Who to light a candle for health and peace in church: rules

General rules

Having health problems or being in need, we often go to church to pray for the health and well-being of ourselves or our loved ones. And we immediately get lost among the abundance of holy icons. Which of them should light the candles? You can always ask for protection and patronage from the Savior or the Mother of God.

It is better to pray for health from the icon of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon, as well as from those saints to whom the Savior gave the grace of healing from illnesses and providing assistance in special needs. Each temple is dedicated to a specific saint, to whom parishioners most often turn.

When praying in front of an icon, you should definitely address the saint or saint by name, calling on them to accept your request. When reading the prayer, we be sure to indicate the person whose healing we are asking for. You can think about him, remember his words, his face, the events associated with him. There is no need to be ashamed of tears if at this moment they well up in your eyes.

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How to light candles

It is best to purchase candles in the temple where they are supposed to be placed. They are consecrated by the abbot and will definitely have an effect. So, you need to do the following:

Choose a saint to whom our request will be addressed.
Go to his icon and cross yourself twice.
Light a candle. It is better from a lamp, but it is also possible from other candles.
Make sure that the melted wax does not fall into the lamp and flood it.
Lightly burn the bottom of the candle with fire to place it in a free place and secure it in a vertical position. It is important that our candle does not fall and does not come into contact with neighboring ones.
Address the chosen saint with words of prayer.
Cross yourself, bow to the icon, and then light a second candle, if desired. If the prayer is dedicated to a request for one person, you should go to a comfortable place and indulge in memories.

Where and how to light a candle in church for the repose?

Usually in the left wing of any temple there is a kanun - a square or rectangular table with a holy crucifix. Candles are placed on this table in special cells or in the sand. When performing the ritual of lighting a funeral candle, you must remember the following rules:

Before approaching the eve table with the holy crucifix, you should venerate the analogue icon: it is the main shrine in the temple.
First they light candles for health, and after that - for repose.
Before lighting a candle, you need to cross yourself and say in a whisper: “Lord, rest the soul of your deceased servant (name).”
You need to light a candle from other burning candles. It is not customary to strike matches or a lighter in church.
If there is no free cell on the eve table for a new candle, you cannot make room for it by removing someone else's burning candles. You can wait until a place is free, or simply place a candle next to the table: other believers will place it in front of the crucifix later.
You can light a candle in a church only for the repose of a baptized person.
It is prohibited in church to light candles for the repose of a suicide. A person who commits suicide is considered an apostate. Previously, suicides were not given funeral services or even buried in a cemetery. Nowadays, people who committed suicide while heavily intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, as well as those who suffered from mental illness, can have a funeral service in church with special permission. If the relatives of a suicidal person provide a certificate of mental illness of the deceased to the bishop, they will be able to obtain permission to perform his funeral service and to perform prayers for the repose of his soul. They will also be able to light candles for his repose.

Candles for the repose of a suicide who committed suicide in his right mind can also be lit at home. But this is allowed only to the closest relatives and with the special blessing of the priest. It is worth noting that according to church canons, people whose death occurred as a result of robbery are equated to suicide. This, of course, does not apply to victims of robbery.

If a suicide under special circumstances is allowed to light candles for repose, then it is almost never possible to pray for the repose of the soul of an unbaptized person. In this case, only an appeal to Saint War will help. He is able to put in a good word for an unbaptized person who has suffered death. For Christ, this simply does not exist, so praying for him does not give any result. But once upon a time, mothers often prayed to Saint War for their babies, whose death occurred before they could be baptized. They say that the saint has a special power that can number the deceased as a Christian.

In the ideas of people far from the church and its sacraments, there are many other prohibitions on lighting a candle for the repose. For example, some people believe that they should not be given to women during menstruation. But in fact, in our days, female uncleanness is not a reason for a ban on visiting church and lighting candles in it.

In order to light a candle for repose in church, you must also choose the right time.

Possible prayer texts

You can address the Savior with the following words:

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" Jesus Christ! Have mercy on the sinner (so-and-so), she (he) has sinned (sinned) without number. Lord, forgive her (him)!”

Other words would be suitable for the saint depicted on the icon:

“Holy saint of God Nicholas (or any other name), pray to the Lord for me (or another person for whom you ask).”

It is customary to address the Mother of God as follows:

"Holy Mother of God! Pray to the Lord for the servant or servants of God (the name of a specific person or several names).”

The following words can be chosen for the patron saint:

“Pray to the Lord for me, Saint Andrew (another name), for I diligently resort to you as the main helper and prayer book of my soul.”

The following appeal is suitable for the guardian angel:

“Angel of God, my holy guardian, given from God from heaven to protect me, I diligently pray to you: instruct me in good deeds and direct me on the path of salvation. Amen!"

How to place a candle correctly

First, find out when they bet. The sacred fire cannot be lit while the service is in progress. By walking around the temple you are distracting the worshipers. Wait until the service ends and light your gift.

Many people do not know where they place candles if they come to light a candle for the deceased. Here you need to follow a certain sequence:

The first candle is lit at the icon, which is located in the center of the temple in front of the altar.
Next, you also need to know which icon to put the candle to. Be sure to light it near the image of the Savior and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Approaching the icon, bow twice at the waist, you can reach the floor with your fingers.
Then pray and kiss the image.
Light your candle from the one next to it, but not from the lamp. This is not accepted in the temple, so as not to accidentally extinguish the sacred fire with a drop of wax.
Before you leave, bow again. This will be the third bow. You should know that the candle and prayer are not addressed to the icon, but to the person depicted on it.
Having fallen to the image of the Lord, say the following words: “Lord, have mercy on me (us, names),” and to the Mother of God - “Most Holy Theotokos, save me (us).”
Then you go to a place called "eve". You will recognize him by the Crucifixion. He stands most often on the left side or on both sides of the temple. This is a large square table with candlesticks. Memorial services are being held near it.

How to place candles correctly.

Cross yourself, light the sacred fire, say a prayer:

“Have mercy, O Lord, on your deceased servant ___ (state the full name given at baptism), forgive all his sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven.”

You can wish them peace in your own words. Cross yourself and quietly move away.

How to light candles for yourself: features

By the way, the priest drew attention to the fact that a burning candle is a symbol of the supplicant’s love for God and the saints. If you do not pray, even in your own words, a simple formality will be useless. The question often arises: is it possible to ask for yourself? Necessarily! As an example, appeals to the guardian angel and patron saint are given. They are asked to pray for health and help with our needs.

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Many people remember from childhood: “Pray for others, then you too will be rewarded.” This is the instruction of the Church Fathers. It is not outdated today, so it would be correct to first light candles for your loved ones and then for yourself.

It is advisable to do this whenever we come to church. But if a need arises (illness or vital needs), then you should go to church on purpose. It’s better to choose the one where we go regularly, although we can visit any temple that is convenient for us if we are traveling. Believers strive to get to ancient, sacred places.

Sacrifice to God: why do they put candles in the temple?

The custom of making a sacrifice to God dates back to ancient times, when people, fearing the wrath of higher beings and wanting to somehow appease them, tried to share their spoils with them. But how to treat a creature that does not have a materially expressed body? Probably only by turning the treat into smoke. This is what people did, burning vegetables and fruits, animals and even other people on sacrificial altars.

With the advent of the New Testament, the concept of sacrifice changed.

Christians, who began to be guided by new values and principles, began to offer God a symbolic small sacrifice - a wax candle. The main task of such a sacrifice is not to satisfy the hunger or thirst of the Lord. By buying a candle in the temple, we donate a small amount to make the house of the Lord more beautiful and better. But you don’t have to try to buy as many candles as possible to please God. One cheap candle will be enough for him. Some churches generally place special trays with free candles for people who do not have the opportunity to buy them.

Lighting a candle in front of the icon only symbolizes the Christian’s desire to join the church and the prayers of the parishioners. You need to support your request to the Lord for the repose of the soul of a loved one by reading a prayer.

The ritual of placing a candle for repose has its own rules, which follow from the general rules of conduct for a person praying in church. Therefore, any parishioner should remember the following points:

Before entering the temple, you must cross yourself three times and make three bows from the waist.
Upon entering the church, you must linger in the vestibule, kiss the cross located there, and, if desired, venerate the icons.
Before you start lighting candles, you must venerate the icon on the central lectern. After this, you can turn to other icons in the temple.
In church it is not customary to talk loudly or walk from place to place. If you need to ask people nearby about something, you can do it in a whisper.
As a rule, men occupy the right wing of the temple, and women stand closer to the left side for prayer.
It is forbidden to light candles for health or for repose during the reading of the Gospel, the singing of the Eucharistic Canon and the “Cherubim”: these moments of the service are especially important for every Christian; it is forbidden to miss them, being distracted by some other business, even by addressing the saints.
Before placing a candle in a candlestick, you need to cross yourself.

Candles for health can be placed in front of any icon in the temple. But funeral candles, as the site sympaty.net found out, are usually placed in a strictly designated place.

Candles for loved ones: features

We worry about loved ones, their health and well-being. It’s good if we know their guardian angels, as well as their patron saints. Then you can put candles to their images. Most often we worry about the health of those who are sick. Sometimes while we are in the temple we notice that the candle goes out. This scares us, we begin to panic and wait for bad news about the fate of our loved one. Sometimes this happened to me too.

The priest explained that there was nothing bad connected with this. A candle may go out due to wind or a poor-quality wick. Sometimes people just didn't keep it near the fire long enough. But if we witness a similar situation, we should light the candle a second time. If the problem is the wick, then you can buy a new one. The main rule is that the fire of love for the Lord must burn.

You can light a candle for several people at once. Then it is important to indicate the name of each person in prayer and remember and think about everyone while standing at the icon.