My Dove

March 11, 2018

For so many years I have hesitated to write this because of my doubts, but today I understood its meaning,  and so I write:

Just after coming into the Catholic Church many times Jesus called me, “My dove”.  At that time I wondered what it could mean and remember that all I could think of was soap (Dove soap – now I think how silly this was!)  I had never heard this expression before.  Then today I read from an article about Sr. Mildred Neuzil (from the Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity):

Catholic Scriptural teaching has always seen the dove as the emblem of the Holy Spirit, understood as Love personified in the inner life of the Trinity itself, and in its smallness of form, as Humility when it comes to the way in which the Spirit works in us and in the world for our sanctification.  His way is hidden, interior, gentle, quiet, meant not to be seen but to be experienced deep within the soul, like a gentle breeze, not in the roar of thunder.”  The dove is a symbol of peace and new life after purification.

Added from Luisa’s writings – Mar. 17, 2018:

Book of Heaven, Nov. 22, 1901 - “My daughter, when the soul does the will of someone else in everything, it is said that she has trust in that person, therefore she lives from someone else’s volition, and not from her own. In the same way, when the soul does my Will in everything, I say that she has faith. So, Divine Will and faith are branches produced by the same trunk; and since faith is simple, faith and Divine Will produce a third branch, that of simplicity. And here is how the soul comes to reacquire the characteristics of a dove in everything. Don’t you want, then, to be my dove?”

Book of Heaven, June 20, 1926 “…you are the tiny little dove that has gone around and around Me, and while I spoke to you about my Will, manifesting to you the knowledges about It, Its goods, Its prodigies and even Its sorrow, you beat your wings, and hurling yourself over the many seeds I placed before you, you grabbed them with your beak and, triumphant, you continued your flight around Me, waiting for more seeds of my Will which I would place before you. And, again, grabbing them with your beak, you nourished yourself and, victorious, continued your flight, manifesting the Kingdom of my Will. So, my prerogatives are yours, my Kingdom and yours are one; we have suffered together – it is right that together we enjoy our conquests.”

Update: Dec. 22, 2018

This morning during Adoration in the Chapel at SJN, I was thinking about this writing (above) that I came across yesterday in my notes and had forgotten about it.  While meditating on the “dove”, a thought came to my mind about the Ark, Noah and the dove and how this relates to us today.  Noah sent the dove out of the ark to circle the earth – our Ark today is Our Blessed Mother – we do all our acts through Her Immaculate Heart and together with the Holy Spirit go out of the Ark bringing our Acts, united with Jesus’ Acts, to all the earth.  As the dove returned to the ark with the olive branch, so we return to Him giving Him our acts of love and reparation, and representing the dove returning with an olive branch, He brings us His peace.  I understood so much more, but unable to put into words.

Then, as I was thinking to myself that I would never show this to anyone else, I proceeded to read this from Vol. 12 (June 14, 1918):   

“ When you pass over my intimacies with you – over the display of my Love, I feel as though betrayed, because in that display of love, in those intimacies with you I tried to attract not only you to know Me and love Me more, but also those who would read my intimacies of love, in order to receive more love also from them. …Yes, this is the weakness of all the good, who out of humility, out of fear, deny love to Me and in hiding themselves, they want to hide Me.  Instead, they should manifest my Love, to make Me loved.  So, I remain always the Jesus betrayed in love - even by the good.”

And so, I will come out from hiding and offer this to you and whatever else Our Lord wishes me to share.  Fiat!

Song of Songs 2:14

"O my dove in the clefts of the rock,

in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely."

Luisa's prayer from the 23rd hour of the Hours of the Passion:

My Love, if a lance has wounded your Heart for me, I pray that You too, with your own hands, wound my heart, my affections, my desires – all of myself. Let there be nothing in me which is not wounded by your love. I unite everything to the harrowing pains of our dear Mama, who, for the pain of seeing your Heart being ripped open, falls into a swoon of sorrow and love; and like a dove, She flies in It to take the first place – to be the first Repairer, the Queen of your very Heart, the Mediatrix between You and the creatures. I too, with my Mama, want to fly into your Heart, to hear how She repairs, and to repeat Her reparations for all the offenses You receive. O my Jesus, in this wounded Heart of Yours, I will find my life again; therefore, anything I may be about to do, I will always draw from It. I will no longer give life to my thoughts; but if these want life, I will take Yours. My will will no longer have life; but if it wants life, I will take your Most Holy Will. My love will no longer have life; if it wants life, I will take your Love. O my Jesus, all of your Life is mine – this is your Will, this is my will.

Lynne Bauer, Dec. 22, 2018