Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 14 : §1.1

Chapter 14 : How we are duty-bound for all these reasons to love, honour and serve 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)..

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

For those who enjoy roles and positions of great privilege in this world I can think of no benefit more estimable than the opportunity this affords them of giving help to countless persons. When it comes to such privileges granted to persons in Heaven, then apart from the fact that they alone truly are worthy of being sought, they enjoy this benefit to a perfect extent because it means the friends of God have countless opportunities to do good for us here below. From this arises a duty of gratitude within us which can never be extinguished. After God Himself, however, there is no one comparable in greatness to the Holy Virgin when it comes to the privileges she enjoys and there is no one with a fief[1] like unto hers. 

Footnotes

[1] fief = fee: see OED “fee” at I.3. The sense may be that we are tenants of an estate which is held in fee by our Holy Mother and over which she enjoys significant powers and privileges.

§ 1. Our duty to love her

 1   I feel constrained to ask you how we would judge those who, obliged to her for so many benefits they have received, nevertheless do not love the MOTHER OF GOD or love her but feebly? Let others think what they will, I personally would say that such people either have no hearts or they are so cold and stony-hearted that they cease to be truly human. If they were human, then they would be drawn by the bonds of charity and the inestimable benefits they receive from their loving Mother. I am saying that they are unnatural because if they had anything like a true heart it would show in a reaction befitting the kindness of this Mother’s heart which provides graces and favours for those who wish to receive them. I am saying that they do not have a rational soul since they deviate so far from all reasoned thought : for consider how true it is that each and every one of  the Virgin’s splendours I have placed before you is capable of setting a heart on fire with love. 

When we have seen that she is the principle and point of origin for the eternal happiness of her children, is not this alone enough to make us want to love her throughout eternity? When we see her showing us this in a thousand different ways, each one of which proves that she is the Mother of fair love – is that not a most cogent reason for our hearts to love her more than all the mothers in the world? Is her favour accounted of so little value by abject creatures or judged to be something which can be earned with ordinary, everyday feelings alone? What shall I say of the wondrous care she shows towards her children except that when they weep tears every day and perform works of kindness, this does not come anywhere near even the least of her acts of love? Her acts of generosity surpass in an incomparable manner everything they offer by way of thanks and her own gratitude for even the least of the services they render her exceeds in an unimaginable way everything that she receives, giving them fresh cause to love her still more. 

Her acts of mercy and generosity know no limits and yet these people are parsimonious when it comes to showing their love for her! Imagine that they had ever received from her just one material blessing from the many I have shown that she holds in her hands : we can be sure that if they had received this from any mortal person they would declare themselves eternally indebted to that person! Finally, if they correctly appreciate the guidance she gives about holiness, the consolation she provides for those in distress or affliction, the refuge she makes available for sinners and the good offices she performs at the hour of death – will they not be persuaded that they need to respond with love to the limit of their abilities? I am saying that they are not even showing love for themselves because otherwise they could not possibly avoid tenderly cherishing her from whom they unceasingly receive so many favours. I am saying that they are unworthy of receiving all these graces since their ingratitude justly dries up the channel of these same graces. Finally, I am saying and arguing that they fully deserve to be struck by the bolt of the anathema that the Apostle St Paul hurls[1] against those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is foolish to believe that having no love for the Mother they could nevertheless have love for the Son.

Footnotes

[1] If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha. 1 Cor. xvi. 22.

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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