Spiritual flame is a precious heirloom

St. Helena's Cathedralin Helena, Mont., is like a giant jewel box — sturdy and imposing on the outside but colorful and warm within.

I suspect we all know people like that.

But what makes the cathedral amazing is the light it contains. Dozens of stained-glass windows depict biblical scenes. And one scene has stuck with me. It shows the apostles on the day of Pentecost, tiny flames flickering above their heads. The Bible says the flame was the Holy Spirit.

In that stained-glass window, the apostles — to my mind — looked like birthday candles.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter Helena celebrated her 26th birthday. After dinner, my wife brought in a cake with a full congregation of birthday candles on top. She lit one candle, then used it to light all the others, one by one.

The thought struck me: Wasn't that heaven's way? When believers gather, doesn't God ignite one candle with the "Pentecostal" spirit — a speaker, perhaps, or a soloist — then use that "candle" to ignite all the others? And whether he's healing them or inspiring them, doesn't he always go one by one, touching each in turn, calling them to life?

On the way home from Montana, I thought about those little tongues of flame. And I thought of the new pope. The pointed miter he wears represents the flame of the Holy Spirit as it descended on St. Peter at Pentecost. In fact, all the massive Masses and great cathedrals are celebrations of that spirit. And God's saints are the lanterns that bear the flame into the world.

St. Helena herself was such a saint. Legend has it she was a Turkish prostitute who found God, married and eventually gave birth to Constantine, the Roman emperor who Christianized the Western world. At one point in her life, Helena went to Jerusalem where, it's said, she not only found the true cross but brought it back to Rome. Even today, Catholic archaeologists pray to Helena for help and intervention.

St. Helena was one of a kind.

But then, too, so is our Helena, the birthday girl. That same spiritual flame that touched the holy souls of epochs gone by can still be ignited in every soul today — rich or poor, young or old.

Every human being, I'm convinced, is born with an inner wick that is just waiting to catch fire.

At our little birthday party, we sang a song for Helena while she made a wish.

At St. Helena's Cathedral in Montana, people offered their own silent hopes and wishes, and hymns were sung.