Carrying in my heart the Infant Jesus, His flesh on my tongue – was just like a rose petal, soft, sweet flesh of the Divine Infant. I returned to my seat and bowed my head, I felt someone place a cloak over me, heavy, the weight almost threw me to the floor. It was black and hooded. I looked up. It was Saint Dominic. He stood there looking down to me and said, “It is a cloak of penance, it will grow lighter as you wear it.”
Through my Father Saint Dominic, Our Lord and His Blessed Mother had on this Christmas morning given me His choicest present. The right to suffer for Him. I always wear this cloak, though sometimes when I am with Our Lord I wear others, two, actually. I will tell you about them.
COMMENTARY:
This grace, bestowed at Communion time, is again seen to be given through the power of the Eu-charist. Once more Dorothy’s loving Father St. Dominic is closely associated with the significant graces given her by Our Lord. In fact, it was St. Dominic who first spoke to Dorothy about the mission Our Lord wished her to accomplish. Dominic’s contact with Dorothy should be seen as a continuation of his own mission to preach truth to the world, which, at the same time, is the way and the life: Jesus Christ. It is most interesting to note that in exercising his mission during his own earthly life, St. Dominic always associated penance with preaching and desired that the black hooded cloak which is part of the Dominican habit, be a constant reminder of that penance so necessary to dispose persons to accept saving truth. In this Christmas grace St. Dominic him-self clothes Dorothy in this part of the Dominican habit. Dorothy remarks that it was so heavy that it almost threw her to the ground. The heavy weight of her cloak of penance is associated with the suffering she must undergo as a victim. These sufferings were previously presented to her in the form of the huge cross which Our Lord asked her to accept during the past month of May. The words of St. Dominic mean that the practice of penance becomes easier as one’s love for God and neighbor increases. In her amazing heroic charity, Dorothy considers this gift as the “choicest” present of Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother and St. Dominic. Her heroic charity is indi-cated by the fact that she does not look upon her penance as an obligation but as a “right” to suf-fer with Our Lord. This is to say that she considers it a privilege to suffer with Our Lord as a beggar for souls, to obtain graces for them so that they might enjoy eternal life.