Candles and more candles!

Hayes and Finch (or Ormsby, Vanpoulles or whoever is your parish supplier of candles) must be doing a roaring trade at this time of year! This week we've had two successive feast days where candles figured prominently. Pity the poor sacristan who forgot to put their order in on time!

The Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) is a beautiful feast. The touching story of Simeon and his 'Nunc Dimittus' never fails to move me. It always takes me back to my childhood when as an Anglican I used to accompany my mother to Evensong on a Sunday evening and we sang both the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittus.

We had the blessing of candles before Mass and a short procession; well at least we gathered at the back of church and processed to our seats. It's difficult to process much more than this in our church building.

Then today we celebrated the Memorial of St Blaise. I know that it's an optional Memorial but we have always kept it in our parish and we had the traditional blessing of throats with crossed candles.

I'm so lucky that I'm able to go to Mass during the week. It has really helped me to have a better understanding of the Church's year and the liturgical cycle. Of course 'the Mass is the Mass' but Masses during the week definitely have a different nature, somehow. I find it easier to absorb the readings and there are certainly less distractions so gradually over the course of the year, the various feast days add to my understanding and knowledge of my faith.

Ta-Daaaa!!

See what the nice postman delivered yesterday! A lovely big box of 'rose' coloured candles. That should last me for a few years. Who knows, by the time I've got to the end of the box, the liturgists may have decided that all the candles should be 'rainbow' coloured to be 'inclusive'!

More on those pesky candles ...

Here is this year's Advent wreath. Note the four purple candles! But I haven't given up on getting a pink candle yet. Having tried all the local shops I could think of, I've ordered some pink candles online and I hope those nice people at Amazon will deliver the goods in time for Gaudete Sunday.

The 'C' word is of course preceded by the 'A' word!

I wonder does anybody else have the difficulty I have each year in finding pink and purple candles for our Advent wreath at home?

We've always had an Advent wreath in our home and I always remember one at home as a child - from the bent-coathanger contraption that dripped wax over us as we stood looking up at it and in which - despite her best efforts, my mother could never quite get the candles to stay upright - to the enviable de-luxe versions in shop windows!

When I first began making our own version, there were candles of every possible hue around at all times of year but I've noticed recently that from October onwards it's red, green, gold or silver, and that's your lot. If you look hard enough you may be lucky enough to come across a purple candle, but pink - no way! What's wrong with pink? You can find just about everything else (apart from candles) in pink - from Cadillacs to cummerbunds but nothing vaguely resembling a candle.

As it's not Advent until next Sunday I don't have a picture of this year's wreath but here's one of last year's - sorry about the red candles!!!