The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary : Chapter 18 : The twelve effects and benefits of the fruit of Mary’s womb (Pt 3)

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 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 18 : The twelve effects and benefits of the fruit of Mary’s womb

Part 3

Fifthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary to avoid the wrath of the Judge. Every unjust man has this to fear, but every just man has assuredly has the fruit by which he may escape the anger of the Judge. Therefore it is said in the Psalm[1]: 

“If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.” 

According to the Glossa[2] “them” refers to the unjust, for God will judge the unjust on earth, while at the Judgment the just will ascend to the heavens but the unjust will remain upon the earth because they preferred to cleave to earthly things instead of God. They can truly say in the words of the Psalm[3]: 

“Our belly cleaveth to the earth.” 

The Lord Jesus is indeed a sweet fruit to the just, but He will likewise be a severe judge to the unjust. Woe, therefore, to those who turn so sweet a fruit into a most bitter judgment for themselves, as it is said in Amos[4]: 

“You have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood.” 

The fruit of justice is the fruit of the just. The fruit of Mary is a just fruit, as St Jerome truly says[5]: 

“The earth hath yielded her just fruit[6]. The earth is the Virgin, because Truth is sprung out of the earth[7].”

Footnotes

[1] Psalm. lvii. 12.

[2] Glossa Ordinaria (12th. Century).

[3] For our soul is humbled down to the dust: our belly cleaveth to the earth: Psalm. xliii. 25. 

[4] Amos. vi. 13.

[5] Cfr. Breviar. in Psalm. (inter opera Hieron.), in Ps. lxvi. 7. et lxxxiv. 12. seq.

[6] Psalm. lxvi. 7.

[7] Psalm. lxxxiv. 12.

Sixthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the avoidance or turning aside of the pains of hell or

eternal death. This is how we may understand what is written in the Fourth Book of Kings[1], : 

“Till I come and I take you away to . . . a fruitful land, and plentiful in wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, and oil and honey, and you shall live, and not die.” 

All those who convert to her with their whole heart shall be taken away to the land of Mary, or the land of the Church. This land is exceedingly fruitful, bearing the fruit of bread and wine, and of oil and honey, that is, Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is for us the fruit of bread which strengthens us in our weakness; He is for us the fruit of the vine, inspiring us to perfection; He is for us the fruit of oil, illuminating our minds; and He is moreover for us the fruit of honey, instilling sweetness into our affections. By this fruit truly you shall live, and not die. Blessed is the earth of this fruit and blessed above all be this fruit itself, by whom we are delivered from so many evils, as St. Anselm fittingly declares[2]: 

“What praise shall I give that is worthy of the Mother of my Lord and God, for by her fecundity I, a captive, have been redeemed; by her Child I am delivered from eternal death; by her offspring I, being lost, am restored and led back from wretched exile to my fatherland? Blessed art thou among women! All these things Christ, the blessed fruit of thy womb, hath given me in the regeneration of His Baptism.” 

Woe, therefore, to all those who are estranged from this fruit! For it is written[3]: 

“Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.”

Footnotes

[1] 4 Kings (2 Kings) xviii. 32. 

[2] Orat. 52. (alias 51.) post initium.

[3] Matt. iii. 10.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

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. 

 

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.