Can someone please explain votive candles for me?

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I tried to find out from fellow parishioners how that is supposed to work, and couldn’t get a straight answer. From what I understand (or perhaps misunderstand?) is that one leaves a donation, states an intention, lights a votive, then kneels on the kneeler and prays for the intention. True? Nobody would clearly explain it to me. I’m hoping I fare better, here.
 
You have the basics, yes - but it’s a devotional thing with no particular “rules”. Say your prayer, light the candle, and leave a donation (presuming you can afford to do so) — in no particular order.
 
Thank you.

I’ve found those candles difficult to light, and have had to try a couple of times to get the flame to take hold on the wick.

I just hope in this modern day of LED “candles” that they keep real ones in the church and don’t go with these LED tea light things that are being used increasingly these days. There’s nothing like a real candle flame and its warm glow. Those LEDs are fake, and I hope they don’t eventually substitute them for the real votives. I wouldn’t say a fake prayer, and I certainly wouldn’t present a fake candle. We’re going fake with so many things, today, and I’m finding that uncomfortable.
 
From what I was taught, lighting a votive candle is like praying a continuous prayer. The saint you asked to pray for your intention will continue to pray for your intention as long as the candle lasts. The donation is to just cover the cost of the candle so the church can keep buying/making more for future prayers.

Now LED tea candles do pose an interesting situation. On one hand, they would keep costs down and prayers would (in theory) go on much longer than just a regular candle (assuming they don’t program said candles to turn off after a specific amount of time). On the other hand, as you say, it seems fake. It’s a digital light and not a natural light. I would love to see what St. Thomas Aquinas would have to say about it.
 
The LED candles are used because real ones present a fire hazard in many churches.
I have been to larger shrines where there is a separate building away from the church and made of something flame resistant like cinderblock, and all the lighting of candles occurs in there.
At Fatima, there is a special place where people put their lit candles that is far away from the churches and chapel on the site.

Having said that, I usually don’t light the LED candles because my preference is for the real ones, but I understand why churches, especially those constructed primarily of something other than stone, would not want real candles in the church space. Real candles can also interfere with their ability to obtain fire insurance in some cases.
 
I’d rather have LED candles than no candles. We usually have the latter here (wood church interiors).
 
My partner and I just so happened to visit a local Episcopal Church that has a little votive candle shrine (and associated altar relic) of Saint Nicholas right around Christmas time last year.

He was lit up! Every single votive was lit and there were a bunch of poinsettias surrounding him.

It was so picturesque I wish I took a snap of it. I felt bad that so many people needed intercession then, but here’s hoping he fulfilled them!

Here he is during Ordinary Time:(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Thanks, folks. I can see the reasons for using LED candles at times and in certain places. They just aren’t the same, and the ones that the stores sell to consumers don’t produce a realistic-looking flame, at all. Some kinds flicker, but they still don’t look real. They’re cold. I guess it’s the substance in the heart that counts, in any case. God understands.
 
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