On Sunday 31 March I was as usual part of the choir at St Francis' Church, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne for the Easter Sunday 11:00 mass and we were standing in the back of the sanctuary behind the altar and the celebrant. While the celebrant was reading the Gospel one of the servers was standing to the left of the lecturn, waving the thurible back and forth, with a steady cloud of incense rising upwards. Something unusual caught my eye as a perfect ring of white smoke also emanated from the thurible. With a thick rim, it quickly became more square than round and then as it passed the celebrant and the right hand side of the lecturn it formed into a perfectly symmetrical dove, complete with wings, head and beak, and then slowly dissipated as it passed towards the front row of pews on the right hand side of the church with two shiny wing edges remaining visible until it was gone.
In Christian faith the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity, and I felt as if I had seen the Holy Spirit that morning. Somewhat prophetically, the following sermon was about keeping your faith, even in times of doubt. With all the trials and tribulations in life set in a rationalistic (and some might even say atheistic) age keeping faith can be a daily struggle when your soul is sorrowful and burdened. I want to believe but I would be lying to say that there are no doubts. However, seeing that white smoky dove in that precise place at that precise moment on Easter Sunday brought some tears to the eyes of a weary soul and it was if for those few seconds the Holy Spirit made it plain that it walks amongst us and that we can dare to keep faith in hope and the message of the resurrection story.
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