Hey! I'm Patrick Ginty, and welcome again to
Catholic NC TV. This is where we discuss
all things Catholic, and all things
Catholic North Carolina. We're gonna look
at, once again, our Google's Most Searched
Questions: Catholic Edition. This is
number five on the list; pretty high up
on the list for what, to me, is a very
minuscule question. But it is, 'Why do
Catholics light candles?' So we're gonna
get into that. First of all, the one thing
you have to understand is, lighting a
candle is not worship. For us, you know,
some people look at this as like, the
'smoking gun' that proves that Catholics
'worship idols' and that they have 'false
gods' and everything else, and therefore
Catholics, you know, are 'out to lunch', and
we don't have to pay them any attention.
But Catholics, we don't see it as worship.
We have our worship, it's the Holy Mass,
it's the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
where we offer up the one sacrifice of
Jesus to the Father in heaven. That's our
worship. Everything else, you know, is just
peripheral, specifically candles. One of
the main reasons why we light candles is
just, we're an old church. I mean, the Catholic
Church has been around for 2,000 years!
We've been lighting candles for a really
long time! And it's been passed down to
us. You know, we have records that, in the
catacombs, you know, people would light
candles in front of the tombs of the
martyrs and the saints, you know, as a way
of honoring them and and remembering
them, and also as a symbol of prayer,
which we're gonna get into that in a
second. One thing in my research I saw as
well, is that, you know, even into the
Middle Ages,
you know, fourth and fifth century,
lighting candles was a really big deal!
One cool thing that I found was that, in
the Middle Ages, around the year 500, 600 A.D.,
people would actually get candles that
were as tall as they were, and they would
light them as a form of prayer! And I
just think that's really cool, and we
should start doing that again. Also, just
think about it: electricity has only been
around for, not that long!
You know, and candles were just necessary
in churches, they were necessary everywhere!
And that's why, I think, we don't
understand candles as much as as we
should, because we have electricity, we
just turn on the lights, and candles
really don't mean anything to us anymore.
On a more theological level, again, you
know, it's not a main aspect of our faith,
but if you — in the Gospel of John, one of the
main themes is Jesus calling himself "The
light". Constantly, throughout this gospel,
Jesus Christ is referring to himself as
The Light, that when we walk with Christ,
we don't walk in darkness, because we
have the light of life. And Jesus said, 'I
am the way, the truth and the life.' He is
the light of the world. When we
light a candle, it's really a
representative of Christ's presence among
us. We have his presence in the Eucharist,
but the presence of Christ in the light
is special to Catholics. On the Easter
Vigil, which is the night before Easter,
really, the whole Mass begins with
lighting a fire, and then we have the
Paschal candle, which is the big, big
candle — I think that even goes back to the Middle
Ages, the big candle thing, I'll think
about that some more — but we light that
big candle and we walk into a dark
church, and the deacon sings 'Christ our
Light'. So again, the candle, the light,
Jesus Christ, it's a symbol of Him and
His presence among us. And the last thing
is, a lot of times you'll see candles, you
know, burning before an image either of
a saint, or of Jesus, or of Mary, and
really the candle is there to represent
our prayer, and the candle is really
meant to accompany a prayer — you don't
just light the candle and say, 'Alright,
I've lit a candle, I don't have to pray
for this person anymore.'
No! You light the candle and it
represents the fact that that intention
you have is constantly before God, even
though we leave the church and we go
along with the rest of our life, that
candle is there it represents the fact
that we are petitioning for this person
or this necessity that we have, and that
we're praying for it. Really, human beings,
we're sacramental. We're flesh, we're bone,
you know, we're spiritual at the same
time, and so along with the spiritual
ideas we have, we need something that's
tangible. We need to see, we need to hear,
we need to,
you know, we need to smell all of those
things. And that's why candles are so
beautiful. So I hope this helped out a
little bit to understand the Catholic
faith and the candles. Hopefully it's not
as weird as you thought it was. Thanks so
much for joining us on Catholic NC TV, my
name is Patrick Ginty, and I hope you and
your family are very blessed.
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