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The Annunciation, early 1460s; by Willem Vrelant.The Getty Museum, L.A. |
The following posts contain the text of a work by St Bonaventure (1221-1274) known as Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis : The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin.
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 5 : Full of Grace
Part 2
Third, consider the manifoldness of the grace of Mary, of whom it is written in Ecclesiasticus[1]:
“I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honour and grace.”
According to the Gloss[2] and Pliny[3], the turpentine tree is a large tree of Syria with many and wide-spreading branches. The male tree bears no fruit, but only the female; this fruit is double, ruddy and white with a pleasant smell. This beautiful tree, growing in Syria, is like the Blessed Virgin Mary; for “Syria” means watered[4], and truly the whole life of Mary was watered by grace, for she grew in the healthful moisture of grace from the womb of her mother. What wonder if Mary grows in the moisture of grace, when without it every seed will wither? Whence it is said of the seed in St. Luke’s Gospel[5]:
“As soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.”
The branches of this tree, branches of honour and grace, are the virtues, the examples and the benefits of Mary. For many are the branches of her graces and merits, of her virtues and examples, of her mercy and benefits. In these branches the birds of heaven joyfully dwell, that is, holy souls, so that it can be said of them what we find in the Book of Daniel[6]:
“In the branches thereof the fowls of the air had their abode.”
Oh, how wide-spreading, how long and how high are the branches of that blessed tree, the Virgin Mary! How wide-spreading to men, how long towards the Angels, how high towards God! In what way she extends to all the branches of her graces and her mercies St. Bernard sets forth, saying[7]:
“Mary has opened to all the bosom of her mercy, that all may receive of her fullness: the captive receive redemption, the sick healing, the sad consolation, the sinner pardon, the just grace and the Angels joy; the Blessed Trinity receives glory and the Person of the Son the substance of human flesh!”
The fruit of that tree is that of which it is said[8]: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” That fruit was ruddy in blood and white in death. Therefore the spouse of God, that is, the holy soul, saith as in the Canticle[9]:
“My beloved is white and ruddy.”
This fruit is-also of a pleasant odour to devout souls. Blessed John the Apostle had this odour in mind when he said to the Lord[10]:
“Thy fragrance hath awakened in me eternal desires.”
O soul, dost thou not experience the odour of mercy of this fruit? Oh, if thou didst so, wouldst thou not run after it, as is said in the Canticle[11]:
“We will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments”?
It is to be noted that it is not the male turpentine tree, but the female, that brings forth fruit. So that fruit of life, Jesus Christ, was brought forth not by a man but by a woman, a virgin. Well, therefore, doth St. Augustine say[12]:
“A virgin mother was chosen, who would conceive without concupiscence, and bring forth a man without a man.”
Footnotes
[1] Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 22.
[2] Ordinariam sec. Lyranum in Eccli. 24, 22.
[3] XII de Nat. Hist. c. 12. (alias 6.).
[4] Sec. Hieron. de Nom. Hobr., de Genesi.
[5] Luc. viii. 6 & 13.
[6] Daniel iv. 9.
[7] Serm. de Domin. infra Oct. Assumt. B. M. V. n. 2.
[8] Luc. i. 42.
[9] Cant. v. 10.
[10] Cfr. Abdias, Histor. certam. apost. Lib. 5. Part of the Antiphon for the Feast of St John the Evangelist.
[11] Cant. i. 3.
[12] Potius serm. 7. (int. opera Ildephonsi) circa mediiun. Cfr. etiam Homil. III. in Nat. B. M. V. (inter opera Alcuini) post medium.
Fourthly, consider the utility of the grace of Mary. It is written that[1]: “A gracious woman shall find glory.” Behold the utility of the grace in Mary most gracious, the finding of perpetual glory. Most useful was the grace of Mary both to herself and to us. Most useful Mary’s grace certainly was for herself and for us, since grace made Mary delightful, miraculous, and glorious: delightful in her soul, miraculous in her Son, glorious in her kingdom. Mary was certainly delightful in her spiritual mind, miraculous in her virginal offspring, glorious in her eternal diadem. Grace, therefore, made the mind and the soul of Mary delightful with spiritual delights, as a spiritual paradise of the living God, like that word of Ecclesiasticus[2]: “Grace is like a paradise in blessings.” Truly she was a paradise of God in blessings of manifold spiritual delights, of which St. Bernard saith[3]:
“What shall I say of the delights of the beauty of virginity, with the gift of fecundity, the mark of humility, the dropping honeycomb of charity, the bowels of mercy, the fullness of grace, the prerogative of singular glory?”
Likewise grace made Mary miraculous in her offspring, miraculous in her conception and bringing forth, while miraculously the Virgin brought forth, and more miraculously conceived and brought forth God. Therefore concerning her grace it is well said of her[4]:
“Thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.”
Of this name, St. Bernard, speaking to Mary, said[5]:
“Understand, Virgin most prudent, how great and what special grace thou shalt find with God, from the name of thy promised Son.”
Grace likewise made Mary glorious, wherefore it has already been well said: “A gracious woman shall find glory.” O truly happy is Mary in her discoveries, wherefore she is so great in this world and great in Heaven! No pure creature found such grace in this world or such glory in Heaven; and certainly she found both grace and glory with the Lord, for as it is said in the Psalm[6]: “The Lord will give grace and glory.” But the grace of Mary was not only most useful for herself, but also for us, for the entire human race. For the grace of Mary gathers in the wicked, nourishes and fattens the good, delivering all. It gathers in sinners from guilt, fattens them by grace, delivers them from eternal death.
I say, therefore, that the grace of Mary gathers in souls to mercy and gathers repentant sinners into the Church. This is well signified in the favour found by Ruth when she collected the ears of corn left by the reapers, when she said to Booz[7]: “I have found grace in thy eyes, my lord.” “Ruth” is interpreted as “seeing” or “hastening,” and she typifies the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was truly a seer in contemplation and was swift in work. For she seeth our misery and swiftly bestoweth on us her mercy. Booz is interpreted as “strength” and signifies him of whom it is said in the Psalm[8]: “Great is our Lord, and great is his power.” Ruth, therefore, in the eyes of Booz, and Mary in the sight of the Lord, found this grace so that the one gathered up the ears of corn left by the reapers, and the other gathered in souls. Who are the reapers but the teachers and pastors? How truly great is the grace of Mary, by which many are saved and find mercy, who were given up as hopeless by their priests and pastors! Therefore St. Bernard saith[9]:
“Mary, thou embracest with maternal affection the sinner despised by the whole world, thou cherishest him, thou never forsakest him, until he is reconciled to the dreadful Judge.”
Footnotes
[1] Prov. xi. 16.
[2] Ecclesiasticus xl. 17.
[3] Serm. 4. in Assumt. B. M. V. n. 1.
[4] Luc. i. 30 et seq.
[5] Homil. 8. super Missus est n. 10.
[6] Psalm. lxxxiii. 12.
[7] Ruth ii. 12.
[8] Psalm. cxlvi. 5.
[9] Potius Egbert., Serm. paneg. seu Deprecat. et laus elegttnt. ad B. Y. (inter opera Bernardi) n. 2, paucis mutatis.
Likewise Mary nourishes the good with the fatness of grace. Therefore is it said in Ecclesiasticus[1]:
“The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband, and shall fat his bones.”
Mary was indeed the diligent woman of whose diligence Bede saith[2]:
“Mary was silent about the secret of God, but she diligently considered it in her heart.”
Who was the husband of this diligent woman, but He whom she had encompassed in her womb ? Of which Jeremias says[3]:
“The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth, a woman shall compass a man.”
The bones of this man are all they who are strong in the Church, that is, in His body. These bones, by the help of the grace of Mary, are fattened by the unction of grace. They are fattened, I say, by the fatness of the Holy Ghost, by which he longed to be enriched who said[4]:
“Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness.”
Who can reckon how many souls by the help of Mary are nourished and fattened by grace? And who indeed can calculate how great in Mary herself was this fatness of grace, by which so many millions of souls are nourished? What was lacking to her who was the dwelling of all virtue and grace? St. John Damascene says[5]: “Mary, planted in the house of the Lord[6], and fattened in spirit like a fruitful olive tree[7], was made the dwelling of every virtue.”
Likewise Mary delivers all men from everlasting death. This was well typified in Esther, of whom we read[8]:
“And the king loved her more than all the women, and she had favour and kindness before him above all the women, and he set the royal crown on her head.”
We read, therefore, that there was a twofold utility in the grace of Esther which she had with the king: one was that she obtained the royal crown; the other, that she delivered her nation, which had been condemned to death. So blessed Mary, our Esther, obtained such grace with the eternal King that by it she not only attained the crown herself, but delivered the human race, which was condemned to death. Therefore St. Anselm says[9]:
“How shall I worthily praise the Mother of my Lord and God, by whose fecundity I, a captive, was redeemed; by whose Son I was rescued from eternal death; by whose Child, I, being lost, was recovered and led back from the exile of misery to the homeland of eternal beatitude?”
O dearest Mother of grace, we pray thou mayest make us children of grace; do thou grant that by thy grace most true, by thy grace most immense, by thy grace most manifold and by thy grace most useful, we may be gathered in to receive the pardon of remission, to be filled with the grace of devotion and to be freed from the death of eternal damnation; we ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Footnotes
[1] Ecclesiasticus xxvi. 16.
[2] Homil. in aurora Nat. Dom. inter Homil. hiem. de Sanct. post medium.
[3] Jerem. xxxi. 22.
[4] Psalm. lxii. 6.
[5] IV. de Fide orthod. c. 14. circa mediam.
[6] Psalm. xci. 14.
[7] Psalm. li. 10.
[8] Esther ii. 17.
[9] Orat. 52. (al. 51.) in principio.
End of Chapter 5
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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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