The Candlelight Prayer

There are three situations in which you can organize a Candlelight Prayer (for the practical organization of a Candle please read the ‘Clarifications’ section):

A. At the level of a parish/ spiritual brotherhood gathered around a priest/spiritual father.
- either the priest is the one who organizes the candle, OR
- somebody helps the priest with the logistic/technological aspect, and the priest only distributes the numbers (or Saint’s names) to those who are participating

For the organization of a new Candle please write to the address:



 We will send you all the necessary details for the lighting and functioning of a Candlelight Prayer.

B.If a situation arises where a number of people in a parish would like to form a Candle but the priest is either skeptical concerning the spiritual benefit of praying together, or he would like to get involved but he is busy with other projects:
- the priest should only give the blessing to the people who want this to happen, suggesting a person to take charge and become the coordinator in conformity to the guidelines mentioned above point A. Here we must make an important remark: our idea is to give birth to more prayer, to have more spiritual families in our Church come closer to one another and to avoid separations. So, when you approach this subject with your spiritual father/priest, pray a lot in advance and be very delicate: in order not to hurt or to make the priest believe that his spiritual authority is being questioned.

C. If:
- you have the spiritual father’s blessing but there are not enough of you in the parish/ spiritual brotherhood in order to organize a Candle
- you belong to a parish where there is no other interest in spiritual activities except the usual religious services
- you don’t have yet a spiritual father, even if you confess from time to time: You can write an email and we will explain what you have to do in order to enter into a group of ‘keepers’ (or “participants”) of a Candle

According to the subscriptions we will try to group you on geographical criteria, with the hope that one day you will meet face to face.

Recommendations (born out of the experience of those who started this work for some time)
- to make a list of names of people you will pray for comprised of all those subscribed to the Candle that you belong to. It is very important to pray for one another  by commemorating each other’s names (we believe it is enough to write the baptism name, and in case more than one person has the same name you may add the family name to make the differentiation. At the end of the list you should write ‘together with all their families’)
- try to get to know each other, all those participating in the Candle, in order to become closer to each other in Christ, risking any temptations that might result from such an endeavour, as the Christian life must be lived in reality and not virtually. A prayer that helps a lot in this regard is Elder Sophrony’s (from Essex) prayer for unity. You may find it on our website in the ‘Prayers’ section, slightly adjusted for our situation.
- in order to not reach a list of thousands of names of all those who are part of a group, it is better for everyone to mention during his/her own hour of prayer his/her own list with friends, relatives, enemies. It would also be useful to also mention the prayer for the parish that can be found at the end of the Psalter . You may find a complete and adapted version for lay people, using the Psaler edition published at Alba Iulia in 1988, on our website, at the ‘Prayers’ section.
- when somebody close needs a more intense and special common prayer, the coordinator of the Candle should send a request to all the members. But it is recommended that the period of the request should not exceed 3-4 days. Otherwise, again, it may end up with very long lists of names that might diminish the effort of crying out to the Lord.
- It is recommended that, when signing up for time slots at the beginning of the month, we do not hurry to fill the easier hours (between 10-12 at night and between 6-7 in the morning), leaving them instead to those who have more difficulty with night prayer (those who have small children, business trips, night shifts, or those going through periods of prolonged fatigue who would still like to participate in the blessed work of the Candle). It would be ideal to “fight” for the more difficult hours, the ones in the middle of the night, to fulfill the words of the Holy Apostle Paul:
‘Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’ (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

Only with sacrifice do we receive grace and only with grace can we continue our fight for salvation.