Altar Candles

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Indeed, at our parish we have 6 candles by the tabernacle on the high alter which are lit for one of three main Sunday mass, and two on the alter. I guess perhaps the 6 don’t ‘count’ as alter candles maybe? :confused:

6 candles are required to adore the exposed Blessed Sacrament, i believe.
minimum of two for mass.
(plus sanctuary light

Our candles use oil now too, except the candles used in the side alter ( perhaps due to rubrics of Latin mass?)
 
Neil_McFhane said:
Indeed, at our parish we have 6 candles by the tabernacle on the high alter which are lit for one of three main Sunday mass, and two on the alter. I guess perhaps the 6 don’t ‘count’ as alter candles maybe? :confused:
Click to expand...
Not really. It depends what you would count as “on or near the altar”, but I would really consider “near” as really within a foot or two (so they could be placed on the direct sides of the altar), but maybe I’m wrong.
Neil_McFhane said:
6 candles are required to adore the exposed Blessed Sacrament, i believe.
minimum of two for mass.
Click to expand...
Actually, only 4 are required in the NO, but generally more are used if possible (in the old rite, it was 12). Two for mass is correct, although 7 for a bishop…
 
For the Novus Ordo on the altar we use:
two for ferial days and memorials,
four for feasts
six for Sundays and solemnities or other important celebrations

For the TLM:
always two because we only do a low Mass
 
We have four (real wax) candles on our low/table style/Altar of Sacrifice, and all four are always lit for every Mass.

At the High Altar with the Tabernacle, which is right behind the table-Altar, there are four medium-sized (oil) candles on the mensa flanking the tabernacle. All four are lit for Sunday and Holy Day Masses, and just the two middle ones are lit for daily Masses.

The High Altar also has 6 large oil candles above and behind the medium-sized candles, sort of in the reredos. These 6 are additionally lit only a few times a year - Holy Thursday/Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday, Christmas, Corpus Christi… maybe when the Bishop comes. They’re beautiful, but apparently difficult to light. The smaller altar servers can’t reach them at all.

So on Easter and a few other times a year we actually have 14 candles lit between the two altars (plus, of course, the red, wax, sanctuary lamp, and the votive candles at the 3 shrines).
 
How about Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament?
It used to be at least twelve. Nowadays?
 
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