Candlemas Question

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The FSSP Traditional Latin Mass parish near me has a rule (stated in their bulletin) that candles brought by parishioners to be blessed on this day must be at least 51 percent Beeswax. You leave the candle off in advance with your name on it, so they will reject any candle that doesn’t meet the standard.

The relative handful of OF parishes around here that bless candles have no restrictions on candle types or materials, and I suspect many people will take those white votives with pictures of saints that every Walmart and Hispanic grocery around here sells. Most churches in the dioceses where I attend do not bless candles on Candlemas, many of them don’t even mention Candlemas in the bulletins. I’m not sure why. Perhaps they think it takes the focus off the Presentation of Our Lord.

I’m glad you have an OF parish that does a nice candle blessing. As I said, despite attending a plethora of parishes, I have only seen nice candle blessings at the Cathedral, the Czestochowa shrine, the Ukrainian cathedral, and the FSSP parish. Some of the other parishes have occasionally done things more like what DLee said. I will be attending an OF later for Flame of Love feast day and they will be blessing candles, but I’m not sure how they will go about it as this is a special Mass for the devotional group.
 
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We had a procession and candles at our OF Mass today. Honestly wasn’t 100% sure what was going on as my view was obscured by a big pillar for most of it.
The church provided candles but I don’t know if we were supposed to take them home 🤷
 
If anyone is looking for a nice solution for burning a blessed candle at home or elsewhere in a protected container, I just picked up one of these at the camping store. It cost less at the store and is only about 4 inches tall (comes in different colors, I got a red one). You can pop the candle out to be blessed separately so you don’t need to bless the whole thing. You can also take these easily on candle light processions, so your candle won’t blow out in wind or rain, or you can hang them up with the chain though you should still watch them if using around anything that might catch fire. It also will store your candle nicely when you’re not using it because the clear part folds down into the metal tube.

You can buy beeswax candles made to use in it. The store I went to didn’t have any so I got the white 9 hour kind to have blessed, which is okay for personal use.

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otjm said:
Short of a liturgical supply house, beeswax candles may be available, likely at an exorbitant price (still). and most likely will not be solid, but rather made from beeswax that has been made in a mold, for the use in apiaries (that is, it is a sheet with a 6-sided imprint, and is then rolled up). As such, it will have a short burn time.
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Eastern monasteries, Catholic or Orthodox, are a good source for high quality beeswax candles. The monks frequently make and sell them at mostly reasonable prices.

I don’t know for sure, but I think the same might be true of Western monasteries.
 
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My parish celebrated Candlemas this year. We were invited to bring candles from home to be blessed. In addition, the candles purchased for use in the church were blessed. We also had the blessing of the throats on the same day.
 
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