Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 4.6-9

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

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)

§ 4. The second reason that the Holy Virgin has the right to be considered as the Co-Redemptrix of men and the Mother of the world to come

 6   Let us move on now to the last heading and consider the generosity and joy with which the Holy Virgin offered her sacrifice. In order to have any conception of it, you would need to be able to take in how she made her offering with the whole of her great and noble heart.

No one will ever love you as ardently as this Lady, says the same St Bonaventure[1], for she cherished her Son with an inestimable love and unquestionably more than she loved Herself, delivering Him up to death for our sake.

Blessed St Mechtilde describes in her book on Divine Grace[2] how one day she saw a Seraph greet the most sacred Mother of God, kneeling at her feet:

rendering her this homage in memory of the love which had consumed her and of which she had given proof by rising above every sort of human and natural reaction; remaining firm and solid amidst the mourning and shock felt by all creatures, whilst beholding with joy the terrible martyrdom suffered by her Son on the cross.

The pious Gerson[3] writes that:

At this time she chanted a hymn to herself, which he calls Heartsong, whilst gazing upon the beloved of her womb and the unique object of her love suffer for our salvation; and she offered this up with a shuddering of the spirit which rose above the anguished feelings of the flesh: This was to fulfil to the letter what is written in Scripture, that God loveth a cheerful giver[4].

The learned Bishop of Avila[5] says as much when he writes that:

During the Passion of her Son, the Holy Virgin was transported by an indescribable love seeking our salvation, arising from the ardent charity that filled her heart. When she saw Him suffering, she received a consolation impossible to describe, inasmuch as through this her hopes and wishes were more than fulfilled. On the other hand, her heart was pierced in a most real sense by the sword of sorrow. She experienced personally all the suffering of this innocent Lamb whom she had suckled and reared, and whom she loved a thousand times more than her own life.

Footnotes

[1] ISerm. 1 de Beata Virg.

[2] Lib. I, c. 56.

[3] In Canticordio, tit. II, III parte Alphab.

[4] II Cor. ix. 7.

[5] In c. 9 Deuteron., q. 4.

 7   At the same time, her soul is transported with a joy that cannot be described, along with a sorrow surpassing anything experienced by any created spirit. In Armenia you can see the river Tigris pouring into lake Arethusa[1] and passing through with such force that its waters do not mix with those of the lake. This is an image of how the consolation experienced by the Holy Virgin resulting from the deliverance of mankind maintains her spirit in a wonderful way, but without diminishing or altering in any way the grief that she felt. Another image is to consider the peak of Mount Olympus where all is peaceful and quiet whilst the foot of the mountain is shrouded in clouds and buffeted by storms and flashes of lightning. In a similar way, the higher part of this holy Lady’s soul is perfectly united to the will of God and is experiencing an ineffable sense of peace and contentment, whilst the feelings in the lower part of her soul are enveloped or rather drowned and engulfed in the bitter sorrows and troubles of death. It is not, however for us to have knowledge about these matters: this belongs only to the Mother of God and to her dear Son who, amidst the cruel pains of His passion, was transported by such an abundance of joy that He was able to rise above the scorn He had to endure and the terrible torments that afflicted him.

Footnotes

[1] Pliny Nat. Hist. vi. 31.

 8   Consider the mother of the Machabees, St Felicity and St Symphorosa, each of them mothers of seven child martyrs; consider the mothers of St Melito, St Symphorian, St Maurice, St Barulas and others who had the courage not only to watch without weeping but who gave their sons encouragement for the struggle through the masculine fortitude of their countenances and their valiant speech. In view of what they did, would it not be quite unthinkable to doubt the constancy and resolution of the MOTHER OF GOD? If the Patriarch Abraham, as a result of his heroic action in making ready to sacrifice his own son, earned the praise of the whole of posterity as well as an immortality which is preserved by the Holy Spirit in the records of Scripture, what must then be said of her who showed far more courage than the Patriarch did, in an act surpassing more fearful and cowardly spirits?

 9   Concerning the sacrifice of Abraham, however, two or three pertinent ideas come to mind. The first is that it raises a question, namely which of the two shows more courage and whose merit was greater before God : Abraham, who wished to immolate his son, or Isaac who freely allowed himself to be bound and offered himself willingly to be the victim of death? Those who raised this question[1] decide in favour of the elderly father, giving a number of reasons. The first is because Abraham cherished the life of his son more than his own, not only because he had been given to him in his old age in a miraculous manner, but he was also the only son of his beloved Sarah and he was the most highly born on earth. The second reason is that he could appreciate better than his son the importance of the latter’s life, being that on which depended the fulfilment of all the promises that God had made to him. The third reason is because for three days and nights together he had seen before his eyes a cruel vision of this death which so filled his mind, his imagination and his senses that it was impossible to find any escape from it. The fourth reason relates to the serious temptations he suffered : nature on several occasions revolted against his decision and, as is remarked by several Hebrew Doctors, the devil appeared to him in human form to make him turn away from the barbaric cruelty (as he called it), that he was going to inflict. Several writers see here an application of the words of St Paul[2] who wrote to the Hebrews that by faith Abraham offered Isaac his only son at a time when he found himself tempted. 

Innocent Isaac, the laughter of thy father and thy mother; sweet Jesus : Thou art a true victim, Thou hast been offered up for our sins : Thy Holy Mother is far from wishing to contest with Thee for the merit of Thy death and the firmness of Thy resolution; neither is it part of my plan to draw comparisons between Thy merits and hers, for I honour them as being infinite and proceeding from a divine person. But since it is known to Thee alone how far the courage and the merit of Thy grieving Mother doth extend, Thou wilt approve, it seemeth to me, that I should explain to everyone that the world hath never seen a firmness of heart like unto hers, that all the Angels were astonished and delighted thereat, and that after Thine own oblation Thy father findeth nothing more pleasing to Him than the courage and constancy of this afflicted heart of her who held firm and steady in the midst of the storms caused to her by Thy death.

Footnotes

[1] Pererius, Gen. 22. disp. 15.

[2] Fide obtulit Abraham Isaac, cum tentaretur /  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac:  Hebr. xi. 17. 

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >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