Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 9 : § 2.5

Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the strong and valiant defender of her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 2.  How the Holy Virgin protects her children against physical dangers and external threats 

 5   The case of the Blessed St Sylvester[1], founder of the Religious Order which bears his name (sometimes referred to as the Order of Monte Fano) is similar because in both instances the Holy Virgin shows how she is not only a loving Mother but also a trustworthy Defender and Protector of her children. 

This Saint had left his cell during the night with the intention of going into the Church where his fellow Religious had gathered to sing Matins ; but as he began to descend some steps, the devil pushed him so violently that he lost his footing on one of the slippery slabs and fell down the rest of the steps to the foot of Monte Fano. This had certainly been planned because you would have said that Hell had weaponised the skies and the elements to bring about Sylvester’s death. It was a particularly dark night and furious winds had whipped up a violent storm; the driving rain was falling in such torrents that you would think it was the beginning of the deluge. The temperature had plummeted and in the midst of all this St Sylvester’s body lay prone on the ground, broken and bruised, his limbs incapable of movement. He cried out for help as best he could but the noise of the wind, intermingled with the torrents of water lashing down on the steps, not to mention the sound of the Religious singing in the choir, made it impossible for him to be heard by anybody. The cold and wet were having a serious effect upon his injuries and all that he had left was a little bit of warmth and life around his still beating heart. God knows whether the demons, seeing him in this state, took the opportunity to cause more pain to him on the inside than what he was suffering from without.     

Despite all this, the valiant Sylvester held firm against all their efforts and as a counterweight to their attacks he was able to rely on the trust he had in the MOTHER OF GOD, whom he implored most earnestly not to allow him to be taken away so quickly from this life without previously having strengthened with sound instruction his poor children of his Order who were on the point of finding themselves orphans without having been weaned from the breast, so to speak. He had scarcely finished his prayer when he saw before him the most sacred Virgin bathed in wondrous light and radiating incomparable majesty. Urging him to take courage and not to lose hope, she touched him in all the places where he had been hurt and healed him in an instant. He was left with no marks of the injuries he had sustained apart from a number of scars and traces of blood on his face and the rest of his body. She did not stop at that but, taking him gently by the arm, she returned him straight away back to his cell where she left him, filled with heavenly joy and with an extraordinary desire to love and to serve such a dear Mother quite differently thenceforth.  

His monks had been troubled at his failure to arrive in Church and at the conclusion of Matins they hastened to his cell where they saw the traces of fresh blood which were still visible on his face and body. They asked him what had happened and who had done this to him but the Saint kept quiet about his experience for several days. Finally, no longer able to resist their persistent questioning, he recounted in detail everything that had happened and his ardent language fired their hearts with a new fervour to accept suffering and an extraordinary trust in the goodness of the Queen of Heaven.

Footnotes

[1] St. Sylvester Gozzolini (1177-1267) who established a monastery on Monte Fano near Fabriano in the Province of Ancona, Italy. See Monaci Benedettini Silvestrini for more. 

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor 

Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 9 : § 2.1-4

Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the strong and valiant defender of her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 2.  How the Holy Virgin protects her children against physical dangers and external threats 

 1   No sooner had man through his disobedience abandoned the sweet and loving protection which had accompanied the state of his first innocence than all creation turned upon him to avenge the injury he had done to their Creator. It was just as if an invisible barrier which had been holding them back was now lifted and they had received the signal to bring about man’s ruin. Henceforth the elements declared open war on him, as did everything else in the world of nature. As a result, man now faced more risks and threats than the number of hairs on his head. If God had not called a halt to this, the situation would have become dire for poor man, against whom every creature was waging a war to the death. From on high, however, God willed to limit the power He was giving them and, through the mediation of the Holy Angels and His faithful servants, He reined in the urge they felt to inflict vengeance upon man. 

 2   It is in this connection that we see how the MOTHER OF GOD renders such outstanding services to her children by taking them under the protection of her great royal mantle, as was revealed one day to the Blessed Maria de Pazzi, a Religious of the Order of St Dominic. With loving and tireless diligence, she preserves them from thousands of dangers which would almost certainly take them by surprise and overwhelm them if she did not intervene. The Blessed Spirits can only look on with astonishment at the wondrous favours she bestows and offer eternal thanksgiving to her, whilst those who receive them often have neither eyes to see them nor heart to acknowledge them as they should. This does not mean, however, that through this cloud of unknowing we cannot see occasional lightning flashes of Providence showing forth the love and care she has for her children. Anyone having the time and the opportunity to collate the examples which have come down to us through the diligence of certain writers would be able to fill many large volumes. Our Holy Mother’s protection keeps pace with the dangers that threaten us and when we take time to reflect upon this we will find no danger that men can face where she has not left signs of her goodness and the help she has given to those who have had recourse to her.

 3   She has protected them from waters and waves, from steep ravines and floods; she has preserved them from fire and conflagration; she has turned aside lightning bolts, thunderstorms and other terrible  threats of violent weather; she has rescued them from snow, from ice and other difficulties into which they have fallen; she has helped them by calming tempests and storms; she has delivered them from shipwrecks; she has stretched out her helping hand for those experiencing dangerous falls, saving them from the frightening consequences; she has kept them safe from the hands of robbers and brigands; she has broken the chains with which they were fettered and set them at liberty; she has saved them from torture and from the ultimate penalty, namely the gallows; she has prevented poison from working its effects and from the evil of contagions; she has preserved their good name and wiped away the calumnies hurled upon them; she has frustrated the efforts of their enemies and totally nullified them; she has served as their cuirass, proof against arrows, pistols, muskets, cannon and other weapons of war;  she has calmed the fiercest of wild beasts; she has reigned in runaway horses and she has caught safely in her arms those who would have been thrown or trampled; she has kept free from harm those run over by carts and carriages, by lightening their weight. To sum up : explore if you will the sky and the earth in their entirety, the seas and oceans, the vast forests and tenebrous caves, mountains and valleys, deserts and populated places, cities, towns and villages – you will learn there is nowhere under heaven where cannot be found marks attesting to the loving protection of the MOTHER OF GOD.   

Make a list of the illnesses and health problems that people can have and you will find none where she has not intervened to cure or save those who have invoked her help in their necessities. She has healed them from paralysis, apoplexy, encephalitis, epilepsy, parasitic infections, scrofula, tuberculosis, sore throat, gout, fevers, inflammations, jaundice, fractures, bruising, every sort of wound and abscess, fainting fits, cancer; headaches and pains in the chest, the stomach, the arms, the hands, the ribs, the thighs, the legs, the feet, and thousands of other health problems which can afflict the human body. She has restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, normal walking to the lame, speech to the mute, consciousness to the comatose and use of the senses to those where this had been lost; she has brought healing to those who were crippled or handicapped, health to those diagnosed with incurable illness and life to the dead. 

 4   It would be a simple enough matter to prove everything we have just said by giving example after example, but this would fill many volumes and so I am going to choose only two or three out of the countless accounts that have come down to us. 

Father Gregory wrote a biography of the saintly Abbot Theodore his respected master who was also Bishop of Anastasiopoulos and who died on the 22nd of April in the year 630 (as is recorded in the Roman Martyrology). Father Gregory tells us the Abbot constructed a small Church dedicated to Our Lady next to his monastery where he would frequently be seen commending his intentions to her in prayer. He became known for all sorts of saintly works and this irked a number of people who had fallen into loose living and could not put up with the way his innocent and holy life was like a secret reproach to them. They wanted him out of their sight and in order to bring about his death they gave him poison. The effect of this was that the Abbot was unable to speak or even to move for the space of three days and it was assumed he was dead; but at the end of the three days the Holy Virgin appeared to him in a dream and told him she would call to account those who had placed him in this condition. She would give him their names and explain the cause and nature of his illness. In addition to this, she told him to take three pills which she had in her hand, promising him that they would purge him completely of the poisonous bile which had spread through his body. With that she disappeared and the Saint found her remedy restored him to health. He was invited to visit his best friends and he was quite honest in telling them the cause of his illness. He could not however, bring himself to identify the guilty parties but instead prayed earnestly for them to God and to the most sacred Virgin for the rest of his days.   

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor 

Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 9 : § 1.1-2

Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the strong and valiant defender of her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

The love of a mother is especially characterised by its tenderness but it is remarkable to behold how as soon as anyone threatens to lay a finger upon a mother’s children, an alarm bell rings and weakness is suddenly transformed into courage; love issues a call to arms and there is no creature in nature more to be feared than a mother springing to the defence of her offspring. It should be pointed out, however, that the effects of grace go still further, providing mothers with incomparably greater powers than nature for the defence of their children. We shall see this in THE MOTHER OF GOD who, through the ways she comes to help her children, makes them see more and more clearly the blessings they enjoy of being under her protection. 

§ 1. The Holy Virgin is valiant defender of her children

 1   You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the great care that God takes and the different means he explores to win over our hearts and deliver us from earthly attachments. Just take a moment to consider how this is recorded in the Sacred Scriptures. He attributes to Himself the love of a mother bear[1], the strength of a rhinoceros[2], the adroitness of a unicorn[3] and the courage of a lion[4] – assuring us thereby that He will never be wanting in love for us in our undertakings, nor in wisdom as He guides them, nor in strength to keep us safe. He gives His word[5] that He will come to our defence when we are attacked by strangers, He will strengthen us in our weakness, protect us from the ravages of time, shelter us from the noonday heat and be our staff to prevent us from stumbling. He promises to be our protective shield[6], our defensive bastion[7], our encircling rampart[8], and our life-saving citadel[9]. He declares that He will protect us under the shadow of His wings[10], He will bear us upon His shoulders[11], He will cherish and protect us as the apple of His eye[12], He will shelter us in the secret of His face[13] as in an impregnable fortress. Consider the unheard sweetness of our God who wishes to offer us His divine face as our unique haven of safety! Consider the incomparable happiness of his children who are assured with the assurance of Him who is immutable in His essence! Just as He alone deserves to be called strong, so too He wants to have the honour of defending us unaided. The Prophet Isaiah[14] records how He alone defended His own against the hand of their enemies, and how they were saved only by His arm and His courage. Through the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah[15], He pronounces His curse against all those looking for support from anyone other than Him and placing their trust in earthly powers. To sum up : the whole of Sacred Scripture makes clear there is nothing of which He is more jealous than being the unique defender of His children. 

Footnotes

[1] I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: Osee (Hosea) xiii. 8

[2] God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros : Numbers xxiii. 22.

[3] And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever. Psal. LXXVII. 69.

[4] The lion shall roar, who will not fear? Amos iii. 8.

[5] No evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in temptation God will keep him, and deliver him from evils. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxxiii. 1.

[6] His truth shall compass thee with a shield: Psal. XC. 5.

[7] For thou hast been my hope; a tower of strength against the face of the enemy. Psal. LX. 4.

[8] And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy gates of graven stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones. Isai. liv. 12.

[9] The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? …If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear…For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle; in the day of evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle. Psal. XXVI.

[10] Protect me under the shadow of thy wings. Psal. XVI. 8.

[11] As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders: Deuteronomy xxxii.11.

[12] From them that resist thy right hand keep me, as the apple of thy eye. Psal. XVI. 8.

[13] Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men. Psal. XXX. 32.

[14] I have trodden the wine press alone… I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me. Isai. LXIII. 3-5.

[15] Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: Jerem. xvii. v.

 2   None of this derogates in any way from the privileges of the MOTHER OF GOD whom He Himself has given to us as our Defender, our Guardian and our Protectress. In fact, He intends her to be the one to whom we have recourse in all our necessities. When He does something for us through her, He is doing it Himself and one of the things that gives Him the greatest satisfaction is to see us placing our most particular trust in her. The Saints themselves confirm that after God no one takes more care of us than she does, or comes anywhere near to doing so. This was the pronouncement of the great St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who stated[1]: 

After her Son, not one of the Saints looks after our affairs and understands our misfortunes and sufferings in the way that she does. 

This too is the view of St Gregory, Archbishop of Nicomedia[2], of St Andrew of Candia[3] and of St John Damascene[4] who in this connection compare her to the Tabernacle of the Covenant, of which it is written in the book of Leviticus[5]: I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, and my soul shall not cast you off. In Chapter four of Isaiah[6], God makes a promise to His people that this same tabernacle will protect them from the summer’s sweltering heat and shelter them from the rains, storms and all the tribulations of wintry weather. Who could possibly put a number on all those who have been delivered from their misfortunes through having had recourse to this divine Tabernacle? Who could accurately put a value of the assurance we have in the MOTHER OF GOD? Who could describe the ways and the means she has discovered to send us her help and to deliver us from the midst of dangers? Who would be able to portray the love in her heart as she comes to our aid, helping us to avoid dangerous encounters and occasions of sin? What has she not done and what does she not cease to do everyday to instil in us a lively confidence to go straight to her in all our necessities? Sometimes we can see her holding her children by the hand to stop them from falling over, covering them with her protective mantle; at other times, we can see her cradling her beloved children in her arms. In this we can see on the one hand a wonderful gentleness and on the other the trust of her little infants nestling in her protection.  

We should not judge, says the pious Abbot Guerric[7], that it is a greater privilege to be received into the bosom of Abraham than into Mary’s bosom; on the contrary, it is to share in the prerogative of the King of Glory, who established in her His throne and His abode. 

A thousand times happy are they who enjoy the blessings of her wondrous protection! I should dearly like to represent this in the fullness of its reality; but in the time we have available it will be more than enough for me to say a few words about the glory of such a dear Mother and the consolation experienced by her children.

Footnotes

[1] Orat. in Adoratione Zonæ Deip.

[2] Orat. de Oblat. B. Virg.

[3] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[4] Orat. de Nativ. B. Virg.

[5] Leviticus xxvi. 11.

[6] And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain. Isai. iv. 6.

[7] Serm. 1 de Assumpt.

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor 

Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 8 : § 2.1-2

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is Mother of Mercy for her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 2. The extent of the MOTHER OF GOD’s mercies

 1   The Holy Prophet Job uttered a great thought when he said of his experience: From my infancy mercy grew up with me : and it came out with me from my mother’s womb[1]. There is no mere creature to whom these words apply more fittingly than to the Holy Virgin, for with the grace of her first sanctification she was anointed with the oil of mercy more liberally than all other creatures taken together and at that point her heart was bathed with the gentle balm of heavenly sweetness. Henceforth she was to grow unceasingly in this most excellent virtue and she made such progress as to be beyond our understanding. Just as she continued to grow in all the other virtues not in the way that we do, but as would befit her status as MOTHER OF GOD, the sweet inclination of her heart to show sympathy with human sufferings and misfortunes became so powerful through her repeated acts of mercy that she had already reached a level beyond the comprehension of the Angels when she was chosen to be the Mother of the King of Heaven. The Blessed St Agnes appeared one day to St Bridget[2] and revealed to her that :  

The glorious Virgin reached a point where she would prefer to endure any amount of personal suffering rather than look upon poor souls who would not be redeemed. 

It was, says St Bonaventure[3], at the blessed moment when she was visited by Heaven’s Ambassador that the words of the Royal Prophet[4] were fulfilled in her : Deep calleth on deep. The deep wells of the Virgin’s mercy called down from Heaven the oceanic depths of God’s inexhaustible mercy. With the intermingling of these two sources of mercy, the sacred heart of the Virgin was swallowed up in the immensity of God’s eternal mercy and the divine Word did not disdain to respond to the sorrowful cries coming from human hearts. 

Where could we find words to explain the growth of the Holy Virgin’s mercy resulting from her intimate union with God’s infinite goodness? How could we describe the progress she made from that moment until the end of her life, surpassing herself from one moment to the next, and feeling each day more and more moved by our misfortunes and sufferings? Who could begin to understand the extent of her merciful love now that her heart had become as though divinized and totally swallowed up in the limitless ocean of the unimaginable tenderness of the most holy Trinity?

  

Footnotes

[1] Job xxxi. 18.

[2] Lib. I Revelat. S. Brigittæ, c. 30.

[3] Cap. 5 Speculi B. Virg.

[4] Psal. XLI 8.

 2   I am mindful of what St Bonaventure[1] wrote concerning this:

There is no one able to measure the extent of this mercy apart from Him who made the blessed Virgin incomprehensible to everyone else, not only because of the grace and glory He communicated to her, but also because of the mercy with which He filled her heart.

In the limited space available it would not be possible to do justice to the immensity of our Holy Mother’s merciful kind-heartedness ; suffice it to say for our purposes that it is greater than our misfortunes and exceeds all our necessities. In its breadth, it encompasses all our intentions, whether interior or exterior, whether in the body or in the spirit. In its length, it extends to the hour of our death and even goes beyond since its fruits are eternal. In its depth, it plunges into sin’s abysses to rescue those who have fallen and even into the very centre of hell to free those trapped therein. In height, it reaches unto the heavenly empyrean, the final end and objective of her merciful actions. 

There you have in general terms what I shall be focusing on in greater detail during the remaining chapters of Part III where I shall be revealing the splendours of the holy Virgin’s Mercy towards her beloved children. I pray that the blessed Virgin will look with merciful favour upon this my undertaking,  just as she has hitherto served as my guide and my support. I shall begin with external mercies and then proceed step by step to discuss the internal ones as well as those which are for us the most important. 

[1] Speculi B. Virg., c. 5.

[End of Chapter 8]

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor 

Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 8 : § 1.2-3

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is Mother of Mercy for her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 1. The need we all have for a Mother of mercy and how she is none other than the Holy Virgin

 2   The reason I went to some length elaborating this theme referred to by the eloquent Doctor was to make quite clear how extremely blessed we are to have a merciful Father whose only thought is promoting our good and helping us in our misfortunes. May I venture to say, however, that to bring peace effectively into our souls we really need a Mother who will take to heart our wants and needs?  I am basing this on the authority of the great Sage[1] who said that just as when a vine unprotected by a hedgehog wall is at risk from the greed of passers-by and the depredation of animals; so too, where there is no Mother there can only be sick or needy children who suffer greatly. A mother’s heart has a special tenderness which is such that a sick child has only to experience its gentle caresses in order to feel better. In this connection, God’s infinite goodness in wanting to share His sweet blessings through the graces of the Gospel was not satisfied with giving us a Father filled with love and compassion but He also wanted to provide us with a Mother of mercy, to whom we might have recourse in all our necessities. In order to show us that this Mother of mercy is none other than the sacred Virgin, it seems to me that the witness of Holy Church ought to be sufficient for us when, filled with feelings of sweet ecstasy, she calls her Mother of mercy, our life ... and our hope[2].  This receives further support from the Blessed Virgin herself who on various occasions has referred to this title of honour.  

For speaking to St Bridget one day, she declared[3]: I am the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of Mercy, the joy of the just and the path for sinners to come to God. 

Another example concerns a favour she granted to one of St Odo’s monks (Odo being the first Abbot of Cluny[4]). The monk had once been a notorious thief but had converted and became a great servant of God. She visited him whilst he was dying and asked him if he recognised her, to which he replied that he did not. She then said to him : I am the Mother of mercy, and went on to add that in three days time, at an hour which she specified, they would find themselves together in Heaven. After an investigation, St Odo was able to declare that there was no doubt or suspicion about what had happened to the monk and thenceforth he routinely called the holy Virgin the Mother of mercy.

Footnotes

[1] Where there is no hedge, the possession shall be spoiled: and where there is no wife, he mourneth that is in want: Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxxvi. 27. Cf. And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. Isaiah v. 5. 

[2] From the Salve Regina, attributed to Herman Contractus (11the century). For more, see Thesaurus Precum Latinarum.

[3] Lib. VI Revelat., c. 10.

[4] In Vita S. Odonis, lib. III, c. 19. Apud Surium, mense Novembri.

 3   This evidence, I say, is more than enough to persuade us that the Mother of mercy is none other than the Queen of Heaven. The Holy Fathers, however have left us such beautiful and pleasing thoughts on this matter that I cannot in conscience omit to mention them. The pious Andrew of Crete says[1] that she is a bottomless well of mercy. St George, Archbishop of Nicomedia[2], compares her to the olive tree mentioned by David[3], laden with fruit, and says that: 

The fair olive tree, wondrously leafy and beautiful, seen by the sage son of Sirach[4] in the middle of the Church’s plains, was none other than Mary. 

St Bernardine declares that[5]: 

Truly she is the rainbow, wondrous for the variety of her colours, incomparable in her beauty, but especially pleasing in that she has the power to stay the hand of God when He is preparing to chastise the world, drowning sinners. 

The learned Prelate William of Paris[6] maintains that :

She is the living spring from which men have drawn and continue to draw every day the sweet waters of divine mercy. 

The learned Idiota[7] elevates this idea into the heavens when he says that :

She is a brilliant sun whose rays of mercy are so ardent that no one can fail to feel their effect.  

St John Damascene[8] compares her to the sweet and chaste dove who returns to Noe bearing the sign of peace and mercy[9]. St Bonaventure[10] took the view that she was foreshadowed by the widow of Sarepta who received from the hand of God, in the person of the Prophet Elias, such a great quantity of oil that she was able to fill all her vessels. He calls her the vein[11] and the fount of mercy[12], whose breast gives suck to the children of God. St Bernard calls her the Temple of mercy[13] whither people from all parts flock to be delivered from their misfortunes and tribulations. Richard of St Victor, in his commentary on the words of the Spouse in the Canticle of Canticles where He says to His Beloved that : Thy two breasts [are] like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies[14], observes that:

It is no wonder that the Holy Virgin’s sweet breasts should be filled with mercy since she gave birth to Mercy incarnate, nor that the Saviour should have been fed with her physical milk in order that spiritual milk might be shared with us ; and in proportion as she fed this precious nectar to our Elder Brother her Son, that her spiritual breasts should have been enabled to dispense mercy for the consolation of all those whom her Son would one day recognise as His younger brothers.  

If the Virgin’s babes and infants only understood the happiness they enjoy of being cradled by the Mother of the King of glory and fed at her breast! If only they were disposed to savour the sweetness God has hidden in her breasts and to drink fearlessly from these living springs of goodness!  What an abundance of good things, of riches and of happiness would be theirs! But since it is only through her that we can come to her, she must needs draw us unto her so that she may grant us the confidence to approach and taste of her great mercies. 

[1] Orat. de Annuntiat.

[2] Orat. de Oblat. S. B. Virg.

[3] But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever: Ps. LI. 10.

[4] As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted : Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 19

[5] Tom. III, serm. 1.

[6] Lib. Rhetor. divin., c. 18.

[7] Contempl. de B. Virg., in prolog.

[8] Orat. 2 de Dormit. B. Virg.

[9] Gen. viii. 10-11.

[10] Speculi B. Virg.

[11] Tu vena es misericordiæ : from the hymn Te Matrem Dei laudamus.  vēna, ae, f.: source (of quality or other abstract thing), fount, vein, (also) channel, conduit (see DMLBS at Logeion). 

[12] See The Litany of the Blessed Virgin.

[13] Serm. de Assumpt.

[14] Canticles (Solomon) iv. 5.

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor 

Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 8 : § 1.1

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is Mother of Mercy for her children

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

Amongst the perfections of the Holy Virgin, says St Bernard[1], 

those which touch us personally seem to impact us in a sweeter and more pleasing way than others ; and amongst those which affect us in this way, we are most attracted to those which comfort us in our misfortunes. Concerning those which do not impact us personally, we are satisfied by wondering at them and praising them ; and as for those graces which give access to the most exquisite of Heaven’s favours, many people are reluctant to seek them, believing they are not meant for all but are in fact only for a few souls specially chosen to be raised to such heights. When it comes to mercy, however,  everyone shares the experience of being surrounded by misfortunes and tribulations. 

This is why I have decided to explore in some detail the merciful ways in which the MOTHER OF GOD supports her children in their needs.  

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 4 de Assumpt.

§ 1. The need we all have for a Mother of mercy and how she is none other than the Holy Virgin

 1   There can be few things in the world more pleasing or consoling than a sermon given by that most eloquent Doctor of the Church, Saint John Chrysostom, wherein he describes the extremely severe spirit of the Prophet Elias and the boundlessly merciful spirit of God[1].   

This man of fire and thunder, says the golden-mouthed[2] preacher from Greece, had noted on the one hand how hard-hearted and stiff-necked the Jewish people were and how they had a long history of giving free rein to their desires and worshipping idols; whilst on the other hand he observed how this contrasted with God’s extraordinary inclination to show them mercy. The view of Elias was that God’s kind-heartedness served only to encourage the people in their vices and iniquitous ways and this made him resolve to find a way of limiting the indulgence God showed towards this sinful people. Let us now consider the solution that he proposed. His view was that there is nothing that could make God stand firm against the insolent behaviour of the sinners other than a solemn oath; for unless He were to be constrained in this way, the slightest sigh or least little tear from a penitent would move His heart and assuage His anger. With this in mind, he considered all the possible ways of engaging the Lord until finally he obtained a promise from Him that He swore to keep. The Prophet thereupon called out: As the Lord liveth the God of Israel, in whose sight I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to the words of my mouth[3].

In accordance with the terms of God’s oath, the sweltering rays of the Sun beat down upon the earth, bringing about a severe drought which was soon followed by a terrible famine and many other dreadful consequences. The sufferings that the people had to endure collectively or as individuals forced them to present their prayers for help before the altars, to wear sack cloth and ashes and to try through these means to appease the wrath of God. He Himself felt great sadness that he had given His word to the Prophet and thereby deprived Himself of the means of bringing help to His people in their hour of need. In these first tender movements of His heart, love prompted Him to dispose things in such a way that the Prophet himself would experience the want suffered by the people and that he too would be oppressed by hunger. God’s limitless goodness, however, would not allow Him to enforce this strictness very long and accordingly He sent a raven to the Prophet to serve as his victualler, bringing him bread and flesh every day. It was not by accident that He chose this predatory bird which is lacking in the natural compassion others have for their little ones. His choice was deliberate, designed to make the Prophet come to his senses by seeing how God’s tenderness was feeding him by means of a heartless and unloving creature, and making him feel ashamed at his own lack of pity. 

The Prophet’s adamantine heart, which should have been softened by the kindness shown towards him, did not change in any way. This obliged God to increase his suffering and make him feel the pangs of extreme hunger by taking away his food supply, but this had no more effect than when God had been showing kindness to him. On the contrary, his indomitable courage stiffened his resolve to bear the hunger even unto death – provided that this would be alongside the others and that he might see these stiff-necked people forced to bow before their duty.  

God understood perfectly well how the Prophet’s strict approach arose only from the zeal he had for His honour. He sent him to a Phoenician woman to be fed by her, judging that he would have a horror of dealing with an uncircumcised people and an idolatrous woman, forcing him in consequence to ask for rain. In case the Prophet failed to do this, He forewarned the woman to speak quite frankly to him and make him feel the misery she was experiencing. She did this so effectively that when the Prophet realised all she had left was one mouthful of bread, he was moved by compassion and felt constrained to have recourse to God so as to obtain from Him a means of ensuring the woman would be able to live. It seemed as though the granting of this request would bring about a change in the Prophet’s spirit and so God immediately granted him  what he had requested and promised that the oil and flour of his poor hostess would never run out before the end of the famine. You might well have thought that this wondrous gesture on the part of God would have been sufficient to move the heart of Elias. On the contrary, he resolved to yield not one inch until he had seen a change in the behaviour of those sinful people, for whom he thought there was nothing more harmful than being treated with excessive gentleness. 

“Is this the way it is to be?” God wondered to Himself. “Is there no way to move his steely heart? I know what is to be done – I shall arrange matters so that he will fall into such an extremity that he will place things in my hands and personally beg me to show mercy. He may be sure that he will not obtain it unless he shows signs of a change of heart and then only shall we speak with him.” 

No sooner said than done – for behold how the son of the widow of Sarepta is struck with a deadly condition which worsens and leads to his death. Behold how this heartbroken woman fills the air with her cries and lamentations. Even were the Prophet to have a heart of stone, surely  he could not but be affected by this. 

When this happened, the Prophet was forced to open his eyes and obliged to admit that he is left with no other option. “Great Lord of Heaven!” cries the Prophet. “Is this how thou dost bring me down! Thou dost force me to have recourse unto thee, so that when I ask for thy merciful help, thou wilt oblige me to show mercy to others. It is easy to see how as soon as I open my mouth to say unto thee: O Lord, do thou pity the son of this poor widow, then thou wilt immediately ask me to have pity upon thine only Son, namely thy chosen people. Thou wilt in this way oblige me to agree to the grace thou wishest to grant to this people if I want to obtain such grace from Thy Majesty. To make thee agree to revoke the sentence of death that thou hast pronounced against me, ungrateful son that I am, I find myself reduced to the extremity of revoking mine own sentence.”

God, who wanted to win over his Prophet through love rather than force, finally managed to convince him in this way and forced him to accept that God cannot cease to show His mercifulness any more than He can cease to be God. He was also made to see that there was a great difference between His infallible word pledged to a sinner, no matter how many times he kept coming back to Him, and the obligation the Prophet felt towards a woman who had given him a morsel of bread in a time of great need. God led him along unimaginably gentle paths to persuade him to go before Achab and promise him rain. He gave him to understand that he wanted his people to feel this obligation to their Lord and, God as He was, He would not reject this favour on his part. This was enough to melt the most stony-hearted and the Prophet felt himself so moved by these words that it was impossible for him to resist any longer. This notwithstanding, although he made a show of going to find Achab and give him the good news, it was possible to see on his face that he was acting under constraint and that it went against the grain to show this feeling of humanity.  

When God saw this, He summoned His prophet and spoke to him as follows: “Elias my faithful servant, I see that we are finding it difficult to live together and agree. Men are inclined to every sort of iniquity through the corruption of their nature and for them to refrain entirely from offending me is something neither of us can hope for. For me to be always punishing them or to be keeping the doors of my mercy closed to them – this would be completely impossible for me. For thy heart to soften – I fear that may not be possible for thee. The choices left open to us are either that we remain at loggerheads on this point, or that I do continual violence to my goodness, or that following the requests I receive unceasingly from thee, I fill hell with my creatures for whom I have been preparing Heaven. We can do better than this. I shall transport thee to a place where thou wilt see neither sin nor sinners, and where thy daily interaction will be with the Blessed Spirits. As for me, I shall go to dwell amongst men and, to render myself more approachable to them, I shall become a man myself. Then my sole satisfaction will be to find my lost sheep, to lay it upon my shoulders[4], to welcome it into my heart and to open up the bowels of my infinite mercy[5].”

Dearest Lord! How overwhelming is the sweetness of the paternal heart of our Father in Heaven!  How obliged we are to love with our whole heart, soul mind and strength Him whose love for us hath been so powerful and so tender! 

Footnotes

[1] Serm. in Eliam Prophetam.

[2] Χρυσόστομος (Chrysostomos, anglicized as Chrysostom) means "golden-mouthed" in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence.

[3] 3 Kings (1 Kings) xvii. 1. 17.

[4] Luke xv. 4-7.

[5] Luke i. 78.

.👑   👑   👑

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.

© Peter Bloor