Saint Candles

[Anastasia13]

Do you have any? How do you use them? Do they help with anything?

[Catherine Therese]

Do they help with anything?

 

 

"Get your rosaries on your way to the cova... guaranteed to work or your money back!" (from that old movie The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima). 

[brandelynmarie]

I burn them often at home as they they are a blessed. :) I keep a piece of stoneware under them to prevent any possible scorching issues. Sometimes I add an intention when I light them, sometimes I don't & just accept the blessings that have been placed upon it. In churches, I will light candles with intentions & it depends on how much money I have whether I light one or three! I usually try to match my intentions with a particular patron saint when possible...I love these sacramentals.

Do my prayers always get answered? No, but I do know that the saints are praying for me & my loved ones & His will is being done...

God either gives us miracles or He gives us His Grace to go through troubling times...

Edited August 7, 2014 by brandelynmarie

[Anastasia13]

How do you know saint candles are blessed if you don't get them at a Specifically Catholic store, like a grocery store?

 

And from Catherine Therese's reply, it sounds like they are not good for anything but something to pray with that can't just be substituted for something else, so why would people buy them?

Edited August 8, 2014 by Light and Truth

[chrysostom]

How do you know saint candles are blessed if you don't get them at a Specifically Catholic store, like a grocery store?

 

And from Catherine Therese's reply, it sounds like they are not good for anything but something to pray with that can't just be substituted for something else, so why would people buy them?

 

If you get them at a grocery store I would definitely get them blessed by a priest, perhaps even if you got them at a Catholic store, but there you could ask if they had been blessed yet.

[Catherine Therese]

And from Catherine Therese's reply, it sounds like they are not good for anything but something to pray with that can't just be substituted for something else, so why would people buy them?

 
Let me clarify the point I was making by quoting that old movie. 
 
If you are going for a simple cause-leads-to-effect thing with your prayer by adding a saint candle into the mix, you'll be disappointed. 
 
The saint candle itself is not some magic talisman, nor is it an electronic device. It's not something with which you can do A and predictably always get a result of B. You won't get what you want in any given situation just because you've lit a candle with a saint's picture on it and prayed, whether or not the candle has been blessed. That is not the meaning or purpose of the candle. 
 
But please don't misunderstand me - there IS value in praying with a blessed candle bearing the image of a saint. 

 

IF the candle has been blessed (and its always nice to get them blessed) then it becomes a "sacamental." The Catechism tells us (CCC1670) that sacramentals do not dispense grace in the way that the Sacraments do, but that they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us well to cooperate with that grace, to respond to it. 

 

SO...

 

If you're praying for an intention and you've lit a blessed candle bearing the picture of a given saint, then what you can trust will happen, by virtue of the candle being a sacramental, is:

 

a) you will be prepared to receive grace in response to those prayers, and

b) you will be given help in cooperating with the graces you receive

 

This is of IMMENSE value because too often our problem is that we don't respond well to the graces & blessings that we receive. 

 

Essentially, by praying with a blessed saint candle, what you've just done is asked the help of a saint to prepare you for what God is going to do in your heart, and to join you in asking God to do as He wills with the situation you've brought before Him.

 

The grace MAY come in the form of your request being granted. Or it MAY come in the form of comfort because your request is not being granted - because not everything we ask is in accord with God's will. THIS is how prayers are answered even when we don't get what we asked for - we might not have received what we had hoped, but we are nevertheless blessed with untold graces and blessings that could, if we respond well, be life-changing.