Candles and Prayer
My experience of prayer stretches through every day. I have set times of praying before the icons, or of praying through a prayer rope, but often my mind turns back to the Church and the candles we light before God. It is almost invariably the case that when something presses strong on me, either in my life or in someone else's, I go into the Church and light a candle - either a small one or a seven-day candle. I do not argue that such a practice is superior or more effective - only that it seems important.
Human beings are not really good at thought. We imagine that we are and we tell ourselves that we are, but most of us spend more time fighting with our thoughts than enjoying them. Human beings are much better at doing than thinking.
That is the nature of lighting a candle for me - it is doing prayer. The first disciples in Jerusalem could easily have met anywhere, and doubtless gathered in a number of places. We are told, however, that the early Christians often gathered at a place in the Temple called Solomon's Porch. We are not told much about it - some miracles were worked there (Acts 5). But I suspect that the place had a significance for them not unlike the Church is for us.
We go there. We pray there. We light a candle and offer our heart's cry to God.
God hears us. Blessed be His name.
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