius[4],

that the Virgin cooperated greatly in this matter, and that she worked alongside God, binding together the two natures more tightly than the Gordian knot.

I should add that on this matter Saint Andrew Jerusalem[5] called the Holy Virgin the Cabinet[6] of nature, and St John Damscene[7] the Cabinet of Unions, in as much as 

divinity was united in her with humanity, suffering with impassibility, and life with death; the strong overcame the weak, bringing benefits and blessings.

 

Do you want to see the wonders of this divine union set out in terms? Here are the words of St Bernard[8]:

Attend and see length abbreviated, width straitened, height lowered, depth filled up. Here we behold light withholding its rays, the Word an infant[9], the Living Water athirst, Him who is the Bread of Heaven suffering hunger. Attend and see how Omnipotence is ruled, Wisdom instructed, Power sustained by another. Attend and see how joy is made sorrowful, how confidence becomes fearful, how happiness turns to suffering, health becomes sickness and life death. But attend and take note that sorrow gives joy, fear gives way to hope, weakness imparts strength and death restores life.  

Footnotes

[1] Epist. 3 ad Volusianum : Mixtura admirabilis.

[2] Serm. 3 de Passione.

[3] Admirabile commercium ! etc.

[4] Orat. de S. Deipara.

[5] Orat. de Annuntiat.

[6] Cabinet: used by the author according to different contexts as referring to a (royal) chamber, a place of retreat or a display case/cabinet.

[7] Orat. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[8] Homil. 2 in Missus.

[9] infant: derived from Lat. infans, meaning one who cannot speak, without speech, mute, speechless.

 7   What a miracle it is for us to see the author of all things united not only to one of His creatures, but to as many as may be found – but by means of only one amongst them all! Judge for yourselves whether this is not a truly great wonder : that one creature should have merited to be, alongside God Himself, the cause and the starting point of this union. I owe this notion to St John Damascene. 

By means of the Virgin, says this Doctor, the Creator has made possible a new state for all His creatures, and one which is superior to that which they had before. Now, man may be regarded as a halfway house, so to speak, between spiritual creatures and physical creatures; he is the link between those which are visible and those which are invisible. Accordingly, when the most Immaculate Virgin joined God to man by an insoluble knot, she at the same time joined Him very closely to all the other creatures.

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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