Stephen Dedalus would dress in all black and carry his ash-plant in mourning for his dead mother who he refused to pray for on his death bed. But he still mourned.

Ever since my brother died during the middle of my conversion I have been seeing mourning doves everywhere.
On my street, in my neighborhood, in the cemetery. Everywhere. They made a nest in the tree in my front yard and raised baby doves. But then the tree died and was cut down and the doves went away. I would still see them but they were not in my front yard. It must have been a punishment for my sins. But now they are back and more than ever. They are building a new nest in a tree across the street and they will have new baby doves. And I am seeing the mourning doves everywhere.

I take them as a sign that I should mourn for my dead brother. As well as others who have died. Often when I see them they fly away and when they fly away they sing a dirge that goes "coo, coo, coo". The dirge is where they get their name from. They sound like a widow crying for her dead husband at the funeral, a widow with no children to take care of her. They always sing this song.

Today as I was going out from the kitchen  door into the backyard I saw a sight I have never seen before. Seven mourning doves were all togetherr in a group. And as I left the house and was looking at them they all flew away, some into the trees and others on to the telephone wires above our garage. They did not sing their dirge, there was no "coo, coo, coo". Perhaps I am being superstitious, but I took it as a sign that the days of mourning were over and that now will comes the days of joy.

I have been having a lot of joy lately. I am trying to overcome my disability one step at a time. I am not whole yet but I am getting better. I am trying to learn how to be an adult and am looking for honest work. I am trying to make more friends at Church and outside of Church. I am laughing a lot and being happy. I quit my fasting and am now feasting. I think I am called to feast and no longer fast,"after the perturb'd winds and the storms."

Saint Patrick, my brother's name saint, pray for us. I do believe my grandmother and my uncle were good people and are in heaven so I hope they are looking over us. We need their help as much as they can help us. And I have a little cousin who died on the day he was born after baptism. His name is Michael. He is our little saint and he is looking after us too.

Mourning Dove

Ironically, mourning doves give me great joy.  I think they have one of the sweetest bird faces.  We have a couple that visit our backyard, and they make me smile.  Then again, I happen to be a bird lover.

I also love them and their song gives me great joy, like a prayer rising swiftly to heaven. Believe it or not, in all my life I never noticed them until my brother died and after he died, I saw them everywhere. Now they are my favorite bird, though I do love the little sparrows also.

I've been feeding the mourning doves at my feeder for a few years, and they have multiplied. I love the way they sound. Often when I say my rosary by the window one will sit on the branch outside and be very still all throughout, as though it's listening. 

The animals never fell. Before the fall, Adam could speak to the animals and they listened to him. He knew their speech and they knew his. But after the fall, the animals rebelled against man because he rebelled against God and was deformed by sin. 

Well, they did in a sense.  When man fell, the animals went down with him, since their ordering toward God goes through men.

Yes, I can't find a succinct article for you, but I recall this from my extensive reading of the Church Fathers.

Before the Fall, men did not eat animals, but lived off of the food in the garden, and animals served their needs and were subject to them and obedient to them.  It was this subjection to man that kept them ordered toward God.  After the Fall, this hierarchical order was broken.  Animals turned on men, and went wild.

Now, of course, on one level, animals do not sin; they operate according to those natural instincts.  But just like the human animal instincts used to obey man's higher faculties, but then took on a mind of their own afterward (concupiscence), so too the animal world followed a similar path ... first in subjection to man, then broken away with a mind of its own.

If I had to speculate, I would guess that even mosquitoes would not bit man before the Fall.

Yes, I can't find a succinct article for you, but I recall this from my extensive reading of the Church Fathers.

Before the Fall, men did not eat animals, but lived off of the food in the garden, and animals served their needs and were subject to them and obedient to them.  It was this subjection to man that kept them ordered toward God.  After the Fall, this hierarchical order was broken.  Animals turned on men, and went wild.

Yes, this is how I understand it. I remember the legends of Good Bishops speaking to the wild animals and they heard them and became tame and I thought that was how it was in the garden. We all know of Saint Francis. But I clearly remember one tale, though I forget the details. I don't want to look up the story, but let me retell the story, based on my memory and my inspiration:

A good Bishop was leading the building of a Church and the good people were bringing timber to the site of the Church so that they could build it. The timber was being drawn by a team of oxen. Suddenly out of the woods came a bear and the bear attacked the drivers and the oxen. The drivers and other men fled from the scene, all except the saintly Bishop. The bear did not touch a hair on the Bishop's head but he turned on one of the oxen and devoured him. The Bishop watched and waited. And when the bear was finished the good Bishop spoke to the bear. He told him that he had killed a good ox that was doing the work of the Church and the work of God. Now, he said, you must take the place of the ox and bear his load so that we can give honor and glory to God in his temple. The bear was tamed at the words of the Bishop and the drivers came back and put on his harness. And he drew his load as part of the team with the other oxen. The ox-drivers were afraid at first but when they saw the bear now tamed they grew calm and had peace and confidence that they were safe. When the timber reached the Church they loosened the harness on the bear and the good Bishop blessed him and forgave him and told him he had payed the debt he owed to the good God. The bear went away into the woods and from that day on the bear was tame and never harmed another man, though in his youth he had devoured them. And the forest had peace because of the faith of the good Bishop.

What was the name of that Saintly Bishop?

When the animals obey saints, I believe that to be praeter- or super- natural.  I don't believe that they have an natural knowledge of needing to submit to and heed the saints.  God worked miracles through those saints as a lesson to us.

St Martin de Porres demonstrated great control over and care for animals, even pestilent rodents.

The monastery had problems with them and the prior ordered Martin to put poison about. Of course Martin obeyed. But he was sorry for the rats. So he went into the garden, and calling softly reprimanded them, told them of the poison and ensured them that he would feed them in the garden, if only they would stay out and stop worrying the prior. Thus was solved the problem of the rats.