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Frequently Asked Questions: What's with the candles and "holy" water? |
Candles
A simple form of devotion is to light a candle at a shrine of Mary, the Mother
of Jesus [often referred to as Our Lady] or in front of a statue of one of
the saints. In our prayer life words are often superfluous or insufficient,
and we need to express our desire, our wish to be conformed into the image
of saintliness, our frustration at life, our needs and so on in a gesture that
gives something of our inner self. It is an action combined with our prayer,
a token, that as we leave church we desire something of ourselves to remain
in prayer. The burning candle gives warmth, light and is a 'living flame' -
all of these natural ingredients of a candle symbolise what we desire for ourselves;
to have the warmth of God's love, to be guided by the light of faith and to
become living flames ourselves witnessing to God in the world.
Holy Water
Water is the basic ingredient of life itself and we use water in baptism because
it symbolises the 'living water' of faith expressed in Jesus' teaching as an
equally important basic ingredient for life in abundance.
Jesus was baptised in the waters of the River Jordan.
Christians in baptism are made one with Jesus, washed of their sins and receive new life through the Holy Spirit as they become new members of the Church.
The water used in baptism is always 'blessed' by the priest or deacon. Blessing is thanking God for the gift, dedicating it for sacred use and asking God to use it as a vehicle for his grace [i.e. His gifts]. When something is blessed we often prefix the object with the word 'Holy' meaning its natural meaning has now been dedicated to God to convey the supernatural. Holy water is often found at the entrances of all Catholic churches so that people can dip in their fingers, sign themselves with the water making the sign of the cross and thus reminding themselves that they are baptised and redeemed by Christ's cross. They do so on entering the church to dispose themselves to prayer and on leaving church to remind themselves to take the life of Christ into the world. Many Catholics also use Holy water in the same way in their homes, because a Christian home should be a small church where faith and fellowship are to be found.
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