Flower of Devotion

During the Holy Mass celebrated in honor of the Holy Cross, St. Mechtilde saw in the middle of the church a beautiful tree, which in its height and width covered the whole earth. It grew out of those branches which, having risen above the ground, bent and bent again to the ground. Under one of these branches were irrational beasts, which ate the fruit that fell from the tree. They signified sinners and those people who live like animals. As irrational animals, they partake of God’s goodness without feeling grateful, and will never look with gratitude to Him from whom all good things come.
Under the second branch the people ate of the fruit of the tree, and they signified the good and righteous of the Church. And the souls who were to be purified in purgatory came in headless forms and refreshed themselves with the fragrance of the tree.
Black birds also flew around the tree, but the thick smoke that came out of it, drove them away. These birds, as the saint understood, by emphasizing the sharpness of the smoke, represented Satans and all sensual temptations, which man cannot overcome in any other way than by meditating on the Passion of Christ.
And the priest who was celebrating the Holy Mass was covered and surrounded by the leaves of this tree, and all around hung branches full of fruit. This meant that everyone who loved the Passion of Jesus perfectly would be ennobled in his virtues, and that everything good he did would be added to his merits. All the hearts of the faithful, too, hung in the branches of the tree, represented by burning lamps; And the oil that burned in the lamps poured into them from the tree. This meant that no one could love the Passion of Jesus of his own accord unless this love was poured into him by the grace of God. And in this way, if the lamps were burned, it was understood that everyone who wished to love God should keep the Passion of the Lord constantly in mind. He should often meditate on it and worship it. For it is by this that he will find sufficient material for the love of God. For there is nothing that inflames the mind so much as the contemplation of the Passion of Jesus Christ our Lord.