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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 2
Thirdly, let us consider that Mary is in very truth full of the riches of a good life. Of this plenitude we can truly say[1]: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” By the earth is signified Mary, of whom we read in Isaias[2]: “Let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour!” What more lowly than the earth? What more useful? We all tread the earth under our feet, and draw from it the nourishment of our life. Whence have we food and clothing, bread and wine, wool and thread, and all the necessaries of life except from the earth, and from the fullness of the earth? What, therefore, is more lowly, what more useful than the earth? In like manner, what is more humble, what more useful than Mary? She by her humility is the very least of all; by her fullness of grace, the most useful of all. For we have all that is needful for our spiritual life through Mary, who is most fully stocked like the earth. Well therefore doth St. Bernard say[3]:
“Let us look more deeply and see with how great a depth of devotion He wishes Mary to be honoured by us for He hath placed the fullness of all good in Mary, so that if we have any ground for hope or for salvation we should know that it is from her that it springs.”
But from whom and to whom is such great fulness of the earth? Hear now the Psalmist[4]: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” Again it is written in the Psalms[5]: “The world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” The fullness of the earth consists in fruits and divers riches, according to the Psalmist[6]: “The earth is filled with Thy riches.” The fruits and the riches of this most full earth that is Mary are the works, the examples, and the divers merits of the most holy life of Mary. The Lord filled her with such riches and with so great gifts that it is said[7]:
“The Lord looked upon the earth, and filled it with his goods.”
St. Jerome, speaking of this fullness, says[8]:
“It was fitting that the Virgin should be pledged with such gifts, that she should be full of grace, she who gave glory to the heavens, God to the earth, who restored peace, put an end to vices, brought back order to life, and discipline to manners.”
Footnotes
[1] Psalm. xxiii. 1.
[2] Isaias xlv. 8.
[3] Serm. in Nativ. B. M. V. n. 6.
[4] Psalm. xxiii. 1.
[5] Psalm. xlix. 12.
[6] Psalm. ciii. 24.
[7] Ecclesiasticus xvi. 30..
[8] Epist. cit. n. 5.
Fourthly, let us consider how Mary is full of the unction of mercy and the oil of piety. Therefore she may be signified by that woman who, having shut the door of her house and gathered inside all her vessels, they were miraculously filled with oil, according to what Eliseus had prophesied to her, saying[1]: “when they are full, take them away.” This woman is Mary, who was called “woman” by her Son in the Gospel of St. John, where we read[2]: “Woman, behold thy Son.” The vessels of this woman are her affections and her deeds, her desires and her benefits, which in Mary are all full of the oil of mercy. St. Bernard saith of this oil[3]:
“No wonder, dearest Lady, if the sanctuary is so copiously anointed with the oil of the mercy of thy heart when that inestimable work of mercy, which God had predestined from all eternity in our redemption, was first of all introduced within thee by the Maker of the world.”
Let us, therefore, say to Mary[4]: “Give us of your oil.” Let us beg for the oil of her mercy in this world, lest we should ask in vain at the judgment. That the house in which the vessels were filled should also have been closed, is admirably suited to Mary, of whose spiritual enclosure Ezechiel says[5]:
“This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.”
The gate of Mary was closed by the lock of virginity; no man had passed through it in the conjugal embrace; the Lord God came forth through her by a singular manner of birth. Because – for the multiplication of the oil – many vessels were collected from the neighbours, therefore by these vessels we may understand all those who have been partakers of the mercies of Mary. , St. Bernard explains who these are when he says[6]:
“Mary has opened the bosom of her mercy to all so that all may receive of her fullness: the captive, redemption; the sick, healing; the sorrowful, consolation; the sinner, pardon; the just, grace; the Angel, joy; the person of the Son, the substance of human flesh; and finally the whole Trinity, glory.”
Footnotes
[1] 4 Kings (2 Kings) iv. 4.
[2] Ioan. xix. 26.
[3] Egbert., Sermo paneg. ad B. M. V. n. 2.
[4] Matt. xxv. 8.
[5] Ezech. xliv. 2.
[6] Serm. in Dom. inf. Oct. Assumt. B. M. V. d. 2.
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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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