Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 1.6-9

Chapter 8 : Honour – a seventh 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. First sign of honour : adoring her with hyperdulia

The practice of interior adoration of the Holy Virgin

 6   Among the salutary pieces of advice given by St Bonaventure to one of his friends to help him arrive at perfection, that of never letting a day go by without rendering some special and unique honour to the sacred Virgin features prominently[1]. Apart from the fact that she to whom this honour is rendered appreciates and esteems all the services offered her, however small they may be, the action is in itself most pleasing to God forasmuch as it pertains to Religion which is one of the principal virtues. This virtue produces two sorts of actions of which some are interior and the others exterior but always proceeding from the interior principle, which is what gives movement, weight and merit to the action. This is why I am beginning with the interior acts of adoration, seeing that they are more readily available than the others, since the exterior actions can be impeded or prevented through bodily weakness, age, sickness and such like reasons; they can also be interrupted by the company a person keeps or rendered difficult by the pressure of a person’s occupation and duties. The interior actions, however, can be practised with total freedom in the house or outdoors, in the company of others, and in particular when at work or at rest, at any time, in any place and with any disposition of the mind or body, as will be seen as we consider them one after another.

  

Footnotes

[1] Lib. viginti quinque memorabilium, nº 13.

VARIOUS KINDS OF INTERIOR ADORATION 

 7   We adore the most sacred Virgin in an interior manner when we revere the graces and the virtues granted to her to be worthy MOTHER OF GOD, namely her outstanding devotion, her deep humility, her angelic purity, her seraphic charity and so on with all the others. We adore her inwardly when we present homage to her in consideration of her great dignities, seeing her as the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the First-born of creatures, the Sovereign Lady and the Queen of them all. We adore her inwardly when, before her incomparable greatness, we abase all the faculties of our soul – our memory, our understanding and our will – recognising they are too meagre and feeble to render her the honour she merits and praying for an increase in their capacity so as to honour her more perfectly. We adore her inwardly when we offer her all the honour that the Blessed Spirits offer her in Heaven, that which she has received on earth from the beginning of the world and that which could be rendered her but of which we are ignorant, not sharing the knowledge of the Court of Heaven. We adore her inwardly when we wish to see her honoured and served everywhere with the greatest purity that the human spirit can bring, and when in our prayers we ask God to make her known, loved and honoured by everyone. We adore her inwardly when we render honour to her sacred body, to her holy soul and to all the mysteries of her most holy life: to her Immaculate Conception, her own most pure Nativity, her wondrous Annunciation, the Nativity of her divine Son, her mysterious Purification, her blessed Decease, Her glorious Assumption, her royal Anointing and so on with the others. 

 8   Blessed St Bridget has described at great length in four very devout prayers the practice of this adoration, following what she once learned through revelations. In the first of her meditations, she addresses the glorious Virgin as follows: 

Most holy MOTHER OF GOD, my Lady and my Queen, I bless thee with all my heart as the most noble of all creatures, and the one who hast loved loved thy Creator most sincerely and most faithfully. I bless thee and honour thee as her whose conception was announced to thy parents by the same Archangel who later brought thee the news of the conception of the divine Word within thy sacred womb. I bless thee and honour thee as her who emerged from such a holy marriage and who, after an infancy and education altogether angelic, wast led to the Temple when three years old there to be raised amongst the Virgins and consecrated to the service of God. I bless thee and honour thee as her who hast loved and glorified thy Creator with all thy might, starting when the light of reason first dawned within thy soul.

After this, she continues in the same vein, covering all the mysteries of the life and death of the Holy Virgin right up to the point when she was crowned with a crown of immortality and recognised as sovereign Lady and Empress of the whole universe. In the last of her meditations she covers the Blessed Virgin with blessings from head to foot. 

Princess of Heaven and earth, my Lady, my life and my joy : a million times blessed be thine adorable head, adorned with the crown of glory and incomparably brighter than the Sun. Blessed be thy beautiful golden hair, cascading like so many rays of light upon thy shoulders; and despite being almost countless in number, they are nevertheless surpassed by the multitude of thy divine virtues. Blessed be the silvery splendour of thy brow and thy face fairer than the Moon[1], which no person looketh upon without receiving succour and consolation. Blessed be thine eyes which are as doves[2], brighter than the stars of Heaven and purer than the minds of the Blessed Spirits; gazing only ever on the perdurable things of eternity. Blessed be thy fair and rosy cheeks, a hundred times more beautiful than those of the Dawn; cheeks on which modesty and purity provide a throne for thy chastity.

She says as much in a proportionate manner about the other parts of the sacred body of the most immaculate MOTHER OF GOD and it is difficult to read what she wrote without feeling moved by love to fall in love with her.

Footnotes

[1] Cant. vi. 9.

[2] Cant. v. 12,

ADORING HER BELOVED SON

 9   Finally, this same adoration is linked to the honour we render to Our Lord Jesus, her beloved Son. I should like you to learn about this from none other than His Mother most admirable. Here is what she said one day to St Bridget[1]: 

My dear daughter, if thou desirest to know in what way thou canst praise and honour me, then learn that I shall always receive whatever honour and praise that thou givest to my dear Son, since it is as if we have one heart and one soul between the two of us. Accordingly, I shall esteem it as high praise and honour to myself when thou sayest: 

“May Thou be blessed in all things, my Creator and my God! Thou who didst deign to permit Thyself to be compassed in the womb of Thy most humble handmaid. May Thou be blessed, my Prince and my sovereign Lord, Thou who in being born of this most pure Virgin didst take nothing away from her virginity and nothing away from thine own holiness. May Thou be blessed, my Lord and my all, who when Thou wert conceived of the Queen of Virgins Thou didst infuse every part of her body and each faculty of her soul with joy and happiness. May Thou be blessed, King of glory and majesty, for the glory to which Thou hast raised her and for the majesty with which Thou hast filled her. May Thou be blessed, I say, as many times as there are grains of sand on the seashore; and through the intercession of this same Virgin, Thine own most honoured Mother and mine, do Thou be merciful unto Thy most humble servant. Amen.”

Footnotes

[1] Revel., lib. I, c. 8.

© Peter Bloor 2025 

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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.

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.