Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is a true model of generosity towards her children
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) |
Just as there is no heart in God’s creation comparable to that of the Mother of fair love, in the same way there is nothing like her Goodness. She occupies herself unceasingly in sharing the treasures of her beloved Son’s graces and favours ; and she is never happier than when she is distributing these with both hands. We may call one of these hands Generosity and the other Gratitude. Having spoken of the first of these, let us now say a word about the second.
§ 1. The Gratitude of the MOTHER OF GOD in general
1 Perhaps the first reaction of some will be to take issue with this word Gratitude, citing the words of St Paul[1]: Who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him?[2] I would agree that it is going too far to speak of repayment and acquittance when it comes to the Queen of Heaven, just it would be improper to speak in terms of indebtedness resulting from claims of right or moral duty. Perhaps it would be best to focus on the idea of respect and to speak only of grace and favour. Even if we were to spend the whole of our life in continual acts of service, could we dare to entertain the idea that we had discharged even the least of the duties that we have towards her? That being the case, how can we possibly speak of Gratitude without showing extreme ignorance of who and what we are? May it please God that I take nothing away from the glory of the Holy Virgin : but since God, who is the first source of all the good we enjoy, has Himself granted us the favour of promising to reward even the least of our actions, and indeed to accept certain of them as works of supererogation – why would we not believe the same about the Mother of goodness, and why would we have any doubts about her heartfelt affection when it comes to this? If we are going to be strict about this, then simply by reason of creation not only are we indebted in our own persons to His divine Majesty, but also in our lives and in all that has come from us throughout all the ages; and no one can deny that we are, for a thousand other reasons, indebted to Him for all that we are capable of doing, for all that we have and for all that we are. Despite all this, His generosity is so great that He stoops to take an interest in any little offering we make to Him, not as something we acquired from Him but as something He has given us the right to call our own. He promises us His love, at the price of giving us Himself, from which it follows that the good things we offer Him are His own, as are any services we do for Him. These are the wondrous effects of God’s infinite love which makes Him show His favour to us in so many ways; they are exemplary and imitable acts of goodness which can only proceed from an infinitely loving heart.
Footnotes
[1] Rom. xi. 35.
[2] The Fillion Bible commentary states of et retribuetur ei / and retribution shall be made him (Douay-Rheims 1582) : “The sacred writer is imagining the impossible, that a man has made a gift to God and receives in return a recompense.”
2 We find in the heart of the glorious Virgin clear signs of the way she participates in this divine spirit. Whilst her faithful servants can truthfully say that she has always favoured them with her prevenient graces, that they have never taken a single step without being accompanied by her favours, that her acts of generosity follow them everywhere and that consequently they remain forever indebted to her whatever they do – it is nevertheless wonderful to behold how she feels obliged to them by even the least services they offer unto her. Her kindly heart allows her no rest until she has given them proof of the pleasure she has found in their offerings and until she has shown her gratitude to them. The pious Archbishop of Crete, St Andrew of Jerusalem, expresses this very well in the following words[1]:
The most Holy Virgin, he says, is extremely generous in the ways she shows her enormous gratitude for even the smallest offerings that we make to her. Her heart is so generous that, with the exception of God Himself, no one has ever surpassed her in beneficence. For every single gift she receives, she returns a hundredfold, and for a hundred, ten thousandfold. When it comes to generosity and gratitude, no one can out do her.
Examples will demonstrate this more clearly than any words of mine and these are not difficult to find.
Footnotes
[1] Orat. 2 de Dormitione sanctiss. Deiparæ.
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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
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