The Candle Prayer
From Fr Barry John Reabow SAC, Queenstown – I was touched by the prayer “Candle” that appeared in the September 7 issue.
Some of the wording was similar to a candle prayer that I discovered many years ago — I don’t even remember where.
But I printed it out and hung it on the wall next to the statue of Our Lady in Queenstown’s cathedral, when I was parish priest there.
Some of the wording used by the anonymous author reflects the helplessness that we often experience when we try to pray — a helplessness which, for me, was given such encouragement by the words spoken in a conference given to his monks at Ampleforth Abbey, England, by Abbot Basil Hume OSB, before he was appointed to the See of Westminster.
He said at that time: “The desire to pray, is already prayer.”
Romans 8:26 says: ‘The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.’
I attach this “Candle Prayer” hereto in case it might be interesting to somebody.
WHEN YOU LIGHT A CANDLE
I lit a candle
I lit a candle
I didn’t know how to pray,
I didn’t know what to say.
The light I offered
was a little of what I have,
a little of my time,
a little of myself.
I left it before the Lord,
before the Blessed Virgin
and the whole company of heaven.
The flame stood for my prayer
which is always with me.
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