Flower of Devotion

One Saturday, when the “Salve sancta parens” (Hail, Holy Mother) was sung, St. Mechtilde greeted the Blessed Virgin and asked her to obtain for her true holiness. The most glorious Virgin said to her:
“If you desire true holiness, hold fast to my Son, who is holiness and makes all things holy.” And when the saint was considering how she should do this, the most gracious Virgin said to her:
“Hold fast first to His most holy Childhood with this desire, that all the evil deeds and negligence of your childhood may be rewarded by His innocent Childhood.
Hold on to His most zealous youth, in which He blossomed in ardent love, so that all the laziness and indifference of your youth may be compensated by His zeal.
Hold fast to His divine virtue, so that in His virtue your virtue may be ennobled.
Continue to hold on to My Son and place all your thoughts, words and deeds in Him, so that all their imperfections will be washed away by Him, who never sinned through them.
Continue to hold on to Him, as a bride clings to her bridegroom when she dresses and feeds herself out of His goods, and who, out of love for her Bridegroom, loves and honors His friends and relatives. In the same way, your soul should be nourished by the Word of God as a precious food, and feast on its riches. That is to say, the soul, by the example of His virtues, which it is bound to imitate, should adorn itself as with ornamental garments. And hold fast to His servants, that is, His saints, because you ought to love them and praise God for them. Send them to your Beloved to praise Him with you, and then you will truly be holy, as it is written, “With the saints you will be holy.” (Psalm 17:26). Just as a queen becomes a queen by her union with a king.”