Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 14 : §1.2 > §2.1-2

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)

§ 1. Our duty to love her

 2   Whilst I have been fulminating against these ungrateful souls, I have been forgetting the people we were discussing earlier : the children of the MOTHER OF GOD whom she conceived within her womb, nourished with her milk, raised in her maternal love and showered with countless favours. I have not been showing how she granted these children prevenient graces and tender blessings, how she acquired these children through love and how they gave themselves to her through love. I have not been considering how, just as the love which the Queen of Heaven has for them is the starting point of their happiness, the love they reciprocated towards her has enabled them to make incomparable progress. If there had been no such reciprocation, she would immediately have cut off the flow of graces she was pouring into their souls and they would never have attained the heights they did. But since the favours bestowed by the Holy Virgin made them what they are, they have tried to cultivate these favours and to render themselves each day more worthy of them by showing feelings of true gratitude, which then draws down new graces upon them. 

Since they regard themselves as being nothing more than mere creatures who have become what they are thanks to the intercession and goodwill of the Princess of Heaven, and since they do not see in themselves or around them anything other than blessings obtained through her mediation, then it follows necessarily that they will love her with all their heart. When new gifts are received they prompt new feelings of love and nothing is done and nothing is given except through and with love. In short, this pleasant war of love leads them to the point when even though they feel themselves infinitely obliged to love her for all the great benefits they have received from her, nevertheless their principal desire is to love her for herself, with a conviction that she deserves to be loved even should all the gifts they receive from her come to an end. 

They have reached the point where they would no longer wish to have a heart if they were once condemned not to love her or to love her only partially; and the affection they feel towards her is so real they are convinced that it would be impossible for them to live without her. They firmly believe there is no satisfaction in the world comparable to what they feel in loving her, in conversing with her, in speaking about her and in performing services for her. I am, however, losing sight of my goal here since they have no use for my exhortations and my invectives are far from being directed at them. On the contrary, we should wonder at the inestimable happiness they enjoy and follow their example by loving to the utmost of our ability her whom they cherish with all their heart. This is something I do all the more willingly the more I feel an increase in my inclination to honour all those who love her. 

Ye devout children of the Mother of love, you are to be congratulated

    • for these exceptional feelings of love that you have for her; 

    • for the incomparable care you have taken in cultivating favours received;

    • for all the fruits you have gathered therefrom; 

    • for all the joys that have filled your hearts in the sweet colloquies you have with your holy Mother; and

    • for the firm hope, indeed the promises you have received of even greater blessings. 

May ye continue to grow towards that perfection of love that she desires from you; and at the same time may we all be drawn by the sweet fragrance of your example to love her not only in this life which needs must end but also in that which will never end.

§ 2. Our duty to honour her

 1   Now to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, says the great Apostle St Paul[1]. It is perfectly true that to Him alone belong all glory and all honour. From this it follows that true honour is nothing less than an outstreaming from the glorious face of God, the source of all honour in the world. Just as from the visible and physical Sun come forth all rays of light, in the same way all glory radiates from this divine Majesty, no more nor less than from an invisible and spiritual Sun. This means that all creatures are more or less worthy of honour to the extent that they are bathed in rays streaming from the glorious face of God. Accordingly, Kings and Princes are worthy of honour inasmuch as they receive the rays of God’s power; Judges and Magistrates because they are lit up by His justice; Wise men are enlightened by His wisdom; virtuous people shine with the splendour of divine virtues which light up their faces; those advanced in years have Him to thank for their longevity, which partakes in some sense of God’s eternity; fathers and mothers for the connection they have with God’s goodness which is the first principle of all communication. From this it follows that, the more closely creatures draw to this divine Sun of glory, the greater the share they have in the glory which proceeds therefrom.

Footnotes

[1] 1 Tim. i. 17.

 2   This is a major point I am making about the Queen of Heaven, our most worthy Mother. As her devout servant St Bernard puts it[1]: 

She is most meritoriously clothed with the Sun, forasmuch as she has penetrated more than can be imagined into the great depths of the greatness of God, to the extent that it is as though she has been absorbed into this light inaccessible[2] as much as a mere creature can be without actual personal union. 

Who could find ways to describe how as a result of her closeness to God she has been penetrated through and through by the rays of honour streaming forth from the Father of lights[3]?  I do not intend to enter once more into a consideration of the great dignities and privileges of Excellence and Power she has received; it is enough that earlier in this work on two separate occasions[4] I have given a summary of the ways in which we are under an extraordinary obligation to honour her in this connection. Here in Part III we have been considering her Goodness which furnishes us with countless reasons for honouring her in every way we possibly can since there is nothing that such a Mother does not deserve.

 

My prayer is that her dear children seek out all imaginable ways of honouring her, that they apply themselves unceasingly to putting these into practice, that each day they find new ways of showing the loving respect they feel for her, and that they do all this without fearing they have exceeded what is proper (provided. that their devotions do not approach the worship which is due to God alone) because they will always be indebted to her and there will never come a time when they are not recipients of her goodness.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. Signum magnum..

[2] Who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: 1 Timothy vi.16.

[3] Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; James i 17.

[4] Part I, ch. 4, § 2, et Part II, ch. 4, § 2.

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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