When I began asking God to show me how to integrate my faith into my artwork, I had no notion of drawing comics. I was (and still am) a natural history illustrator, creating works of precision and detail that are highly realistic.
One morning, on what was perhaps a holy impulse, I drew a short comic about my dog. That little comic led to another, and I began to pray the Examen with these hand-drawn stories. What I discovered is that God is near, very near, and he desires to reveal himself to me in the most ordinary moments of my days. After months of prayer, these comics sowed into my heart the desire to become a Catholic storyteller.
To illustrate my story of the Holy Spirit as dove, I first polled my husband. My husband studies birds for a living, and I draw and paint them as a professional artist, so birds pay our bills. Birds dominate our daily conversations and exercise a lot of influence over our lives. I’m not exaggerating when I say that birds determine where we go on vacation and what we do while we’re there. We even named our dog after a bird: Finch.
After considering my husband’s suggestion of which species I might use in the comic, I applied one of St Ignatius’ approaches to prayer. I entered into the Gospel scene of Jesus’ baptism. The image of a local desert dove of Israel entered my heart. The Namaqua dove is a species that Jesus might have seen and heard often as he walked.
Because of the nature of my work and lifestyle, I look at birds a lot. The same might not be true for you. But you may be familiar with one dove species in particular, which is found all over the world: rock pigeons. These humble denizens of cities and towns are sometimes called “rats with wings.” Much maligned, these doves are the marginalized cousins of both dove species that appear in the comic.
The comic illustrates two moments in Jesus’ life where the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Scripture: his baptism and the beginning of his sojourn in the desert. The Holy Spirit descends as a dove and then that same spirit “drives” Jesus into the desert. First the affirmation of the Father: “This is my beloved son,” followed by the attack of the evil one: “If you are really the son of God.”
God is speaking to us with love, mercy and tenderness, especially in the most ordinary of circumstances — even seeing a pigeon going about its daily life.
All of us experience these conflicting aspects of our spiritual lives in consolation and desolation. We are all challenged to discern the spirits at work in us. God is speaking to us with love, mercy and tenderness, especially in the most ordinary of circumstances — even seeing a pigeon going about its daily life. Yet there is the temptation to dismiss these signs as too mundane or too gritty to be divine.
The next time you spot a pigeon, I invite you to consider, just for a moment, that this species too could be considered as an image of the Holy Spirit. Allow that bird to prompt your imagination and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes a little. How is God accompanying you in this ordinary moment of your day? What holy impulse is right at your fingertips, awaiting your response?