so my most recent significant spiritual experience (or is it just a personal trend?) has been lighting prayer candles. i brought prayer candles to canvas (church) for a contemplative service a few weeks ago and everyone lit a prayer candle for the duration of the service. the prayer candle usually represents a particular prayer, and (for me, at least) is often one that is especially "frustrating." i am avoiding the word "burden," a word in my humble opinion that is overused and abused by evangelicals.
i light a prayer candle tonight for someone in my family...
"LORD make us instruments of your peace.
where there is hatred let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
o divine master, grant that we may not seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardonning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen"
-- attributed to John Bernardone ("Francis of Assisi"), 13th Century
