Question Regarding Advent Candle

[RyanCV]

Hi everyone! I am currently in RCIA. My wife is a confirmed Catholic who just recently started to really practice. Yesterday, we purchased our first Advent wreath. We’ve done a search, but really couldn’t find any information as to if we light the Advent candles everyday in addition to the Sundays. Can anyone provide some guidance? Thanks!

 

[crazzeto]

Really, there’s a lot of flexability here. I did a search on google and I found a nice resource that gave me a blessing of the wreath that a lay person can do (which I did), as well as prayers and bible readings for the four sunday’s of Advent. You may light it only on sundays, which is what my fiance requested that way the candles aren’t used up, or you may light it every day for a firmer reminder of the liturgical season. Here are some resources I found on the web.

Prayer
cptryon.org/prayer/adx/adwreath.html

Reading
gospel.com/blog/index.php/2008/12/08/advent-reading-guide/
marshill.org/advent/readings/

Whole Schibang
churchyear.net/adventwreath.html <--------- this is the what I’m using this year.

 

[Joe_5859]

There’s no official Vatican proclamation or liturgical rubrics on what to do with an Advent wreath in your home. The closest thing would be the few words the CDWDS says about it in the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy:

The Advent Wreath

1. Placing four candles on green fronds has become a symbol of Advent in many Christian home, especially in the Germanic countries and in North America.

The Advent wreath, with the progressive lighting of its four candles, Sunday after Sunday, until the Solemnity of Christmas, is a recollection of the various stages of salvation history prior to Christ’s coming and a symbol of the prophetic light gradually illuminating the long night prior to the rising of the Sun of justice (cf. Ml 3,20; Lk 1,78).

It does say “Sunday after Sunday”, but the Advent Wreath falls under popular piety to begin with. It’s not a canonical prescription. So feel free to do whatever you feel will most enhance your Advent experience.

 

[redrosetea]

The only thing I will add is make sure you don’t burn the early candles so far down, they won’t last until the final Sunday…or have replacements handy

 

[tinalewis]

My husband and I love Advent so much we keep our Advent wreath during Advent lit in the livingroom whenever we’re there or when praying.

We use battery-operated tealights so we don’t worry about the risk of setting anything on fire.

 

[RyanCV]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and references! This will definately help my wife and I celebrate Advent a little better every year, and in a more personal way. God Bless!!