Votive candles

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romanista88 said:
Is the flame that lights the first votive candle (to light the rest from) the same flame from the constantly burning, “eternal flame” that is lit at easter? I know the orthodox have this tradition in which the it is the same source of fire. Or does the priest just light up one of them with matches or a lighter?
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I’ve never heard of any ‘eternal flame’, Are you thinking of the light before the tabernacle (which, alas, sometimes goes out in parishes if the sacristan hasn’t realised it needs a new one putting in, so can’t be called eternal).
But I do know I have to blow out any votive candles still burning on the stand before locking the church at night for common-sense fire safety, then I light a new one in the morning with matches for people to use with a taper.
 
My church charges $3 a candle. Another parish down the road charges $5 and you have to go into the gift shop to get the candle so it’d be hard to cheat that one. However, in their defense, the church is beautiful and tourists come and gawk at it. They have no problem stealing candle-lightings, among other unkind behavior I’ve seen. I once saw one person try to go into the confessional as someone was in there just to see what it was like…that’s a whole other thread though.
 
lola5555 said:
My church charges $3 a candle. Another parish down the road charges $5 and you have to go into the gift shop to get the candle so it’d be hard to cheat that one. However, in their defense, the church is beautiful and tourists come and gawk at it. They have no problem stealing candle-lightings, among other unkind behavior I’ve seen. I once saw one person try to go into the confessional as someone was in there just to see what it was like…that’s a whole other thread though.
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To see what the confessional or what someone else’s confession was like?:hmmm:
 
Thank you all for your answers and comments. They have been most helpful. Too bad about the electric candles, I hope to never see one. I joined the Church very late in life and am always amazed and grateful that God let me live long enough to be able to accept this grace. Not having been part of what was before Vatican II, I am not nostalgic for it. But I do have a deep regret for the lost beauty, the invitation to contemplation and the shameless claim to sacred space that once was. Can we possibly get any of it back?
 
I think we can. Things will change with the upcoming generation and young people. People will want candles in the church, and they will ask (persist, as Jesus recommends.) and they will chip in, even if it means bake sales or dunking contests.

Here in Santa Fe, as well as in other places in the world, there are always artists wandering around looking for work. If people chip in, they can have a beautiful church.

My uncle told me that their church in Brooklyn had emeralds and rubies in the tabernacle. I went there, and it was true. All the rich ladies had donated jewelry. And all the poor ladies who worked as maids and factory girls (this was the early 1900’s) they’d chip in coins and it all added up.

We can do that again. We need beauty to honor God. Artists are looking for work. People are looking for beauty. But we’ll have to chip in.😉
 
Elaine2014 said:
Thank you all for your answers and comments. They have been most helpful. Too bad about the electric candles, I hope to never see one. I joined the Church very late in life and am always amazed and grateful that God let me live long enough to be able to accept this grace. Not having been part of what was before Vatican II, I am not nostalgic for it. But I do have a deep regret for the lost beauty, the invitation to contemplation and the shameless claim to sacred space that once was. Can we possibly get any of it back?
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This is where frustration can come in. On Pentecost Sunday I attended a TLM at a local parish. Most beautiful Mass I have ever attended, but that is a topic for another thread. Anyway at the end of the service (which was well attended), the priest said they were in the process of restoring the church (building) to pre-Vatican II. To restore the altar and a couple of side (prayer spaces (that’s not right but don’t know what the word I am looking for), plus communion rails, they wanted to raise $400, 000. I am happy that this is happening, but it could have been so easily avoided. How could the bishops not see that exchanging the beauty of the churches for the blandness that they gave us was not a good thing?
 
romanista88 said:
Is the flame that lights the first votive candle (to light the rest from) the same flame from the constantly burning, “eternal flame” that is lit at easter? I know the orthodox have this tradition in which the it is the same source of fire. Or does the priest just light up one of them with matches or a lighter?
Click to expand...
I think you mean the Paschal candle that is lit from a kindled fire at Easter. It isn’t “eternal” as it is extinguished when the altar is stripped on Thursday evening of Holy Week. Also the candle that it kept lit at the tabernacle is also put out once the Host is removed from the Church that evening.

We get a new Paschal candle at the Easter Vigil mass each year.
 
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