Lighting prayer candles at home

Do you know , one of my favorite things about being a Catholic is lighting candles in church. I really like that that is one of our things.

I love to see all the lights flickering in their glasses, and thinking about the people who came up before me to light and pray, and what their intentions are. There is a specialness, like a feeling of pilgrimage, to visit that part of the church and state your intentions through prayer.

It occurred to me this week that I don’t have to wait for being inside a church to do this. I could, I suppose, create such a space in my home. And then I realized, already do. I have a a tall, white pillar candle I light specifically during morning prayer. And when I work each day, I have a small votive candle lit in front of my St. Joseph the worker statue, so he can help me out while I labor (that’s a little bit of a joke because my in-front-of-the-computer work is not exactly toiling in a field. I’m glad he helps me, nonetheless.).

So anyway, this was a tiny revelation for me recently, that while I do love the specialness of being inside the church and lighting candles, I can just as easily do the same thing at home. I can light a candle and pray for an intention. Wild, I know. So, this is what I recommend. The next time something is eating away at you and causing anxiety, rather than having further anxiety that you can’t get yourself to a church in the immediate to “properly” pray about it with a little form of public devotion, just light a candle at home and send those same prayers up. Ask your guardian angel to be present and pray with you. I suppose this is all in keeping with a year where much of our spiritual lives have been occurring inside the home out of necessity and regulation, anyway. One more thing to sanctify your domestic church.

P.S. an update on my story about receiving a flower from a neighbor: afterwards, I wrote a thank-you card and dropped it at their front door. I noticed they had a doorbell camera and wondered if it was recording. A few days later I was walking past the same house when a woman with a dog happened to come out. “Laura?” she asked. Turns out she did go back and check the footage and so recognized me when I walked past, and there I was, and we spoke, and she showed me where they keep the scissors so that I may cut a flower whenever I like. Somehow this feels like something worth celebrating, in this year.