Chapter 2 : The high esteem in which the Mother of God is to be held – the first motive for showing our gratitude
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) |
§ 1. The high esteem in which the Saints and God Himself hold the most sacred Virgin
1 These perfections have been shown as flowing from the inestimable Greatness of the Queen of Angels and they have all been supported by writings of Holy Doctors in Parts I-III. Readers will not have failed to note, however, that there is a perfection which is much higher than these and which the Doctors take as the principal and essential basis for the esteem due to this great Lady. Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God[1], the Prince of the Apostles said to Jesus Christ and with these words he believed he had said everything. In the same way, do you want to understand in a few words everything that can be conceived about the greatness and sublimity of the glorious Virgin? Simply say to her: Thou art Mary, the Mother of the living God. This dignity of being Mother is the just measure and matrix[2] of all her great dignities and privileges. Once this is perceived, you will see it is impossible to go any higher since you will have arrived by this means at the throne of the Divinity. As the Blessed Methodius[3] says:
You will see her processing alongside God under one and the same imperial canopy by reason of the privilege she enjoys of her maternal relationship with Him.
In our own day an optical device has been invented[4] which incorporates refraction and reflection using glass and mirrors, enabling the eye to see different parts of an image with an adjusted perspective which permits a true and more perfect representation. I would invite readers to recall the thoughts concerning the blessed Virgin which may be found throughout Parts I-III of this work and now view them through the optics represented by the words Mary and MOTHER OF GOD. If you contemplate her in majesty and glory, try to conceive the majesty and glory of the MOTHER OF GOD. If you look at her from the perspective of how holy she is, how admirable, how powerful, how good-natured and loving – then try to remember that what you are seeing is the holiness, the power, the goodness, the wonders and the privileges of the MOTHER OF GOD. By seeing things in this way you will find that everything about her causes you to be transported by astonishing ecstasies and raptures of love. Let us take satisfaction from what was said earlier on two occasions[5] and for anything more than that let us worship in silence that which it is better to revere in holy simplicity rather than to analyse with presumptuous curiosity.
Footnotes
[1] Matt. xvi. 16.
[2] matrix : a mould, form, die, etc. (see OED II.6). Etym. From Latin matrix with meaning of mother and by transf. womb, source, origin, cause.
[3] Orat. de Hypapante.
[4] See e.g., La Perspective Curieuse (Curious Perspectives) by Jean-François Niceron (1613-46) who was a French mathematician, Minim friar and painter of anamorphic art.
[5] Part I, ch. 2, & Part II, ch. 3.
8 Consider how frequently it happens that when people visiting collections in galleries think that they have seen everything and are just on the point of leaving, they suddenly start to see new things and are slowly drawn back to look once more at what they had already seen – but in a new light and with a new perspective. I have found myself in this very position and with the same frame of mind. I felt I had said (at least in general terms) everything I thought was relevant to forming a high estimation of the glorious Virgin but then a certain idea occurred to me which caused me to revisit my thinking.
It was at that moment, and not before, that I thought I had come across the true rule for understanding the great dignities and privileges of the MOTHER OF GOD. This is how my reasoning went : Since it is only in God’s eyes that a person may in truth be seen as that which he is, and since Eternal Wisdom cannot err when judging the value of things, where might we find a more just and fitting conception of the great dignities and privileges of the MOTHER OF GOD than in the divine understanding, for there may be found the true images and substantial ideas of the works He has produced? The Philosophers and Theologians teach with St Thomas[1] that the truth of each thing cannot be better perceived than in its conformity with the first understanding, which is that of God. Perhaps another comparison will make this clearer : artists maintain that images look better in the mirror than in their own body, and this is why they make use of them in portraits. In the light of this, consider how the understanding of God is the essential mirror of all the works He has created, a mirror in which their perfection appears much more perfectly than in themselves. One consequence of this is the Blessed Spirits look into this mirror rather than elsewhere when they want to form a true judgement of someone. From this it follows that often they make very little of things which we admire to distraction and, conversely, they highly esteem some things which we do not rate very much at all.
I am well aware that it is not given to us to penetrate the secret of this light inaccessible in a way that would enable us to see things with clarity, but can we not discover some little rays of light coming through an opening somewhere? We can in fact have an idea of the esteem in which God holds people through the work He gives them and the office to which He appoints them. In view of this, are we not forced to agree that, since He judged the most sacred Virgin worthy of being the Mother of His only-begotten Son (the highest dignity that could be communicated to a simple creature), He must have esteemed her more highly than any other creature? What can I say of the honour that He wanted to be shown her as a result of the role and status He gave her and the signs he gave in confirmation of these? Who does not see in this just how highly we are to venerate this beautiful vessel of honour whom He set aside for such an excellent purpose and whom he did not cease to adorn and enrich until he saw her worthy and supremely suited to receive the Eternal Word taking human flesh and nature? Who would not judge but that our thinking and our conceptions are too primitive and coarse to form an idea that even comes close to all this? Accordingly, let us practise what we are obliged to do in several other mysteries of our faith : let us believe in that which we cannot comprehend and, through the esteem in which we hold God, let us value that which He Himself values even though we might not fully understand.
Footnotes
[1] Opusc. XLIV, c. 2, in fine.
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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.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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