Chapter 11 : Imitation – tenth 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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 5. On her excellent charity and how it should be imitated by everyone
1 What we wrote elsewhere about the grace of the blessed Virgin[1], and the three levels[2] of her love, will suffice to give us an idea of the levels her holy soul’s ardour attained. I will say no more for now other than that her chaste breast was a holy fortress and on its standard was a heart in flames with this beautiful motto: My beloved all to me and I all to him[3]; and truth to tell, why should she not have been all to him since he willed to be all to her? Whichever way you look at this, after the substantial love which unites the divine Persons of the Trinity and after the love that the divine Person has for the Holy Humanity to which He is united in one same substance, you will find nothing comparable to that which God bears for the blessed Virgin whom He loves most tenderly, nobly and ardently. Tenderly, in that He chose her for the object of His affections, for the subject of His caresses, for the sweetness of His colloquies, for the purest of his delights, for the foremost of His pleasures; and in that He communicated Himself in a more special way to her than to any other and filled her heart with unutterable delights. Nobly, in that He opened up all His treasures to her, that He enriched her with every sort of blessings and constituted her sovereign Lady and Mistress of all His possessions. Ardently, for in order to have her entirely for Himself, He gave her His own Son, notwithstanding all the considerations of propriety – at least according to our way of thinking.
Footnotes
[1] Part I, ch. 7.
[2] Part I, ch. 8, § 3. (natural, acquired and supernatural).
[3] Cf. Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi / My beloved to me, and I to him : Cant. ii. 16.
The charity of the Holy Virgin was most tender, most noble and most ardent
2 Should we be astonished that the Virgin’s love shared these same characteristics and that it was the most tender, the most noble and the most ardent ever encountered in any mere creature? Tender in her intimate conversations with God, in her enjoyment of the innocent caresses she received from her beloved Son; in her loving colloquies, in her embraces, in her ecstasies, in her trials and in her union with her holy Spouse. Noble, disdaining all created things, even unto a hatred of herself; noble in the voluntary surrender of her rights over the faculties of her soul and the affections of her heart; noble in that she complied with all the commands of God and acquiesced in the least signs of His will. Ardent in her desire for hard work, for trials and suffering; ardent in seeking out opportunities for pleasing her Beloved; ardent in desiring His company and in rejecting everything that could prevent her from transforming herself entirely so as to become like Him.
3 O love more tender than the first fruits, more noble than Royalty, more ardent than fire, more powerful than death, more enduring than diamond, more precious than all the world! O love ever burning but never consumed, winning victories for thee and bringing thy designs to fulfilment; cause of joy to them that seek thee, satisfaction to them that find thee and delight to them that possess thee; the model for good works, the form, the value, the source, the life and the being of all the virtues; thou art the death of vice, triumph over temptations and the ruin of disordered affections, when wilt thou transform our hearts into such as God desireth? When wilt thou detach us from all ephemeral things so that our appetite is for those of eternity? When wilt thou place all our sensual and profane love beneath thy feet and take peaceful possession of our hearts? We pray thou wilt so unite us to the Sovereign Good, following the example of the Mother of Love, that we may be permitted to say in truth along with the Apostle[1]: that we may no more live to ourselves or for ourselves, but that He alone may live in us and that we may be thoroughly transformed in Him.
Footnotes
[1] And Christ died for all; that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again: II Cor. v. 15; Rom. xiv; Gal. ii.
4 I say following the example of the Mother of Love because what other school would we choose for our dear children? Whom could they find to inspire them with this gentle love in a more gentle and effective manner than her whose heart has been a glowing source of tenderness and gentleness? From her they acquire a taste for the consideration of God’s great qualities and perfections which render Him infinitely lovable. From her they learn to savour the indescribable sources of satisfaction hidden in God’s love and which the Eternal Lover has made available for those souls who have turned aside from all vain and worldly pleasures. From her they learn to make their principal abode in the Saviour’s pierced side, drawing sustenance from the blood distilled from His sacred wounds ; they learn to keep Him company in the wilderness, in the towns and in people’s houses; to visit Him in the stable, to carry Him to Egypt; to follow Him from town to town, to be near Him on Calvary, to wonder at His miracles, to imitate His example, to learn from His teaching, to die unto themselves following His example, to rise again and ascend into Heaven with Him. From her they learn to weep gentle tears when they see the glory God receives from His creatures in all corners of the universe, from East to West, from North to South; and even more when they see that which is rendered to Him on high in Heaven; but infinitely more even than this – when they admire the glory which He has in Himself, of Himself and through Himself, world without end.
5 All this notwithstanding, they consider they will have done nothing if their love is not totally noble and royal like that of the Mother of love. They consider that they will always be children until, like the Saint Ignatius of our day (I mean the admirable Francis de Sales, the true model of Holy Prelates), they have forever sacrificed themselves to pure and holy love. With him they set their sights high and proclaim they desire to live only in God, to work only in God, and to rejoice only in God. With him, they no longer want to be anything to anyone, nor for anyone to be anything to them, except in God and for God alone. With him they are quite content for their hearts to be torn out or for there to be nothing in their hearts which is not for holy love. With him, they declare that if they knew of the slightest affection in them which was not for God or from God, or even some thing howsoever small not marked by the Crucifix, they would not pay the slightest attention to it. Everything which is not God or which does not lead them straight to God seems to them so low and vile that they would not even deign to look at it. Nothing in the world gives them such satisfaction as that which leads them to pure love and nothing whatsoever causes them so much pain as that which prevents them from attaining it.
6 Do not, however, imagine that they stop there. For as long as they know that the Queen of charity has gone further, then no matter what difficulties are placed in their way, they will overcome all obstacles in order to follow and arrive at ardent love. They know very well that this love lives only amidst difficulties and does not thrive except in trials and tribulations. Its roses are thorns, its contentment is dissatisfaction, its joys are sorrows, its pleasures are vexations, its sweetness is bitterness, its consolation is distress, its wealth is poverty, its honour is scorn and its strength is slackness. However many difficulties they encounter, they still desire more; but because their object is infinite and they feel their own love is so far from being infinite, this makes their thirst for suffering so great that scarcely anything can satisfy it.
© Peter Bloor 2026
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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.
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.
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