Flower of Devotion

St. Bridget heard in rapture the Lord Jesus praising His Blessed Mother in these words:
“O sweet Mary, three things are given chiefly by Your beauty.” First, it sharpens the memory, so that God’s words enter it with delight; Secondly, it makes us rejoice in what we have heard, and thirdly, that what we have heard is zealously sought to spread among our fellow-men. Your beauty imparts three things to the heart: first, it relieves the burden of sorrow of one who contemplates Your love and humility; secondly, it brings tears to the eyes of those who dwell on your poverty and your patience; thirdly, it imparts inner sweetness to the heart to one who sincerely reminds himself of the full goodness of your love.
Verily, O Lady, Thou art the most precious beauty, the most desirable beauty. For you have been given to the weak to help, to the sorrowful to comfort, and to all to mediate. Therefore all who have learned that you are to be born, and those who know that you have already been born, can cry out: “Come, thou brightly shining beauty, enlighten our darkness; come, Thou most precious beauty, and take away our shame from us; come, dearest beauty, and soothe our bitterness; come, most powerful beauty, and free us from prison; come, thou worshipest the most worthy beauty, and destroy our ugliness. Blessed and worthy of worship be Thy great beauty, which all the patriarchs have longed to see, of which all the prophets have sung, and which all the elect rejoice in!”