A religious order of nuns called the Brigidine Sisters are devoted to honoring the ministry of St. Brigid. They operate Solas Bhride Centre in Kildare. Solas Bhríde is “a Christian Spirituality Centre which welcomes people of all faiths and of no faith.” Shaped like a big St. Brigid’s Cross, the site is mindfully engineered toward ecological sustainability.

Within the Centre, the Sisters tend the eternal flame of St. Brigid, which has been carried to several peace conferences around the world. There’s a monument in Kildare that was intended to house the flame as a very publicly visible beacon of hope, justice, and peace. As that flame would have been kept burning through natural gas, the Brigidine Sisters ultimately objected to its continued use because of the harm that would be done to the planet to keep the fire going. 

So, they tend the flame more sustainably, transferring it to new vessels as needed or for rituals and special events. The Sisters say, “fire is a symbol of the Divine Presence within each of us. We are called to reconnect with the fire at a deep and ancient part of our being where we are all interconnected with each other and all life.”

They also don’t mind that the original spiritual fires burning in Kildare, both literally and figuratively, were for the goddess Brigit. The goddess and the saint have a lot in common. Their stories have remarkable parallels. Their values are quite similar to one another. The nuns even admit, “You don’t have to do more than scratch the surface of the saint to find the goddess.”

It’s like their commitment to the values they affirm is more important than who gets credit for establishing those values. And did I mention that this small religious order has launched a vision for global peace that engages political leaders and spans continents? They have a very refined clarity of purpose, and they aren’t shy about it.

As Unitarian Universalists, fire is central to how we define sacred space, too. We don’t light our chalice each Sunday by transferring flame from a fire that never gets extinguished, but I suppose we could if a group of volunteers wanted to take shifts tending an eternal flame. I’m not sure what that would accomplish for us. 

We could be more intentional about allowing the symbol of our fire to kindle something within us, though. A sense of the Divine Presence within each of us. Our inherent worthiness that is equal to the inherent worthiness of every other person. Our inextricable interwovenness with all existence.

As we physically light our chalice, we might even imagine that the sacredness of each of us becomes a part of that flame. And when we extinguish the chalice, the symbolic flame continues to burn within us. We become custodians of all that the flame might represent. Then we are tasked with tending that flame, within ourselves and through our interactions with the world around us, until we bring it back to contribute to our common chalice again. 

And maybe, if we’re carrying that flame within us, we would also become aware of how we carry the values of our faith into lots of other places. Spaces that don’t even have a chalice to which we might transfer the flame. 

And don’t need one. 

Because we’re there. 

Tending an intentional beacon of our values. 

What would that be like?

Share this post: