Catholic Exchange

Candles in the Darkness

Written by

Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

in

My five-year-old son David does not enjoy going to school. Morning battles at our house are not pretty. As I drove him to school one Friday a few weeks back, we both had reached the end of our ropes. He was crying and screaming in the back seat and I was exhausted. I knew I had to do something to help him calm down so I asked him if he wanted to stop by the church (which is adjacent to the school) to light a candle and say a prayer. He nodded weakly and said "Yes." It seemed to help. The tears stopped and he went off to school, if not happily, at least more composed.

So, we have added this to our morning routine. Every school day David, his four-year-old brother Isaac, and I stop for a brief moment before sending David off to school. The church is so quiet at that time of the morning. The lights are dim and often we are the only ones there. The boys stop in front of the statue of Mary and baby Jesus and discuss which candle they each are going to light. We don't have real candles – they are just little electric lights inside of votive covers that make them look like candles. The boys pick their chosen candles and push a button. Instantly there is light shimmering in the darkness. We say a simple prayer – an Our Father, Hail Mary, or Glory Be. Our voices echo in the stillness. We bless ourselves with holy water and leave. The whole ritual takes two minutes at most, but it gets the day off to a good start.

As a small child, my mother would often take me to churches during the day as we would be out running errands or going to pick up my older sister from school. We would always stop to light candles and say a prayer. Of course, back then the candles were real and a wonderful aroma permeated from them. It was always comforting to know that the lit candle was there, continuing to lift our prayers to God long after we had left the church.

I hadn't lit candles in church for a long time. I considered myself too theologically advanced for such simple symbolism. Prayer is prayer and God hears it with or without the candle. But there is a place for symbols in life, and candles can be particularly powerful ones. The light represents Jesus, the light of the world, breaking through the darkness. The light represents the light within each one of us struggling to shine despite the trials and tribulations we may be going through. It represents our prayers going up to God.

Yes, lighting candles in church does have value and I have come to look forward to our morning visit as much as David and Isaac do. There is peace in the darkness and the stillness, and there is a great deal of comfort in knowing that those tiny little electric lights are glowing throughout the day as a sign of our prayer.

Comments

  1. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    The visit to Jesus itself, a custom that was common in my childhood, is more healing than the candle which symbolizes it.  I remember, as a very young child, being taken into the dim interior of the church, lit only by the sun through stained glass.  My grandmother took me all the way down to the altar rail and pointed to the sanctuary light. "Look, that shows that Jesus is here," and pointed to the tabernacle.  I must have been all of three and I never forgot. 

  2. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    As a mom of three, I really liked this article a lot especially since my 7 year old does the same thing…fights me about going to school. My husband and I have been lost as to what to do to make getting up in the morning and school appealing but nothing seems to work. I do love this idea of going to the church however our parish is so far away that it would not be possible daily. It costs us too much in gas just to go on Saturday for Confession and back again for Sunday Mass. I used to like going to the church myself before my kids were born, just to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament but a lot of parishes started closing their doors during the afternoon when I could go due to crime. I always thought that was quite horrible that a church had to be closed. In rural areas, I think they might close doors too since there is not a priest in the rectory all the time or even an office open, so that the church just has to be closed since no one is there to watch the doors.

     

    I would love to see a similiar idea for Catholics who are too far from the church to make visits. I know there is the online virtual visits one can make to Jesus. I believe the site is savior.org but I don't think my children could understand that and the whole atmosphere of the church building would be taken away. I suppose that would work for older children, making a virtual visit if they cannot in person.

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