Flower of Devotion

On one occasion Our Lady said to St. Bridget:

“Meditate, daughter, on the sufferings of my Son, whose members were almost my members and as it were my heart.
For just as other children were accustomed to dwell under the heart of their mothers, so also my Son was under my heart. And He was conceived of the fire of God’s love, and the other children are of the lusts of the flesh. That is why my relative, the Apostle John, says, quite rightly, “The Word became flesh.” For it was through love that My Most Holy Son came to Me and was in Me. And they formed Him in me: word and love. He was like my heart. So when He was born of Me, I felt as if I had been born, and as if half of My heart had left Me.
And when He suffered, I felt My heart suffer. For, as in the case of a thing that is half external and half internal, when a man the outer part, he also suffers pain and the inner part at the same time; so it was My heart scourged and pierced. For I was completely close to Him in His life, and I did not allow myself to be separated from Him.
I stood quite close to His Cross, and as it stings more strongly that which is nearer to the heart, so His suffering was more painful to me than to others. And when he saw me broken by pain, My sorrow caused him such a bitter feeling that all the sufferings that wounds inflicted on him fell asleep, as it were, in the pain in which he saw me.
That is why I boldly say that His pain was My pain, for His heart was My heart. For just as Adam and Eve sold the world for one apple, so My Son and I have redeemed the world, as it were, with one heart. Therefore, My daughter, consider what I was like when My Son died, and it will not be difficult for you to leave the world.