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The Annunciation, early 1460s; by Willem Vrelant.The Getty Museum, L.A. |
It is referred to in the French work by Fr François Poiré called The Triple Crown of the Holy Mother of God (1630) which I translated on this blog starting on the 1st of May 2024.
I offer this annotated edition of St Bonaventure’s work as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for all her graces and favours, requesting her continued help and protection for the author and his family.
The Latin text and references are based upon Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis (1904). The English text is based upon that attributed to Sr Mary Emmanuel O.S.B. (published by Herder in 1932). Amazon's various editions ackowledge that this text is in the Public Domain worldwide, attributing it to the text of a Dublin edition (author unknown) published in 1849.
Chapter 7 : The Nine Plenitudes of Mary
In which she surpasses the nine plenitudes of the Angelic orders in glory.
Part 1
Ave, gratia plena. It was not enough for the Archangel simply to commend the grace of Mary; he wished also to insist emphatically on its fullness when he uttered the words: “full of grace.” O truly full, and fully full! Gabriel had not yet said: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb.” He had not yet said: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.” If, therefore, before the coming upon her of the Holy Ghost and before the conception of the Son of God, Mary was full of grace, how much more so afterwards? Therefore Augustine aptly says of her fullness and of the fullness of her gratitude[1]:
“She, having being saluted by the Angel and already a thousand times full (of grace), was filled with the Holy Ghost and perfused with the divine plenitude so that she was to cry out: My soul doth magnify the Lord[2].”
Well, therefore, is Mary said to be full of grace; filled, I say, with the illumination of wisdom, filled with the infusion of grace, filled with a good life, filled with the unction of mercy, filled with the fecundity which was to bear fruit in a pious offspring, filled with the perfection of the Church, filled with the fragrance of fair fame, filled with the resplendence of divine glory and filled with the enjoyment of eternal gladness. Let us consider these nine plenitudes in Mary, which surpass the nine plenitudes of the Angelic orders in glory.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. 208. append. (alias 53.) n. 6.
[2] Luc. i. 30-32.
First let us consider that Mary is full of the illumination of wisdom and understanding. She may aptly be symbolised by that full moon of which is said in the Book of Proverbs[1]:
“My husband is not at home, he is gone on a very long journey. He took with him a bag of money: he will return home the day of the full moon.”
This is that Man of whom Jeremias saith[2]:
“The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth, a woman shall encompass a man.”
The woman is Mary, a woman certainly not by corruption, but by sex, who encompassed the man of virtue, our Lord, within her womb, encompassing Him with our garment. This Man – if indeed, as Josephus saith[3], it be lawful to call Him a man – has three houses. It belongs to imperial majesty to have three mansions in the palace, namely, a reception or assembly room, a supper-room, and a bedchamber. The assembly chamber is the place for conversation and discussions; the supper-room, for food; and the bedchamber, for rest. So our Emperor, who commands the winds and the sea[4], has His assembly chamber which is the world; He has His refreshment-room which now is the Church and was, of old, the Synagogue; and He has His place of rest, namely, the rational soul of man. But alas! this Man, the Lord of hosts, had been very far distant from His house of the world, His house of the synagogue, and His house of the soul, for “salvation is far from sinners[5].” This Man was not in His house when Jeremias complained[6]:
“I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance.”
He took the bag of money with him when He hid the treasure of His mercies and His grace from the world. But lo! this Man came back on the day of the full moon – of that moon, I say, which is said in the Canticle of Canticles[7] to be: “Fair as the moon.” This moon, therefore, is Mary; the full moon is Mary full of grace. Well is Mary compared to the moon, because by the Eternal Sun she is fully illuminated with the light of wisdom and truth. Therefore, the name Mary is well interpreted illuminated or illuminatrix[8]. For she, who is our moon and our lamp, was illuminated by the Lord, and she was the illuminatrix of the world, according to that prophetic word[9]: “For thou lightest my lamp.” In the fullness of this moon, the Man came back to his house when Christ came into this world in the flesh. O truly wonderful fullness of this moon! Behold, if Mary was full of the light of wisdom which she received from the Eternal Sun before she conceived Him; how much more full was she after she so wonderfully conceived this Sun, and so entirely received Him within herself ! Well, therefore, saith St. Bernard when commending the fullness of the wisdom of Mary[10]:
“Heavenly wisdom built for Himself a house in Mary: for He so filled her mind that from the very fullness of her mind her flesh became fecund, and the Virgin by a singular grace brought forth that same Wisdom, covered with a garb of flesh, whom she had first conceived in her pure mind.”
Footnotes
[1] Esth. 2, 16. seq.
[2] Commonly
[3] Epist. cit. n. 13.
[4] Serm. 208. cit. n. 11.
[5] Esth. 2, 16. seq.
[6] Commonly
[7] Epist. cit. n. 13.
[8] Serm. 208. cit. n. 11.
[9] Epist. cit. n. 13.
[10] Serm. 208. cit. n. 11.
Secondly, let us consider how Mary is full the inundation of grace in her affections, for in Mary this inundation was so great in its depth and magnitude that she could well be called as full as the sea according to those words[1]: “Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.” As in the sea there is a gathering together of waters, so in Mary is a gathering together of graces. Therefore it is written[2]:
“The gathering together of the waters, he called Seas.”
It is also said in Ecclesiastes[3]: “All the rivers run into the sea.” All the rivers are the gifts of the graces which entered into Mary, as is written[4]:
“In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.”
How full is this sea, how full of grace is Mary, St. Jerome declares, saying[5]:
“Truly full, because on others it is bestowed only in part whereas on Mary the whole plenitude of grace was poured at once.”
Let us hear this sea in its fullness roar against vices. Let the sea roar, therefore, and the fullness thereof, let the full sea, let the full Mary, roar. Let it roar against luxury, preach chastity, and say[6]:
“How shall this be done, for I know not man?”
Let it also roar against pride, by humility, saying[7]:
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”
Let it roar against ingratitude, giving thanks and saying[8]:
“My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
Of the fullness of this sea it is likewise said in the Psalm[9]: “Let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof.” Let the sea be moved, let Mary be moved, let her be moved by our sighs and mortifications, let her be moved by our tears and prayers, let her be moved by our alms and our other acts of veneration. Let her be moved fully, I say, that she may pour out on us of her fullness. Let us note what St. Bernard says in speaking of her:
“If a vessel full of liquid is moved, its contents are easily spilt. So the Blessed Virgin Mary, if she is moved by our prayers, pours forth graces upon us.”
Footnotes
[1] 1 Paralipom. xvi. 32.
[2] Gen. i. 10.
[3] Ecclesiastes i. 7.
[4] Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 25.
[5] Epist. clt. n. 5.
[6] Luc. i. 34.
[7] Ibid. 38.
[8] Ibid. 46.
[9] Psalm. xcv. 11.
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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. 30-31.30-31.
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