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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 11 : Mary for her own sake and for ours is most fittingly compared to the light of dawn
Part 3
Fourthly, note that Mary is, as it were, a happy dawn because of her place in glory; and according to this, Job says well of this dawn[1]: “Didst thou . . . shew the dawning of the day its place?” Now certainly, Mary our dawn is elevated high in Heaven and holds the place nearest to the Eternal Sun. We may consider that Mary’s place in Heaven is notable for three reasons. The first is that she received Our Lord spiritually; the second, that she received Him corporeally; and the third, that she received Him eternally. I say that the first place, in which Mary received Our Lord spiritually, is her mind which is tranquil and peaceful, according to the Psalmist[2]: “His place is in peace, and His abode in Sion,” which may be interpreted[3] as meaning a watch tower or observation point[4]. Whoever wishes to behold God in his mind, or to contemplate Him with the eyes of the mind, must make for Him a place of peace in his mind; for without peace of mind no one can arrive at contemplation through reflection. Therefore the Apostle saith[5]:
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.”
Oh, who could describe, or who could even imagine, the daily contemplations daily this Sion, the holy mind of Mary, experienced while she fervently turned over in her mind all those mysteries known to herself above all mortals? Of this St. Jerome well says[6]:
“If you are capable of any feelings of piety, consider how this Virgin was as though crucified by love and also set on fire with desire while she turned over in her mind all that she had heard, seen, and come to know; consider too how much she was moved and filled by the Holy Spirit with the thrilling secrets of Heaven.”
The place in which Mary conceived the Lord corporeally was her holy womb, to which may be applied the words of Genesis[7]:
“And a river went out of the place of pleasure (Jesus Christ from the Virgin’s womb) to water paradise.”
The special paradise is Mary; the universal paradise is the Church. Happy is the watering of both these gardens by the river flowing out from the womb of Mary, Jesus Christ, who has said[8]: “I will water my garden of plants.” Well, therefore, doth St. Jerome say[9] in commenting on these words: I saw her fair from the rivers of waters:[10]
“Fittingly is it said, ‘from the rivers of water,’ because the Lord had nourished her and brought her up on on the water of refreshment[11], whence many rivers emerge, watering all the surface of the earth[12], and flowing over the garden of pleasure.[13]”
Again, the place wherein Mary received the Lord when she was about to dwell eternally in Heaven is the place of glory, of which the Lord said to Job[14]: “Didst thou . . . shew the dawning of the day its place?” as if he said, “Not thou, but I.” It does not belong to thee to show Mary, the dawn, her place in Heaven, but to me. Well doth he say, her place, appropriating it to her and distinguishing it from all the other places of the Saints. Hence we read[15]:
“And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place.”
This place is most certainly higher than all the choirs of Angels.
Finally, this place is the most worthy in Heaven, as St. Bernard testifies saying[16]:
“Neither was there in the world a more worthy place than the temple of the virginal womb in which Mary received the Son of God, nor in Heaven one more worthy than the royal throne to which the Son of Mary raised her.”
Mary is compared to the dawn: first, because she put an end to the dark night of guilt, through her holiness superabounding; secondly, because of the light of grace in her conversation most lustrous; thirdly, because of the bringing forth of the Sun of justice in the wondrous generation of her Son; and fourthly, because of her taking possession of her place of glory in her most glorious Assumption.
Footnotes
[1] Job xxxviii. 12.
[2] Psalm. lxxv. 3.
[3] Hieron., de Nom. Hebr. (II. Reg.).
[4] The Latin words used here are speculum (which can also mean mirror) and speculatio (observation, reflection, contemplation). See DMLBS tag: Logeion site.
[5] Hebr. xii. 14.
[6] Epist. saepe cit. n. 13.
[7] Gen. ii. 10.
[8] Ecclus. xxiv. 42.
[9] Epist. cit. n. 14.
[10] See Response to Lectio I, Matins, Feast of the Assumption [Vidi speciósam sicut colúmbam, ascendéntem désuper rivos aquárum].
[11] Psalm. xxii. 2.
[12] Gen. ii. 6.
[13] Ezech. xxxvi. 35.
[14] Job xxxviii. 12.
[15] 3 Kings (1 Kings) viii. 6.
[16] Serm. 1. in Assumt. B. M. V. n. 3.
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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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