Flower of Devotion

In the apparitions of St. Mechtilde we read:

“When the young man Count B. died, St. Mechtilde saw his soul, immersed in prayer, lying before the Lord and weeping bitterly. For this soul, at the end of its life on earth, was more afraid of the punishment of hell than out of love for God. Never in her mortal life did she shed a tear for God’s love. At the sight of the poverty of this soul, St. Mechtilde felt pity and asked the Lord Jesus to give to this soul all His loves, full and innocent tears, which He had once shed on earth, for the forgiveness of its sins and for their reparation. When the gracious Lord did this, the soul experienced great joy and consolation.
When, on the thirtieth day after the death of this young man, Mass was celebrated for his soul in the chapel where he was buried, and the offertory was sung, St. Mechtilde saw his soul pass by the altar and sing: “I know, O Lord, that when you gave me to death, you did it for my salvation and for the consolation of my soul!”
And St. Mechtilde asked the young man, “Who taught you to sing like this?” The young man answered, “All things are for the glory of my Creator, and I now know which of them I ought to praise Him and I can praise Him.”
The saint went on to ask, “Do you suffer in any way?” The young man answered: “I have no other suffering than that I have not yet seen my most beloved God! A God whom I desire to see with so much desire that all the desires with which anyone on earth has desired God, if they were all to be poured out into the soul of one man, would be nothing compared to my desire.”
St. Mechtilde said, “How can this be true when so many saints have longed for God with such unspeakable desire?” The young man answered: “As long as the soul is burdened with the weight of the body, it often suffers bodily obstacles, such as eating, sleeping, working, and intercourse with men. It cannot burn with such a burning desire for God as the soul, freed from the body and from all obstacles, constantly longs for God, its Creator.”
In the third month after the death of this young man, his soul appeared again to St. Mechtilde. Two radiant young men led him away dressed in a gray robe. St. Mechtilde said to him, “Does it bother you that your parents and your servants mourn you so painfully?” The young man replied: “It does not bother me; but I very much wish that they would recognize it as a good thing that the Lord God has done for my soul by taking me out of the world.”
The saint said, “Why are you dressed in this robe?” The young man said, “For at the very end of my life, after receiving the Blessed Sacrament, I determined to remain a knight of Jesus Christ, if I lived.”
St. Mechtilde asked, “What has benefited you most?” The soul answered, “The sacrifice of the Mass, almsgiving, and pure prayer.”
The saint asked, “What is pure prayer?” The soul answered, “Pure prayer is that which comes from a pure heart and when the one praying is free from sin. If he carries in his heart the consciousness of the evil deed he has committed and decides to confess it, or confesses it to God in prayer, then the prayer which he then offers flows to the divine heart as pure water and becomes highly efficacious. But the sinner’s prayer rises like muddy water.”
St. Mechtilde asked, “Who taught you these things?” The soul said, “All the things we want to know, God teaches us.”
The saint said, “Who are these young men who are with you?” The soul answered, “One of them is my Guardian Angel, to whom God on earth has commended me; the other belongs to the choir of heaven, into which I will now be introduced!”