Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 4 : § 1.9-13

Chapter 4 : Love – a third feature of the gratitude we owe 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. The first sign of love: offering oneself to the Holy Virgin through a solemn and irrevocable act of consecration

 9   This is the form of consecrating oneself to the holy Virgin as her dependent and servant which is described by the celebrated Cardinal de Bérulle at the end of his book entitled Discourses on the State and Grandeurs of Jesus. These are the types of personal consecrations made today in many holy Confraternities or Congregations and amongst them is the solemn offering made throughout the whole of Christendom by members of those Congregations established in the houses of the Society of Jesus where, in the presence of Heaven and Earth, they choose her for their Queen and Lady, swearing an inviolable oath never to abandon her, never to say or undertake anything contrary to her honour, and never to allow those under their power any words or actions which do not promote her honour. 

 10   For those reading about this who feels a desire to consecrate themselves solemnly to the Holy Virgin but without enrolling in one of these groups, and to spare them the effort of looking for suitable words to use, I have drafted a form of consecration which can be used if none others can be found. My advice would be for people to repeat the consecration every morning as this will represent a continual renewal of the service they have promised to this Princess, but whatever they do they should not allow their good intentions to fall into abeyance. Here are the words: 

Most holy and most immaculate MOTHER OF GOD, safe refuge for all who hope in thee: 

This day, in the presence of the most adorable Trinity, of thy beloved Son our Saviour, of St Gabriel, my Guardian Angel, St Peter, St Paul, St Joachim, St Anne, St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, St N. (my Patron St), Sts NN. and the whole of the Heavenly Court,

I N., choose thee to be my most special Mother, Lady and Protectress; from this moment onwards I offer myself to thee as thy servant with a promise to serve thee for the rest of my days as faithfully as I can; and I offer thee in homage all the moments of my life, all the movements of my heart, along with all my plans, words and actions.

Through the merits of thy most beloved Son, I implore thee to receive me into thy personal service, to take my life under thy care and to help keep my soul safe at the hour of my death. 

Amen.  

 11   I should only add here that, among those who consecrate themselves in this way to serving the glorious Virgin, the ones most fortunate and who often advance most highly in her favour are those who are consecrated while young so that they can offer the first fruits of their life to her. Truth to tell, these beautiful, freshly-picked flowers deserve to be offered to the Queen of men and Angels, and it is not surprising that she would make such a fuss of the first ones. As for the other flowers which have faded after passing through so many hands, withering in the midst of the world and the flesh, they may well have lost the sweet fragrance of innocence along with their fresh colouring and springtime beauty but she does not reject them.

If even amongst ourselves, says Saint John Chrysostom[1], we would all prefer a servant who is young, fresh and energetic rather than someone worn out with work and old age; would not Heaven also esteem more highly services provided by the young and innocent rather than by someone too elderly and incapable?

If this were the only reason, it would still be very persuasive since those who enter whilst young into the service of the Queen of Heaven have much more in common with her of whom St John Damascene has written that[2]: 

She was like a slender sapling, transplanted whilst young from her father’s house as though from a nursery of holiness into the orchard of her heavenly Spouse, watered in the Temple of God by special graces from Heaven and the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit. 

This describes how in the Canticles she prays so earnestly to be drawn to her divine Spouse so that she may give encouragement to the young who are burning with desire to follow her. 

Footnotes

[1] Psal. XIV. 1-5, answering: Domine, quis habitabit. What kind of men shall dwell in the heavenly Sion?

[2] Lib. IV de Fide, c. 4.

 12   This is the very thing that convinces me there is nothing more desirable than the happiness of those upon whom Heaven looks with such a favourable eye that they are called to the service of this great Princess right from their cradle, or even from their mother’s womb. You will have noticed a number of examples in Parts I-III but for the moment I shall only make mention of two. 

The first relates to the celebrated Cardinal Baronius, the glory and wonder of the past century, who seems to have experienced special feelings, or at least certain instincts, concerning this devotion even in the womb of his mother, one of the most virtuous ladies of her day.

This woman (according to what was recorded by Henri Spondanus in his eulogy of Cesare Baronius), testified several times that she had felt on numerous occasions her little child moving within her womb whenever she approached some Church dedicated to the glorious Virgin, just as if he wanted to adopt a position of adoration so that he might consecrate himself to her. Shortly after giving birth to him on the last day of October in a year 1538, the good Lady was moved for this reason to offer him to the Queen of Heaven, consecrating him to her for ever. Not long was to pass before she received unmistakable signs of the pleasure given to their loving Mother through the offering which had been made of this little servant. 

Two years later, the child was was struck by a dangerous illness and his family feared that he would die. His mother took him in his cradle to the Church of Our Lady not far from Sora, in Italy, the site of the ancient house of the noble Baronius family. After spending three days in prayer and just when he seemed on the point of passing away, she heard a voice speaking to her clearly: 

“Take heart and rejoice : for thy son is not going to die on this occasion.”

Events would prove the truth of her words for from that point onwards he began to get better and shortly afterwards they could see he had healed completely. Several months later, a pilgrim came to their house and made his way to the cradle of little Cesare. After making a Sign of the Cross on the boy’s forehead, he declared with extraordinary confidence to the mother and the nurse who were present:

“Take care to raise this child well for he is destined for greatness and he will be a luminary of the Church.”

The good lady was greatly consoled by this news and, as she was a great alms-giver, she reached for her purse in order to make him a charitable gift, but at that moment he vanished from their eyes and nobody was able to workout what had become of him. There were strong reasons to believe this was an Angel from Heaven, possibly sent by the Queen of Angels herself to recommend the education suitable for this for this little vassal who was destined one day to be one of her great servants and one of those most successfully employed in furthering the glory of her Son.

 13   The second example relates to St Bernardine of Siena who, whilst preaching one day with great fervour about devotion to the MOTHER OF GOD and her Greatness, declared publicly that he personally belonged to the Holy Virgin and since his infancy He had been obliged to her for hundreds of graces and favours. 

The very first favour that I received through her mediation, he said, was to come into the world on the very day of her Nativity. That same day I was born again of the waters of Holy Baptism. Several years later but still on the same day I took the habit of St Francis;  once a year had gone past, I made my solemn profession on this same day; finally, it was on this day that I celebrated my first Mass.

Were everything else that he did to have counted for nothing, would not this encounter alone suffice for him to be drawn up from the cradle to the Queen of Heaven? 

© Peter Bloor 2025 

👑   👑   👑

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.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.