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) |
§ 14. How she should be imitated by all those seeking to die well
1 Consider the excellent observation made by St John Damascene who said[1]:
Man is nothing but a mystery whose beginning is to emerge from God and whose end is to return to Him.
This means that man’s predestination is a truly profound mystery and as his age increases the mystery sometimes reveals itself and at other times conceals itself, leaving an infinite number of mysteries in its wake. A man’s progress and his setbacks, his highs and his lows, his wanderings and his returns, his falls and his recoveries and the vicissitudes he experiences of good and evil, joy and sadness, consolation and distress, light and darkness, prosperity and adversity, favour and disgrace, health and sickness, honour and dishonour – these are all so many mysteries that can only make him revere unceasingly God’s adorable Providence. In the end, however, the conclusion of all these mysteries is for him to return to God from whom he came forth. This is the point at which the soul, entering into the splendour of the Saints, finds its eyes are opened so that it can finally behold the sequence of all the mysteries it has experienced. Death is the necessary path and gateway leading to this state – or, to put it better with the Holy Spirit – it is the moment on which eternity depends, the period which is most important of all for us, the culmination of all we have lived through on earth. No matter that everything else may have been as successful as you might wish, if this moment is lacking, then all is lost; conversely, when everything previously was ruined but this moment of transition rehabilitates the past errors, then there is nothing to fear.
From this I conclude that what is most important of all is to learn how to die well, since if those things needed for a good death are wanting, there will be never another opportunity to put things right. Where better to learn this, after Jesus Christ who is the perfect model for our life and our death, than from her who has up to this point taught us how to live well? With this aim in mind I am going to conclude this section on the imitation of the Holy Virgin, but without dwelling too long upon her departure from this world. I shall take as the basis of a beautiful death that which we discussed at some length in Part I[2], drawing lessons therefrom to help us approach our own death.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. II Fidei orthod., c. 12.
[2] Chap. 11.
Getting used to the thought of death from an early age
2 Before everything else, let us agree that the key to this is getting used to the thought of death, thinking about it frequently and understanding what it is. The fruit of this holy practice is that when the moment of death comes upon us, we will not fear it like a terrible disaster but it will be for us like a gateway into the freedom enjoyed by God’s children; we will not pay undue attention to ephemeral things but will treat them as what has been loaned to us and will one day have to be returned; we will not be dragged with violence from this life as though torn away from something that we cannot bear to lose, but rather it will be as though we are leaving prison with a light heart and without fear; we shall be in agreement with the servants of God for whom (according to St Augustine) life is no less troublesome than death is for the children of this world; and, more important than all these things, we shall put our affairs in order in good time, for fear of being taken by surprise. Since a good death is normally the conclusion of a good life, we must try to ensure that its end matches the beginning. Since strait is the way that leadeth to life[1], it is all important to stay on it to the very end. It would amount to disastrous blindness if people put off learning about something so important, something that can never be done twice and can never be made good once it is been done badly, especially at a time when the body and the mind may be failing and we may not be fully conscious. Those with thoughts of their salvation in mind wisely approach the end in a different manner, learning to die to the world every day and to live like citizens of Heaven and exiles on earth, following the example of the MOTHER OF GOD whose death was a sweet and most pleasing sleep because her heart, her mind and all her thoughts and feelings were on high. Good people do not take any less care when they feel that their time of departure from this world is approaching.
Footnotes
[1] Matt. vii. 14.
Putting temporal affairs in order in good time
3 It is a sign of great wisdom for those in this world not to wait for the approach of death before putting their temporal affairs in order, but to keep them always prepared and ensure that everything is up to date. Apart from anything else, it is the first thing a person should do whilst there is still time, not because it is necessarily the most pressing matter but so as to free his mind once and for all, allowing him to focus all his thoughts on God and his salvation. One of the priorities must be to make restitution of anything sinfully acquired and to discharge any debts owed. Failure to do this often means that souls spend long years in the terrible pains of purgatory and the prayers of the living are unable to help them.
Being generous according to one's means
4 What comes next is for people to do good and be generous with those things which they cannot take with them. They should not allow themselves to fall into the ways of the world which always gives to them who already have plenty, widening the way that leadeth to destruction[1]. The Queen of Heaven had only two garments of very little value, and she left them to two poor virgins or, as others report, to two widows who kept them carefully preserved for us, like two precious treasures. I consider it a very bad sign when a person of means does not include legacies for the poor and for pious works in his last will and testament; for I think that God, who answers for the poor, does not wish to take anything from them because he does not wish to owe them anything. I shall never cease to commend the example set by a good citizen from the city of Arles in Provence who, when he died a few years ago, left a sum of money which by a wise decree of the court was assigned to the local hospital in accordance with his will.
Footnotes
[1] Matt. vii. 13.
Accepting willingly from the hand of God death and all that comes with it
5 Let us move on from these ancillary considerations and come to the main issue : the care we must have of our soul. The first thing that the Holy Virgin did when the Angel brought her the news she had long desired about her death was to sing the Nunc dimittis and to accept her death as a signal favour from her beloved Son. It is my view that this is the first sign of Virtue that God desires from a person who has been raised to believe in Him and to fear Him, when he is called upon to think about himself and prepare to leaved this world. When it comes to those who hope for no other happiness than what they experience here below; they willcomplain bitterly about having to leave this world, they will weep like those who have lost everything and will suffer pain at the mere mention of the word death; but when it comes to others who are waiting with hope for the inheritance that the Saviour has won for them in Heaven, as soon as they learn that their end is approaching, they raise their hands high and they surrender themselves to God’s will with the whole of their soul, welcoming the news of their departure and reacting as though they had received a letter from their dear Father inviting them to come and see Him. They will humbly submit themselves to His ordinances, they will make an offering to Him of all they have and all they are, and they will gratefully thank Him for having deigned to remember them. There are certain spiritual persons whose devotion leads them not only to a willing acceptance of death but also to all those things which are associated with it, such as illness, anxiety, pain, weakness of mind and body, the agony of dying, the coffin, the pains of Purgatory, and generally everything that God is pleased to ordain for them, either during their lifetime or after their death. Several theologians of repute teach that this level of devotion offers a way of gaining merit even through that which happens to us after death, which is no small thing. Even if this were not the case, however, this devotion is in itself so noble and so pleasing to God that our loving desire to omit nothing that might give satisfaction to His Majesty should be enough reason for us to make it our practice.
© 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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