I Am A Candle

I am a candle.

Like an essential of Faith, I reach back through the centuries to the very beginning. I flickered in the manger where the Baby Jesus was born, lighting His face so His parents and the shepherds could see.

I shined in the Nazareth home as the Holy Family laughed and ate and slept.

My light glowed on the table at the Last Supper and lit the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. I warmed the fearful in the Upper Room and showed the wounds to the one who doubted.

Like bread and wine, I have been on altars for 2,000 years. I illuminated the pages of the Bible as they were being written. I cast my light to dispel the Dark Ages. I glowed warmly in medieval monks' cells as they studied Scripture and in Renaissance nuns' choirs as they sang of God's glory.

With shaking hands, altar boys practiced to light me for Mass. With steady hands, priests carried me to the sick. With worried hands, families lit me when storms brewed and when Father came to give the Last Rites as the light of life faded.

I have danced on wicks before statues of the Blessed Mother and paintings of the Sacred Heart. I am an Advent circle and an Easter celebration.

I remind you that Jesus is home in the tabernacle.

You have held me as you walked in peaceful protest and while you made pledges of solidarity and when you have most deeply talked to God.

I am the memory of a midnight Mass. I am the feeling of a throat being blessed. I am the glow in a child's eyes when she is welcomed into the Church or receives Jesus for the first time or marries the man she loves.

I am a vigil light when hope needs a flame. I am devotion and promise and prayer.

I am a candle.

By James Breig

Editor

(09-10-98)