One of the reasons I love the Holy Spirit is the way that the various symbols speak to me.
There are also many, many symbols of the Holy Spirit. The dove is probably the most prominent. It is referenced in the Gospels at Jesus’ Baptism, and that’s probably why it’s the symbol that’s most common.
“And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” – John 1:32
The Catechism highlights many of these symbols. The first symbol that the Catechism speaks of about the Holy Spirit is water. It says that water is a symbol of new life that we first receive at Baptism. The water gives life. We cannot live without water. Seeds can’t grow without water. Water is absolutely necessary for life. At Baptism, we pray that the water would be filled with the Holy Spirit, that the water would be blessed by the Holy Spirit, and that water is poured over, usually, the infant, and that the same Spirit that blessed and manifested to Jesus blesses, manifests, and anoints the baptized.
Water gives life, and the water receives its life from the Holy Spirit. The water also cleanses. It makes all things new. The water cleanses; it frees. It transforms. It changes.
Another image is fire, one that we see several times in the Scriptures: the fire at Pentecost. There’s something about this—the strength and the power that is in fire. But fire does other things, particularly if we think about it in Jesus’ day. Fire brings light. You know, we just generally go and turn on a light switch, but that wasn’t the case. Fire brings light. It helps people to see.
When I pray for the Holy Spirit to come, it is often through the fire that envision His falling. ‘Let Your Fire Fall.’
So much of our lives is lived in shadows, sometimes in darkness, and we need to be able to see. The fire also brings protection. We think of the shepherd with his sheep, and it’s late at night, and it’s dark, and he would create the fire to be able to, obviously, see, but also to protect. The wolf is nervous with the fire, and the wolf isn’t going to come and attack the sheep because of the fire. So it protects.
The fire also heals. The light heals that which we need to be made present. The fire, the heat, it purifies. It heals. It restores. Just a beautiful image of the Holy Spirit.
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” – Exodus 13:21
Two other images that we see in the Scriptures are those of cloud and light. The two go together. In the Old Testament, the cloud was the manifestation of God. It was the Shekinah glory. It reveals the living and saving God while veiling the transcendent in His glory—when Moses was on Mount Sinai, in the tent of meeting, during the wanderings in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. What is always consistent there is that this cloud, this manifestation of God, is the Shekinah glory of God. Think of that the next time you see a cloud. Again, these things that are all around us—light and fire and water—they’re images.
They’re symbols that can move our mind to God.
What image of the Spirit comes to mind when you think and pray to the Holy Spirit?