Candles
Lighted candles stand on or near the altar at every Mass, a sign of reverence and festivity and of Christ, the light.
What the Candles means
Candles are required at every liturgical service "out of reverence and on account of the festiveness of the celebration" (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 307). At least two lighted candles stand on or next to the altar at any Mass, four or six may be used especially on Sundays and holy days, and seven when the diocesan bishop celebrates (GIRM 117). The Catechism counts candles, with water and fire, among the signs from creation that the liturgy takes up (CCC 1189).
The largest is the paschal candle, lit from the new fire at the Easter Vigil as the symbol of the "light of Christ, rising in glory." It must be real wax and is renewed each year. At Baptism a candle lit from the Easter candle signifies that Christ has enlightened the newly baptized (CCC 1243). Candles are also blessed and carried in procession on February 2, known as Candlemas.
Traditional symbolism, rooted in the Easter proclamation sung over the paschal candle, reads the beeswax as the flesh of Christ born of a virgin mother, the wick as his soul and the flame as his divinity. That reading drew on the old belief that bees were virginal, which is not natural history, and it helps explain why liturgical candles have traditionally been made of beeswax. St. Jerome wrote that candles were lit at the reading of the Gospel not to drive away darkness but as a sign of joy.
