Flower of Devotion

On the feast of St. Catherine, this holy virgin appeared to St. Mechtilde in a robe entirely covered with gold writing, with golden hooks at the top that fasten the garment, and representing the most happy and inseparable union of God and soul. St. Mechtilde solemnly greeted St. Catherine by reciting the antiphon “Ave virgo speciosa” (Hail, O virgin greatly honored”
from the hymn of the Church for the Solemnity of St. Catherine) and then said to her:

“I beseech thee, tell me what we express by the words we sing: To thee, whose face and adornment the Lord himself desired? (Words taken from the same hymn in honor of St. Catherine.) What is this face that the Lord
desired in you?” Saint Catherine answered: “My face is the image of the Most Holy Trinity, which the Lord desired in me because I have never disfigured it with grave sin. And my adornment is that ineffable garment with which Christ so mysteriously adorns His faithful with the color of His precious Blood. You should also know this: Whenever a man receives the Holy Sacraments, he renews and multiplies this garment in his soul. And if any one were to receive Holy Communion only once, he would redouble this garment in his soul; And he who communicates a hundred or a thousand times increases this garment in his soul just as often.”
And when St. Mechtilde asked for one of the nuns of the convent, St. Catherine answered: “Tell her, let her recite the psalm, ‘Praise the Lord, all nations’” (Psalm 116). and the antiphon, “Come, my Bride, go into the chamber of your Bridegroom,” to remind me of the joy I had when Christ, my King and Bridegroom, invited me with these words. (…) When this voice reached me, my heart was inflamed with so much love, and I was filled with such unspeakable joy, that all the horrors of martyrdom came to nothing.”