Flower of Devotion

When the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Love arrived, Saint Mechtilde asked the Queen of Heaven what she wanted to be said on that day in honour of this graceful solemnity. At the same hour the gracious Virgin appeared to her, and said:

“Say as many Hail Loves as I have been in my mother’s womb, namely, two hundred and seventy-seven.” And remind Me of the joy I now enjoy when I see the joy of the Most Holy Trinity and know the joy that the Most Holy Trinity has had because of the predilection with which it has given Me precedence over other creatures from eternity.
But the Most Holy Trinity rejoiced especially at my birth, so that heaven and earth and all creatures rejoiced together because of the richness of this joy; although they did not know the joy of this reason. For like a master who is about to create a marvelous work, he looks at it intently in his spirit, and sees it with joy first in his heart; the Most Holy Trinity in Me was equally rejoicing, and rejoiced that He would make of Me such a work that in it all the artistry of Her power, wisdom and goodness would be most magnificently revealed; and at the same time she knew that her work in Me would never be corrupted.
And she has bestowed so graciously and with so much delight on my birth and my childhood that she considers all the works of my childhood as a joyful plaything, according to the statement of the Holy Scriptures: “Playing before him at all times” (Proverbs 8:31).
Further, remind me of the joy that I had in the fact that God loved Me so much before all His creatures that He often spared the world for this love for Me even before I was born. Out of His abundant love for Me, He hastened My coming into the world, and came to meet Me with His grace while I was still in my mother’s womb.
Then remind me of the joy I had in this, that the Lord God honored Me more worthily than all the angels and all the creatures. From the hour when my soul was poured into my body, he filled me with the Holy Spirit. He has completely freed Me from original sin, and by a peculiar sanctification He has consecrated Me to a dwelling place sacred to Him, so that I have come into the world as a rose without thorns and like the dawn of the morning.