The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 3.5

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That Mary is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 3. Mary’s final grace : the culminating point

A review showing how the Holy Virgin’s final level of grace excelled all others

 5   Now, there is a danger that something spoken of quickly can pass us by without really registering in our minds so as to make an impression and even take root. To avoid this risk, I should like to summon all the Blessed companies of both the Church triumphant and the Church militant to parade before us with all the graces they have received from God.

 

First in line we would see the white cornette[1] of the Virgins and under this precious standard[2] millions of holy souls who for the preservation of their purity won victories without number. Under this same banner we would see countless Holy widows and married Ladies bearing the merits they earned through their long suffering and the heroic deeds they performed as a result of the virtues they practised. After these would come all the Holy Confessors and we would observe the thousands of Holy and venerable Prelates who sealed and who seal to this day the merit of their confession and the dignity of their pastoral office by so many works and other signs of their untiring constancy. We would discover innumerable companies of Holy Religious crowned with the fruits of their perseverance in God’s service and their endless labours for His holiness. We would see a large mass of all manner of persons of every condition, whose virtuous works spread their fragrance through the streets of the Holy City. After these, marching in order, would come the victorious army of Holy Martyrs who are so numerous as to astonish the gate of Hell. Their conquests are such that, without speaking of anything they did in their lifetimes, the single act of love that they performed by dying for God is so powerful that if placed in a balance it would outweigh all the virtuous actions of others who themselves lived very long life. But, good heavens! 

Who could foresee the what the Holy Apostles would bring to this mass of graces? I would say that they received the first fruits of the spirit, as St Paul says, and they came on the scene before the treasure-chest of the Saviour’s merits was opened; but they were able to help themselves to as much as they wanted in order to have plenty to distribute to the whole world. Next after these comes the venerable antiquity of the noble company of Patriarchs and Prophets. By virtue of their long lives and their constancy, they accumulated remarkable stores of heavenly riches which they used incidentally to increase the communal supply of graces for holy Church. What can I say about God’s heavenly host and the countless number of pure spirits, whose merits attain such heights that a single one of them, by whom I mean the first Seraph, could (according to several commentators) supply as many graces as the all the other Angels and men could together? 

If any person were asked to take all these graces and to make from them a single grace, his mind would be overwhelmed by the depths of this treasure we have described, for he would not be able to comprehend its scale. Despite the extent of these graces, it is still necessary to stress that this represents just the beginning of Mary’s holiness. Even though the grace described above seems for us to be almost infinite, it is the grace of mere servants and in this context it serves as a foundation for a supereminent grace, a grace of prerogative : namely, that of the MOTHER OF GOD which is of an order of magnitude incomparably higher than the graces of servants.

O God of infinite Majesty, it is Thee alone who didst enrich the blessed soul of Mary and who dost comprehend the extent of her enrichment! To Thee be honour and glory, Thou hast in this way made known the wondrous goods that inhere in Thee and so we say to Thee : Great, Great and ten million times Great is Thy name, Lord of graces and God of blessings!

 

Footnotes

[1] cornette: I.1.a. 1542–(a) A type of woman's headdress popular in the 15th cent. (esp. in France), consisting of a cone or truncated cone and typically having a fine veil hanging from the top; also applied to a similar high headdress extending to two conical point. Complete OED. Cf. Use by religious orders, e.g., the Daughters of Charity, founded by St. Vincent de Paul.

[2] cornette-blanche: may apply to a Royal standard. Cornette-blanche, C’estoit un estendart sous lequel les Rois avoient accoustumé de combattre en un jour de bataille, Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 1re édition (1694).

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 3.2-4

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That Mary is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 3. Mary’s final grace : the culminating point

A demonstration of the unquantifiable extent of the Holy Virgin’s grace

 2   We have already mentioned briefly the continual growth of Mary’s grace, but I am sure that if the human mind would swoon in astonishment if tried to comprehend just how far this grace advanced. If the mind cannot grasp this, then far less will the pen be able to describe it. Nevertheless, I would like to give you a rough idea by making use of a practical example by way of demonstration. Concerning this, I should say firstly that anyone who is not familiar with the incredible increases that occur very quickly when numbers are doubled will not fail to be amazed at what is possible.

Imagine a great King who has a favourite whom he cherishes so tenderly and with such ardour that in order to see him more frequently he makes him a promise : the first time he comes to greet him, the King will make him a gift of one gold coin and he will double this gift on each subsequent visit. One gold coin is little enough for a great King and I am not even talking here of a long period of time but only twenty-four hours, during which the gentleman is to present himself once every hour. What do think the final price of this generosity will be? It is possible you will not believe me when I tell you, even though I am not exaggerating the truth in any way : he will have received from the King 8,388,608 gold coins. Now, imagine the king continued for one more day with this level of generosity, doubling the last number each time. I would be able to show that, even if the King had all the gold in Peru as well as that buried beneath the earth or in the depths of its abysses, he would not be able to keep his promise, even for only two twenty-four hour periods. 

 3   Now, to return to the matter we were discussing, let us firstly consider the amount of grace received in baptism by a little child who contributes nothing for his part and let us call this amount one degree of grace. Secondly, let us assume that the grace of the MOTHER OF GOD at the moment of her conception amounted to one degree, even though she actually had millions. Thirdly, let us take just one period of twenty-four hours and say that each hour she did only one act of love for God; even though she did much more, it does not affect our argument. At this count, such as it is, she would find herself enriched after the first day to the extent of 8,388,608 degrees of grace. In your opinion, what would she have gained after the second or the hundredth day, or by the last days of her life, when almost at every moment she was doubling quantities unimaginable and beyond explanation? Would we not be approaching infinity? As your mind is starting to reel in astonishment, I shall add that arithmeticians show those who have the patience to listen to their reasoning that writing twenty-one figures consecutively makes a number bigger than the number of grains of sand needed to fill the whole capacity of the world between the surface of the earth as far as the highest point in the atmosphere. For my part, I would go further and say that adding even more to this figure, if we apply the reasonable calculation I have explained, it would still not equal the number of graces which filled the blessed soul of the most sacred Virgin at the end of her life.

 4   This thought leads me to another : several serious Theologians, for all the reasons I have cited above, find no difficulty in supporting the proposition that the Holy Virgin possessed in herself more graces than all of the Blessed taken together. Doctor Francisco Suarez was a religious in this Society[1] and he was no less known for his remarkable piety than for his profound knowledge. In the course of a public course in Theology, Martin Guttierez, of whom I shall have more to say later, was moved by the exceptional devotion that Suarez displayed towards the MOTHER OF GOD. He encouraged Suarez to undertake a proof of this proposition in an introduction to his lessons in Theology that he gave in the university of Salamanca. This request had such a successful outcome that the Holy Virgin was happy to show her gratitude to Fr Guttierez for this mark of affection he had signalled to her. Heaven was so favourable to this pious belief as to cause a goodly number of Catholic Doctors[2] to embrace it. The upshot is that it has been warmly welcomed in the schools of Theology and among the various Christian assemblies. On countless occasions Churches all over the earth have echoed with the sound of this teaching.

    For my part, I am readily persuaded that all well-ordered minds which have even a moderate affection for the Queen of heaven’s honour will embrace it without hesitation, if only they are prepared to read attentively what has been said of her grace up to this point. In the second place, it should always be remembered that here we are discussing the MOTHER OF GOD, a woman whom God chose to give proof of His magnificence. He raised her so as to be higher than ordinary souls than the highest cedars of Lebanon are above bushes and brambles. In the third place, we must reflect on what several distinguished Doctors have declared, that the first Angel received more graces from God than all of other pure spirits and all men taken together. He was the first of his kind and was like the Sun which, being the first luminous body, has more light in itself than all the stars and all the fires in the world, taken together. In the fourth place, we need to consider how Mary is unique in her kind and how she, alone amongst creatures, enters with her most honoured Son into an order of personal union. She surpasses quite incomparably in grace and glory all that we can imagine in terms of ordinary holiness. Finally, we must see her as a universal cause along with her Son, for she is Mother and Queen of all the elect; she is therefore like a source of grace from which all others can draw but which never runs dry.

Footnotes

[1] The Society of Jesus : La Compañía de Jesús.

[2] Suar., t. II in III p., disp. XVIII, sect. 4, c. 2.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 3.1

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That Mary is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 3. Mary’s final grace : the culminating point

The testimony of the Holy Fathers

 1   There remains only this last question which is perhaps the most important and the most difficult to fathom. By the words last grace or final grace I am not referring to the last favour she received or the last successful intervention by God, nor to the final assent she gave to Heaven’s request. What I have in mind is the final perfection of sanctifying grace in Mary, that is to say, the state and the measure of the grace in her soul at the hour of her death, following the continual increases in grace that I have been discussing. Concerning this grace, the Holy Doctors have written wonderful words which they they nevertheless feel are quite inadequate:

She received the plenitude of grace, says St Ildephonsus[1].

She is a limitless source of grace, says St John Damascene[2]; she overtakes the Cherubim and surpasses the Seraphim; there is no-one who draws closer to God than her.

Her grace is infinite, says St Epiphanius[3].

The privilege she received in her merits defies explanation, says St Bernard[4].

There is no-one among men or Angels who could reveal the heights achieved by her grace, says St Anselm[5].

The Holy Virgin is called the sea, says St Dionysius the Carthusian[6], because just as no-one could count the drops of water in the sea, in the same way it would be impossible to plumb the excellence of the grace and the glory Mary received from God.

There is no heart that could take in this mystery, says St Augustine[7], nor tongue that could speak of it worthily enough.

To God alone does it pertain to know this mystery in its fulness, says St Bernardino of Siena[8].

St Bonaventure[9] says that the grace of the MOTHER OF GOD was altogether true in its nature, most precious in value, exceedingly great in extent and most beneficial in its effects. It received in abundance the outpourings of the gifts of the Holy Ghost; it was most pleasing in how it manifested itself outside her soul, most singular in the privileges which accompanied it, and most glorious in the rewards which flowed from it. The Virgin was full of grace as she showed by her wisdom, by the way the Holy Ghost flooded her soul, by the holiness which was hers, by the tenderness of her gentle heart, by the fruitfulness of her womb, by the instruction she gave to Masters of the Church, by the odour of her saintly life, by the way God’s glory cascaded through her and by her enjoyment of the beatific vision in eternity. The Angel hailed her as full of grace, the Holy Ghost filled her with grace and she was possessed of the divinity in its fulness.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 6 de Assumpt.

[2] Orat. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[3]Orat. de S. Maria Deipara.

[4] Serm. 4 de Assumpt.

[5] Lib. de Excellentia Virg., c. 3.

[6] Lib. III de Laudib. Virg., art. 30.

[7] Serm. de Assumpt. Virg., t. IX operum.

[8] T. I, Serm. 51.

[9] Speculi B. Virg., c. 2, 5, 6, 7.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 2.12-13

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That she is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 2. The increase of grace in the Holy Virgin

The progress made by the Holy Virgin up to the Saviour’s death

 12   Now, the grace of the Holy Virgin at the moment of the Divine Word’s conception is beyond the power of speech to describe; it cannot be believed therefore, argues St Augustine[1], that the passage of time would have reduced it. 

On the contrary, it would be impossible for any person, other than He alone who deigned to take from her the Nature which He created, to explain the effects later produced. St Athanasius had taught this previously in these words[2]:

We call her full of grace, forasmuch as through the plenitude of the Holy Ghost who came  upon her she was filled with every heavenly grace. These graces should net be regarded as one-off gifts but rather they stayed with her while she bore in her womb the fruit of life and remained until the end of her earthly sojourn.

Indeed, it seems to me that it would be unacceptable to judge that the Virgin lost her merits whilst she was still breast-feeding the Son of God, while she was wrapping Him in swaddling clothes, while she was caring for Him with such love, while she accompanied Him on His journeys, whilst she listened to His teaching, or whilst she suffered for Him and with Him. On the contrary, reason obliges us to acknowledge that, among the exercises of her active and contemplative life, she attained such a high degree of merit that it caused the Angels to ask in astonishment[3]: Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer? For to set forth here her acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, her acts of Obedience, Patience, Strength, Zeal and all the other virtues which arose unceasingly from her sacred heart as from the Altar of incense; to describe with what purity and perfection she accompanied them and to report all the achievements of her daily progress – to do this would be more difficult than numbering the stars in the Heavens or the grains of sand on the seashore[4]. We will need to wait and see in the mirror of the divine Essence what it will please His majesty to reveal to us. We can however cry out a million times the He is thrice Holy[5], not only in Himself but in this His Spouse whom He created to be, after the Word incarnate, the wonder of all holiness.

The progress made by the Holy Virgin up from the Saviour’s death until her own death

 13   As for the third stage in Mary’s life, from the Ascension of Our Lord to her own Assumption, I can say only that her time was spent in encounters opening up opportunities for the foremost and most heroic of her virtues, in continual conversations with the Blessed Spirits and with her beloved Son, in ecstasies arising out of the highest contemplation, in burning ardour during her most fervent Communions, in regular visits to holy places, in hierarchical actions arising from her role as heavenly mistress and teacher and the divine lessons she gives to the Masters of the world, and in the charitable work she performed for the Saviour’s newly founded Church. In short, in the simple and ordinary practice of the most beautiful deeds of which a simple creature is capable. This is what compels the Blessed Lawrence Justinian to say[6]:

it is not possible to explain the great passion of the love in this beautiful soul, the ardour of her holy desires which set her heart on fire and the power of the repeated sighs with which she she stormed Heaven in her prayers.

Following the idea of this great Saint, we can perhaps picture Mary's progress in terms of a fiery globe which has been kept turning in a furnace and which finally manages to break out of the prison where it was held by force; it then launches itself without any resistance and, travelling at extraordinary speed, it passes up through the lower and middle regions of the air; the closer it draws to its natural abode, the more it increases its speed, so as to be faster in the end than the strongest of winds. 

This is a rough and ready image but it may help us to understand how the MOTHER OF GOD increased the rate of her spiritual progress throughout her life; how she gained further impetus as she drew closer to Heaven, her natural home; and how, having for a long time outstripped all others, she came to surpass herself in new practices of holiness.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de Assumpt., t. IX operum.

[2] Serm. de Sanctisima Deipara.

[3] Cant. 3. 

[4] As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea be measured: Jer. xxxiii. 22.

[5] Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory. Isai. vi. 3.

[6] Serm. de Assumpt.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 2.11

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That she is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 2. The increase of grace in the Holy Virgin

The progress made by the Holy Virgin from the moment of the Divine Word’s Conception

 11   Moving now to the second stage, the first thing we encounter is the incomprehensible Conception of the Divine Word in Mary’s holy womb and the Saints have wonderful things to say about this. St Jerome[1], among others, received a great grace when he compared this event to the forty-second encampment of the people of Israel next to the river Jordan.

The holy Doctor explains how the mystery in this figure was accomplished. The Saviour of the world made various encampments among the ancient Patriarchs and finally halted near to the sacred Jordan river, namely the glorious Virgin[2]; for she was herself like a swollen river overflowing with graces from the Holy Ghost on every side.

According to the eloquent words of St Eucher[3], if Mary was at that point (or rather previously) full of grace, who could imagine what an abundance of grace she received when God was conceived within her?

At the visitation of the blessed Virgin, says the Venerable Bede[4], her cousin Elizabeth was filled with a light so extraordinary that she herself was filled with amazement. What then are we to think of the Sun from which this dazzling brightness proceeded?

No-one should be in any doubt, says Sophronius[5], that long before the Virgin conceived the Divine Word, she was incomparably more holy than everyone else under heaven. It was, in fact, entirely reasonable that she would be prepared in this way since she was the one from whom God was to take the flesh destined to be united to His very person. At that happy moment when the substantial grace from Heaven came down to her, and when the power of the Most High overshadowed her, she became more precious than the very graces she had received, she was raised to a greater height than the highest, and she became more beautiful than holiness. She was made so glorious by virtue of her merits that henceforth all the works she performed were heavenly and divine.

I realize that it is almost impossible to say anything that comes near to what happened to Mary. In order that our hearts may have some appreciation of the grace she received at this point, I shall nevertheless put before you the thoughts of three great Doctors. The first is the author of the Glossa Ordinaria that has always been revered by the Church. Here is what he says about the words found in the first chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel:

After the Holy Virgin had conceived and born the Divine Word, Joseph knew her not[6]. These words mean that Joseph in some sense did not recognize the most sacred Virgin his Spouse from that moment on. This was because her divine face now shone with a splendour that dazzled the eyes and he was filled with a certain trembling which was at the same time intermingled with sweetness and reverence.

The second is St Bernardino of Siena[7] who puts forward a view worthy of a fuller consideration elsewhere[8], for he says:

By the one action whereby she gave her assent to the Angel’s invitation, the Holy Virgin earned more merit than all the martyrs together at the times of their greatest suffering, than the Confessors in their painful labours and all the Virgins in the victories they won defending their chastity : in short, than all the Saints in Heaven amid their continual practice of virtue. 

If this action alone was so elevated and valued at such a high price, who will be able to describe the merit of that grace which was then granted to her? The third Doctor is the holy Archbishop of Florence[9] who declared that he felt a strong inclination to believe

that at this moment the grace of the Virgin was such that she merited a clear sight of God and of the mystery unfolding within her, even if this was like a flash of lightning and did not last long.

We shall have more to say on this in the following chapter. Even though all the Angels should set their sights on understanding the sublimity of this grace, they will never succeed. Their pleasure is at the same time our own in finding that the merits of her whom they honour are so sublime that we do not have the means to attain such an understanding.

Footnotes

[1] Epist. ad Fabiolam de 42 mansionibus. See also Num. xxxiii.

[2] Cf Matt. i. 17.

[3] Ad Evang. feriæ IV Dominicæ IV Advent.

[4] Homil. de Visitatione.

[5] Serm. de Assumpt. ad Paulam et Eustoch.

[6] Matt. I. 24-25.

[7] T. II, Serm. 51, art. 3, c. 1.

[8] Tract. II, c. 2.

[9] S. Antoninus, IV p., tit. XV, c. 17, § 1.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 2. 9-10

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That she is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 2. The increase of grace in the Holy Virgin

The graces conferred on Our Lady were extraordinary

 9   Now if you add to these considerations the surge of Heavenly graces that were united to the extraordinary dispositions in Mary's soul, you will have to accept that even the Angels cannot compare with her progress. We can picture her as a ship, laden with rich cargoes from the east, sailing on the high seas under full canvas driven by wind from the stern, proceeding with such speed that observers soon lose sight of her and nothing can stand in her path.

 

Sail on, sail boldly on, O sacred vessel, sail on! Although our spirits are too feeble to keep up with thee in thy particular journey, we shall make the coasts echo to the sounds of our happiness, which are like so many pledges of the pleasure we feel in thine own joy.

The great occasions when this was shown : firstly, from the moment of her Conception to that of the divine Word

 10   This heading pulls me up short as I think about the extraordinary things that happened throughout almost the entire life of the Holy Virgin. They offered her the means to make such progress that it seems impossible for the human mind to comprehend. In order to say perhaps a few words regarding this, however, and to encourage people to think further, I am dividing the life of the most blessed Virgin into three stages. The first stage is from her immaculate Conception until the heavenly envoy’s visit at the Annunciation. The second is from that day until the death of her most honoured Son. The third is from then until her own death.

At the beginning of the first stage, we find  the moment of her initial sanctification when she received treasures of grace beyond calculation (as we have seen in the previous discussion). We also find her altogether pure Nativity when she was given to the world visibly as the beginning of the happiness which it was awaiting. At this time the graces she had already received were increased twofold in consideration of the joy people felt and the happy dawning of this beautiful day which saw not so much the birth of the MOTHER OF GOD on earth as the rebirth of the world. We find too her entry into the Sanctuary of the Temple which I mentioned earlier. She was received once more under the very special protection of the Holy Ghost who was to prepare her to be His most worthy Spouse and where she was from the very outset attired with new adornments of grace and then later enriched with exquisite favours from her future Spouse.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024

The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 2. 7-8

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That she is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 2.  The increase of grace in the Holy Virgin

Our Lady received a continuous flow of merits

 7   When it comes to the care and effort on Mary’s part, I will be brief and say quite simply in words to be pondered at the reader's leisure that she earned merits and consequently grew in grace without pause or interruption all the days of her life. She did this in such a way that, with her actions following on from each other, she increased at least twofold her graces and merits with each of her holy soul’s undertakings[1]. I say at least because, following the principle established earlier, pious belief could easily have her exceeding even that, and this in fact turns out to be the case. If I am called upon to list the reasons why I say this, I would start by calling on readers to acknowledge a goodly number of serious-minded authors who do not even exclude the hours Mary spent in sleep. Amongst these are St Ambrose[2], Albert the Great[3], St Antoninus[4], St Bernardino of Siena[5], Fr Rupert[6] and several others[7]. Someone wrote that St Basil lived the most of all men and that his days were full, as the Psalmist says[8]; and that he practised virtue for the whole of his life, which is the true life of a man. It is possible we might find several who lived longer than him but few if any who lived more fully. 

Now, if ever it could be said of a mere creature that her days were full and that every moment of her life was put to a holy purpose, then this would have to be said of the Holy Virgin; even including the little sleep she allowed to her human nature, her life was dedicated to the continual practice of virtue. Let us remember, moreover, that the Holy Fathers urge us not to deny this Lady any favour, especially in terms of grace, that might be in keeping not only with her state and condition as Mother but with the greatness and magnificence of her Son. This being so, what would be more fitting and would show forth more clearly the unparalleled love of God in this regard than this continual redoubling of graces, and the extraordinary care she took to collect them all and to turn them to her benefit as far it was possible for her?

Footnotes

[1] Ita Suar., t. II, in III p., disp. XVII de sect. 2.

[2] Lib. II de Virg.

[3] Lib. de B. Virg., c. 176, 177, 178.

[4] IV p., tit. XV, c. 20, § 6.

[5] T. II, Serm. 51.

[6] Lib. V in Cant.

[7] Dionys. Carthus., in illud Cant. 5 : Ego dormio, etc.

[8] Cf. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Ps. XXVI. 4.

 8   Thirdly, we must not forget the astonishing things that several estimable authors have written about the progress made by certain saints. From these I conclude that the Virgin co-operated with God’s grace in a way that was so much higher than anyone else that it is quite beyond the comprehension of our minds. For my part, I am easily persuaded that there was never any soul whose every action was adapted to receive the whole extent of God’s grace than Mary’s privileged soul. There are, however, some things which might make us uneasy about accepting what has just been said. We experience an almost continual difficulty in the practice of virtue, and this comes from : the attacks we suffer as a result of our bad habits and inclinations to vice, the raging emotions caused by concupiscence, and the surprise assaults and violence of our invisible enemies who assail us through deceptions, lay ambushes for us and never leave us in peace. 

None of the above, however, should be considered as applying to the MOTHER OF GOD, for there was nothing in her of the resistance our depraved nature habitually sets in the way of the practice of virtue. Concerning attacks from without, it is written that the scourge of God, [1] referring to the temptations of evil spirits, shall not come near thy dwelling. I shall cover this subject later.[2] As for interior rebellion, all the movements of Mary’s body and soul were so perfectly subject to her reason (as I shall show later[3]) that she never experienced anything in the least untoward. She showed more gentleness in herself and a greater inclination to virtue than the most sensual show in their natural actions and in satisfying their disordered appetites.

Footnotes

[1] There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling / Non accedet ad te malum, et flagellum non appropinquabit tabernaculo tuo. Ps. XC. 10.

[2] Tract. II, c. 9, § 7. 

[3] Cap. sequenti.

👑       👑       👑

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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 2024