Discover why the dove is our symbol

The dove is an evocative symbol in the Catholic tradition. The dove and the olive branch in the Genesis story of the great flood is probably the most revealing. The dove's innocence and fragility contrasts greatly with the destruction and chaos of the flood. It is a powerful and inspiring revelation of the nature of God's spirit. The dove symbolises divine thought of a very gentle, innocent nature and represents the Spirit of the Triune God, the love that is the mystery between Creator and Redeemer.

The love of the Creator and Redeemer is the act of creation as described in Genesis 1:2: "The earth was without form, a void; darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters".

The Spirit, hovering over the waters, appears again in the flood story. The Creative and Redemptive Love is symbolised as a dove sent out and drawn back by humankind. Noah sent the dove out twice. The first time the dove hovers over the water because there is no land. It is on the dove's second journey that the dove brings back what has become the universal symbol of peace, the olive branch: the oil of life, wisdom, healing and compassion.

These gifts of the Spirit of God, peace, healing and compassion are implicit in the very first book of the Scriptures. With the revelations of the Christian Scriptures the Creative Redemptive Love of God is revealed as the pulse of the human condition:

  • "One command I give you, love one another as I have loved you."
  • "There is but one commandment, love your neighbour as yourself."
  • "God is love and those who live in love live in God."

And this love? It is famously described in the first letter of Paul to the Christian community in Corinth. Love is patient, it is kind. It is not proud or puffed up. It does not think ill of others. It endures, it does not lose faith and it does not fail.

For Catholic Healthcare the dove is a powerful guiding light that provides us with the inspiration to fulfil our ministry. In the sadness and despair of death and the frailty of dementia and sickness, we care for those in need with kindness, dignity, respect and shared grief, offering the dove-like hope which is the love of the Creator / Redeemer hovering over the depth of human ageing and death.