The point is that it is fine to take on old meanings and put new life into them. The Catholic Church doesn’t have a problem with this. The issue is that some folks accuse the Catholic Church of being pagan for doing so while they do the same thing.
Well, they don’t really do the same thing. If they did, they’d be Catholic themselves. For instance, although they set up a little manger scene in the house or a big one in the yard, they don’t venerate the images. Although they light candles during Advent, they (the anticatholics) don’t put them in front of images as symbols of prayer (or whatever those candles are for–I’ve never seen an official explanation). They may have an image of St. Joseph, but they don’t bury the poor guy upside down to hasten the sale of their house.
No, I mean that some folks accuse the Catholic Church of being pagan because it absorbed certain aspects of pagan culture.
So what is the significance of placing an offering of money in front of an image and leaving a candle burning there after you leave? That means something else, doesn’t it?
The money is not an offering, It is for the purchase of a candle, especially if you light one of the big ones, which could become taxing on the finances of a small poor catholic church.
Usually the votive candles are a symbol of a prayer intention. For instance, I may put the quarter in (to pay for the candle) and light one and pray for my dead grandpa and the other intentions represented by the candles. The candle stays lit until it burns out, other folks come around and pray by that same votive area and we usually pray for the other people’s intentions as well. We live by signs, we don’t “need” them but they certainly help us.
Who, me?
You can’t be serious… the icon is an inanimate object. Do you seriously think we believe it can “respond” to anything?
Kevan has gone off topic so I am starting a new thread based on Kevan’s real issue: IMAGES.
Read carefully. The subject of my sentence is “being,” not “icon.”
Whoops, you’re right. Sorry. In any case, no the candles don’t make any difference in that way.
He says he “personally” thinks of it that way… but anyway I would take issue with that because prayer is something that is actively done in your own heart. Setting a candle to burn and do your prayer “for you” would be like trying to set some kind of automated prayer machine that prays for you so you can forget about it. I think candles can be used to focus your mind as a private devotion, and they can be effective so that when you see it (a burning candle just naturally focuses attention) it can remind you to lift up your intention to God out loud or just in your heart or whatever. In a church, perhaps people will also pass by the candles and say a prayer for whatever intentions happened to be on the hearts of those candles that are lit. I guess there are many ways they could be used. But no, a candle definitely cannot offer prayers up “for you”… prayer requires effort on somebody’s part.
