Leadership Monthly

Reflection Column

For the last several years I have decorated my front and back yards with solar lights. From Holy Saturday through Thanksgiving the lights are white, changed to blue until Holy week, when my yards are unlit. This year I kept the blue lights in place even through Holy Week, joining a movement begun by women religious in which people everywhere are displaying blue lights in their windows as a sign of hope in perpetual vigil for peace and solidarity among humankind. As the bare branches of the bushes develop nodes that began to bud and now are in full leaf, the blue lights shine bright at night as though from inside the bushes. “Nodes are places where the life within bursts through to life on the outside,” said Corbin Hannah, S.P., in a recent Horizons article in Global Sisters Report.

Blue flames are the hottest part of a fire. It reminds me of the image of Christ with continuous sprays of blood and water pouring forth from his heart. While the original image dictated by St. Faustina only depicts the color of red (blood) and white (water), the image we are most used to seeing often seems to emit a third spray of blue. Medical images of the human heart shows our oxygen rich blood as red and our oxygen depleted blood as blue. When phlebotomists are looking for a good vein, they seek a large blue one. But in reality, our blood is not blue. It is instead our skin that absorbs red light and reflects blue light. Apart from the science, some interpret blue light, and particularly blue flame as purifying, cleansing, and refining by a compassionate fire, a divine revelation or the Holy Spirit.

This year the Church will celebrate Pentecost on May 24, and nearly three weeks later, we will celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart for which our community is named. This year is particularly significant. We will not only renew our consecration to our Lord’s Sacred Heart but also celebrate a new milestone in our community’s history with a ceremony ritualizing the transfer of our governance from an elected President and Council to an Appointed Leader (Pontifical Commissary), and her appointed Delegate.



As each of us continues to live out the remainder of our lives as Toledo Ursuline Sisters and Associates, may we keep our eyes on the flaming Heart of Jesus on fire with mercy, witness the reflection of his fire in others, and reflect the fire of the Holy Spirit who breathes within us. May our every inhalation be filled with holy breath and our every exhalation breathe love and compassion upon the earth.