In the autumn of 2016, I came across a book entitled He and I by Gabrielle Bossis. I had never heard of this book or the author.
“In this timeless spiritual classic, readers share in the profound and touching experience of Gabrielle Bossis, a French nurse and playwright, as she hears the inner voice of Jesus in the core of her being.”
Pauline Press Book Description on Amazon
Then I began reading, and how Jesus spoke to Gabrielle felt so familiar to my soul – in the sense of absolutely right and true – I was compelled to find out more about the woman who had written down the Lord’s intimate communications with her. Her name rang a vibrant bell inside me, and suddenly I remembered a lucid dream I had had years ago, the significance of which remained a mystery. I had titled it Gabrielle 1873:
Excerpt from my Lucid Dream of March 8, 2013:
. . . Almost on the ground now, I resign myself to finding a door to use the key on hoping it will lead directly to the beach, where my lucid dreaming friend and I are trying to meet. But I’m not happy with that. I do the usual thing of trying to find a way through the buildings by climbing through a window, and looking for an exit in the direction I want to go, but I have no patience for this anymore. I head back outside, sensing that gravity has become more realistic and that just flying away isn’t really an option for some reason. I perch on the thick, braided dark-green “rope” of a traffic signal and walk across it like a tightrope holding on to my friend’s key, which transforms, shedding two smaller keys and becoming the correct shape and color but easily three times bigger than the actual waking reality key. This seems odd but also somehow promising.
The traffic signal “tightrope” leads me into the thick white branches of a tree. The city feels different around me, more quaint and residential. The tree is a barrier to my desire to move on to my destination, yet its intricate, and complexly curving ascending limbs, provide an irresistible obstacle course. I make my way up it, and am intrigued when I perceive a white door looming just above me to the right. The door is partially covered by the roots of a tree so vast, they are all I can see of it. The roots have grown around this door, clutching it rather like a cut gem is held in a ring’s setting.
It looks as if I won’t be able to open this door even if I can manage to unlock it, but I’m compelled to investigate. The keyhole is much too small for my friend’s key, so I simply produce a golden key chain from which hang a small variety of keys. I study the assortment, honing in on a slender golden key with a delicate smooth round head. I slip-thrust it into the lock, working it in, and turn it to the right. So gratifying when I feel the movement and hear the deep “click” that means I’ve succeeded.
I push open the door, and look inside. As though I’m viewing it from an open upstairs foyer, below me I perceive two small gas lamps, delicate antiques, their glass tops gently beveled and a soft white, very distinct. They are part of a similarly elegant but subdued decor, clearly a woman’s home. The living area opens onto a kitchen, in which I can just make out a woman’s figure to the far left apparently working over the stove. Then she turns, walks into the living room, and says, “Come in, dear.”
She is an older woman with white hair, wearing a long white simply cut dress, and she feels truly present. She is so profoundly kind and welcoming, I distinctly sense something important is going on here.
Intensely intrigued, I ask, “Who are you?” and she replies, “Gabrielle, 1873.”
I then become aware that there’s another woman in the room also dressed entirely in white. She comes to stand directly beside the older woman, close to a black fireplace mantle. As they both smile up at me I ask, “And who are you?” She doesn’t respond, so I address the white-haired woman again, “You did say 1873?” She confirms that she did, while gently turning in her hands a rectangular object that appears to be part of an antique clock.
Looking at the younger woman again, I ask, “And I assume you are also Gabrielle?” She simply smiles up at me again without replying, and I slowly wake up. – End of Dream
I used a golden key to open the white door into Gabrielle’s apartment, located in a massive white tree that seemed to join heaven and earth – the Tree of Life, the Living Vine to which Jesus compared himself. I did not know it at the time, but lucid dreaming was leading me on a path in keeping with Christian mystical tradition. I ended up fully embracing the Catholic faith into which I was born.
After I re-read my dream, I went online to learn more about Gabrielle Bossis. I came across a few forums where other Christians were asking about her and her book, wondering if her personal revelations had been approved by the Church, and if it was “safe” to read He and I. I learned the Imprimatur for her book had been given by his Excellency Jean-Marie Fortier, Archbishop, Sherbrooke, Quebec. From Wikipedia:
“An imprimatur (from Latin, “let it be printed”) is an official declaration from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church that a literary or similar work is free from error in matters of Roman Catholic doctrine, and hence acceptable reading for faithful Roman Catholics.”
WikipediaI was glad to hear it, but not surprised. At first, nothing I read about Gabrielle seemed to relate to my dream except her name, until I found out she had been born in 1874, which means she was likely conceived in 1873. This provided another tenuous link to my dream. But it wasn’t until I discovered a photo of the inside of her home, and another photo of her as a very young woman, that I began to think my dream had indeed foretold my discovery of He and I, and how deeply it would resonate with me.
“On very rare occasions in her early life, Gabrielle had been surprised by a Mysterious Voice, which she heard and felt with awe, and sometimes anxious questionings, which she perceived to be the Voice of Christ. It was only at the age of 62, however, that this touching dialogue with the “Inner Voice” began in earnest, continuing (at least in her notes) until two weeks before her death on June 9, 1950.”
Mystics of the Catholic Church
This seemed to explain why I had seen an old woman and a very young woman standing side-by-side in my dream, and yet mysteriously known they were the same person. But just imagine how I felt when I learned that Gabrielle Bossis was born on February 26, 1874, which meant she was conceived in 1873, the very title I had given my dream: GABRIELLE 1873.
Words cannot express the beauty and power of He and I and how personally and intensely I feel Christ speaking to me through it. I cannot possibly recommend this book enough!
From “He and I” by Gabrielle Bossis. In all these excerpts, it is Jesus speaking:
“I want to heal you of your weak faith, of your life lived apart from Me rather than in Me, of your shortsighted and rare view of My actual Presence. Think, ‘My great friend. My beloved is not absent. I cannot see Him or touch Him, but He is there with His extravagance of love.’ And then you will take My love and offer it to Me as though it were your own. Do you want this? Tonight … Right away … Ceaselessly?”
“You’ll need great courage to become holy. Never lose sight of the goal: holiness; that means to be always in readiness for Me, to belong to Me utterly. It’s so very simple; believe Me. Would I ever ask anything that was too difficult for you? Just live in My love—holy, one moment at a time. Drive out all worries, all idle dreaming. Don’t complicate things. Give me your soul simply … Don’t fail to supernaturalize everything, night and day. It is My life that is living in you now, not yours. Adore. Give thanks. And when I ask you to be simple, I mean above all in your relations with Me. Don’t get the idea that I need any special words or gestures; just be yourself. Who is closer to you than God?”
“No, it’s not an illusion. You’re not in error, only in the shadow-land. Just feeling your way by faith. I planned it this way. So throw yourself into My arms. Say that you believe, that you hope, that you love, and commit your entire being to Me.”