Lighting candles during Lent

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
 
GRAFTON – With the arrival of Lent, St. James Parish will probably need more votive candles. 
“So many of them are lit,” said Father Anthony J. Mpagi, pastor. “People are really into the practice.”
He said he thinks parishioners and passersby light the candles to bring their prayers to God and ask for the intercession of the saints. The candles are by statues of Mary, baby Jesus, St. Joseph, and St. James. 
“I think it enriches the spiritual life, knowing there are people (the saints) who will bring our prayers to God,” Father Mpagi said.
Today, votive candles are making a comeback in many churches in the United States, he said.
People connect light and fire to God’s presence, he said, citing Moses encountering God at the burning bush and the ancient temples being lit by fire. 
Celeste Allain, the parish secretary, said she stops in the church weekday mornings and again in the afternoon. By the end of the day she sees that more candles have been lit. She and Father Mpagi both expect an increase in candle-lighting during Lent.
Mrs. Allain said she typically orders a case of 576 candles, which costs about $100, every two months. St. James regularly gets $200 or more a week in donations for the six-hour wax candles, she said, adding that some people give more than the usual $1.
The money helps the parish. But more important is the growth of people’s spiritual life, Father Mpagi said.
“Why are young people attracted (to light and what it stands for)?” he asked. “When you go to a concert … there’s that cell phone light.” His explanation is that the secular world is borrowing the use of light from the spiritual world, and he noted that Taize prayer and retreats use candles.
“I attended the International Eucharistic Congress” last September in Budapest where more than 200,000 participants processed through the city at night with candles, he said. “It was a powerful witness, the light of God, the light that shatters the darkness,” bringing clarity of mind and revealing God’s will.

GREW UP WITH CANDLES

Mary Sevon, 59, said Father David Engo introduced the candles at St. James about a year and a half ago when he was parish administrator. When she joined in 2014, the parish didn’t have votive candles, she said, but they were present in most churches in Philadelphia where she came from.
“It’s just something that I grew up with,” she said.  “You said the prayer, but you got two extra things with the light and smoke.”
“I don’t light candles very often, but for specific intentions I will,” said parishioner Adrian Gallagher, 65. “I just feel it’s like in the Old Testament, incense rising up before God … a light in the darkness. Once the church is empty, and the lights are off, the candles are there.”
 “I love to see the faith of the people that go up and light the candles,” said his wife, Marj Gallagher, 76. “I say a prayer for them as they’re lighting it.” 
“When I light a candle I ask for saints to pray for my intention all day long,” said parishioner Ruth Driscoll, 56. She can then leave and let go, trusting that a saint who is with God will pray for her.
“I love having the candles,” she said. “God comes to us through our senses and he allows us to worship him through our senses. So when I see the candles it gives me hope and community because somebody lit that, because they had a special prayer.” She can pray for their intentions too, she said.

NOT ALONE

Prayers have shown Letty Atamian, 58, that she and her family are not alone as they face serious illness. She said her daughter Rosa Elizabeth Lugo, 40, got COVID in December. Her organs failed and she was on a ventilator. Doctors expected that, if she lived, she would be a “vegetable.” But she can talk now, the mother said. Ms. Lugo went home Feb. 24 and is using oxygen for support. 
“We’ve been lighting candles, dedicated to the Trinity especially, because I put it in the hands of the Trinity,” asking God to light the way for Ms. Lugo and give her strength, Mrs. Atamian said. People at the parish also asked for the intercession of Mary, St. Joseph, St. James and Jesus as King of Divine Mercy, she said.  
“He’s been answering all of our prayers,” Mrs. Atamian said. “I can’t thank him enough.… We did prayer chains all over the world … so the power of prayer I will never doubt.”
Father Mpagi leaves the church open so people can come to pray. When he closes it at night, the lit candles force him to stop and pray, he said.
“Many times I will bring the prayers of the people who lit the candles to God,” without knowing what those prayers are, he said.