Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 3 : § 1.8-10

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

 8   What a wonder it is to see all of God’s attributes and His infinite perfections distilled into this miniature! Long ago, the Athenian sages went to great trouble trying to find what could at the same time be called the greatest and the smallest. Some suggested it was the pupil of the eye, some said it was the human heart whilst others opted for the faculty of understanding. This wide range of opinions may be forgiven in these people who had not received the light of truth; but for us, our thoughts need to go no further than the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation where we see:

‣ greatness come down from Heaven, 
‣ the riches of God’s omnipotence exhausted, 
‣ the splendour of grace and glory reduced into this epitome, 
‣ the predestination of the elect not only meriting but finding perfection and fulfilment; 
‣ in short, all that is great in Heaven and on earth distilled into one small volume, compassed in a small and tender body, arranged anew as never seen before.

This is indeed an unheard of wonder, where justice is pre-eminent, mercy reigns, eternity weighs and deliberates, goodness is swift to act, wisdom guides all to a conclusion, power is sufficient for plans, and where the various effects of all the different properties accord so happily with each other as to produce a harmony and concord highly pleasing to God, of great profit to men and Angels, and a source of wonderment for all the world. Do you wish to know who worked this miracle? We can of course all agree that it was God, but we should also remember at the same time that He did not bring it to completion alone, but wanted the Virgin to have a share in this honour with Him in the tiny shell of a corruptible and mortal body.

 9   What a wonder it is to see the eternal Word reduced in this way: almighty God brought low and the Word made flesh! When I say the Word made flesh, I mean to include within this word everything sublunary and lowly that the understanding of men and angels, and even of God, can perceive. 

I understand by this word flesh :

• with God Himself: a little piece of moistened dust[1]; 
• with the holy man Job[2] : that which lives for a short time, is filled with many miseries, coming forth like a springtime flower that fades in the evening and that flees as a shadow, a weathercock blown hither and thither, a vapour which appears drawn by the Sun for a little while and afterwards vanishes away[3], a wretched worm, a sack of rottenness[4], the leaf of a tree serving as a plaything for the winds, straw blown through the air[5]; 
• with David : a stinking dunghill; 
• with his son Solomon[6] : unruly hair, a broken wave and wild foam crashing upon the shore, a wisp of smoke that dissipates of itself, the fleeting memory of the traveller who  passes by a lodging, a tiny flame that goes out at the slightest breath, a puff of air, the vestige of a cloud, the passage of a shadow[7]; 
• with the holy Prophets Isaiah[8] and Jeremiah[9] : a crude earthen pot, which breaks at the slightest encounter; and
• with Saint Paul : a branded slave, and perhaps the best tribute, a beautiful nothingness. 

This is my understanding (and perhaps in fact something less) when I say : The Word was made flesh. The Prophet Jeremiah[10] cries out: Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be very desolate, when you hear how the Lord of Majesty has humbled Himself. For it is true that God has become dust and ashes, the principle of all happiness in the world has become a storehouse of miseries, the incomprehensible Majesty is now an earthworm; the infinite is only a small atom, the source of life can now be called death’s prey, and the King of glory has changed into a small clay pot. What a wonder, or rather what an bottomless abyss of wonders! 

Great King Solomon, thou wast once so amazed that God wanted to dwell among men, even with the splendour of His majesty and with an indescribable display of magnificence: this news seemeth altogether incredible to thee; what hast thou to say now, when learning of this strange transformation and this unique act of self-abnegation!

Footnotes

[1] And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: Gen. ii. 7. slime is given for the Vulgate’s limus, which can also be translated as mud. See also: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. Gen. iii. 19.

[2] Job. xiv., especially verses 1-2: Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.  Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.

[3] For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away.  James. iv. 15.

[4] How much less man that is rottenness and the son of man who is a worm. Job. xxv. 6.

[5] Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, thou shewest thy power, and thou pursuest a dry straw. Job. xiii. 25.

[6] For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by. Wisdom. v. 15.

[7] Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof: Wisdom. ii. 3.

[8] Isai. xxix. 16.

[9] Lam. iv. 2.

[10] Jer. ii. 12.

 10   It is true that this could not happen without the holy arm of God Almighty; but are we to think that the Holy Virgin contributed nothing to this? I shall now pray in aid the blessed Sophronius who was a very close friend of Saint Jerome, for He made one small observation but it is more precious than gold and diamonds:

That which Saint John saw, he says[1], Mary conceived. 

This Word who had been from all eternity in the bosom of His Father and who was God Himself, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was created; this Word in whom life had its source, a life which was the light of men, and the glory of which was proper to the first born Son of God; this Word full of grace and truth, with everything that the beloved disciple said about Him and with what he was not able to say – this Word was made flesh and the resulting, incomprehensible mystery is called the work of God and of Mary. I shall also pray in aid the pious Saint Bernard, who took the words of the Psalmist who says that God hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth, and links them to what the Prophet Isaiah once taught when he said that God would make an abbreviated word or rather a concentrated and most exquisite distillation in the midst of the earth[2] (meaning, according several great doctors, the work of the Incarnation). According to his discerning intellect, he states that this midst of the Earth is a reference to none other than the glorious Virgin, in whom and through whom this mystery came to be accomplished.

The blessed Virgin, says he, is called in a supremely fitting way the midst of the Earth. This is because upon her as upon the centre, upon the Ark of God, upon the cause of all things, upon the vital work of all ages, are fixed the eyes of those who are already on high, of those who are still waiting here below, of those of us who live between both of these groups, of those who came before us, of those of us who are here now, of those of us who must succeed us, our children’s children and those who will come after them. 

Those who are in Heaven, have their eyes fixed upon thee, most Holy Virgin, as upon her who hath repaired their ruined state; those who are waiting here below, as upon her who will deliver them; those have come before, as upon her who will show they spoke the truth, fulfilling their prophecies; and those who come after them, as upon the mediatrix of their glory.

In short, all generations will call thee blessed, O MOTHER OF GOD, First Lady of the universe and Queen of Heaven, forasmuch as thou hast brought life and glory to them all. In thee and through thee, the holy Angels find the cause of all their joy, the just receive graces and sinners hope for mercy. It is therefore right and fitting that the eyes and the hearts of all creatures should be given over to thee, forasmuch as in thee, through thee and from thee, the all-generous hand of God hath restored all that hath been spoiled.

Footnotes

[1] Epist. de Assumpt. ad Paulam et Eustochium : Quod Joannes vidit, Virgo concepit.
[2] Ps. LXXIII. 12.

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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