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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 acknowledge that this text is in the Public Domain worldwide, attributing it to the text of a Dublin edition (author unknown) published in 1849.
Chapter 17 : To whom the fruit of the womb of the Blessed Mary belongs, and to whom it is due
Part 3
Fourthly, let us consider how the fruit of Mary is that of those who diligently labour in rejection of sloth. Of this it is said in the Book of Wisdom[1]:
“The fruit of good labours is glorious.”
This fruit, therefore, is to be sought by labour, just as the bee seeks the fruit of honey, that fruit of which Ecclesiasticus says[2]:
“The bee is small among flying things, but her fruit hath the chiefest sweetness.”
Consider how the bee flies from garden to garden, from flower to flower and from tree to tree in search of the fruit of honey; so must thou in meditations, in desires, and zealous imitation of virtues hasten after the examples of the just and especially of the perfect. Hasten, I am saying, from garden to garden, that is, from state to state; hasten from tree to tree, that is, from one just soul to another; hasten from flower to flower, that is, from one virtue to another, from one good example to another; but hasten especially to alight upon that flower in which you will find the whole fruit of the divine honey, upon that flower which is both flower and fruit, of which St. Ambrose says[3]:
“The Flower of Mary is Christ who, like the fruit of a good tree, now flowers and now bears fruit in us for our progress in virtue.”
Let us labour diligently for this fruit, because the fruit of good labours is glorious. This fruit is not that of any labours whatsoever, but only of good works; it is not the fruit of those labours referred to in the Book of Wisdom[4]:
“He that rejecteth wisdom and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labors without fruit, and their works unprofitable.”
Thus is this blessed fruit that of those who labour to perform good works in rejection of sloth. Mary before all others was accordingly most worthy of this fruit, because more than any other she was most diligent in performing good works. Bede well shows this well when, in discoursing on the Magnificat, he puts these words into her mouth[5]:
“I offer the whole affection of my soul in the praises of thanksgiving; I offer all my life, all that I feel, all that I discern in contemplating His magnitude; I offer all in observing His precepts.”
Footnotes
[1] Wisdom iii. 15.
[2] Ecclesiasticus xi. 3.
[3] II. in Luc. n. 2.
[4] Wisdom iii. 11.
[5] I. in Luc. c. 1.
Fifthly, let us consider how the fruit of Mary is that of the generous in rejection of avarice, especially of those generous souls who for the sake of this fruit renounce all temporal things, as it is written in the Canticle of Canticles[1]:
“Every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.”
The Commentator adds[2], “by leaving all things.” The Glossa says:
“By a thousand is meant perfection and by silver is meant every worldly thing.”
When a person leaves all worldly things for Christ, it is as if he is giving a thousand pieces of silver for this fruit; but he who is unwilling to give a thousand by leaving all things, let him at least give something for this fruit by helping the poor, that he may be as the fruit-bearing olive-tree by bearing the fruit of mercy. Because the highest fruit of mercy is the highest mercy, which is God; therefore Mary, who bore this fruit of mercy most abundantly, was most fittingly said to be like a fruitful olive-tree, a fair olive-tree in the plains[3]. St. John Damascene well says[4]:
“Mary, planted in the house of the Lord and nourished by the Holy Ghost like a fruitful olive-tree, became the dwelling-place of every virtue.”
Alas, how far from this fruit of the merciful and of those detached from the love of earthly things, are the souls of the avaricious, of whom it is said that they are[5]:
“going their way they are choked with the cares and the riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit.”
It is also said in Ecclesiastes[6]:
“He that loveth riches, shall reap no fruit from them.”
We have seen above how this blessed fruit is of the generous and of those who despise earthly things; Mary was therefore above all most worthy of this fruit, because she was in her contempt for temporal things most generous above all others, as St. Bernard says[7]:
“Whatever honour Mary had among her people, whatever she could have had of the riches of her father’s house, she chose to count all things as dung, that she might gain Christ[8].”