November 19, 2009

A Kludge for the Holy Souls

Good luck finding a real candle around these parts, much less an unbleached beeswax one. (We use the kind--oh horror!--you unscrew and fill up.) For my own use in my room I've been working on a case of paraffin votives that I blessed all the way back on Candlemas 2008.

But today for my day off I was doing some errands when I decided to stop and pray at a local Orthodox chapel. You can trust the Orthodox to do candles right, so as I put my beeswax taper into the candelabrum around the Blessed Mother, to be lit during the next prayer or Divine Liturgy, I began to think. During this month of November, wouldn't it be nice to have such unbleached beeswax goodness to offer before my own little shrine to the departed? I presume that when you make an offering for a candle in church, you don't have to burn the candle on site, but are free to take it with you. And that's just what I did, making another offering and taking two more candles home with me.

Trouble is, how do you get this



Into one of these?



Well, borrowing a few of the pellets we use to surround charcoals in our incense brazier, I stood the taper up in the votive candle stand:



And here it is: my kludged up shrine to the deceased friars, complete with unbleached beeswax candle for the rest of November:



Perhaps I should start a Catholic version of one of my favorite non-religious blogs, There, I Fixed It.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as you're absolutely sure the candle won't somehow tilt and fall, especially in the early stages.
I'm a worry wart.

Lavona said...

I bet you could get a discount or donation from

http://www.beeswaxcandleco.com/products.php?cat=1

100% unbleached beeswax candles in Virginia, USA

Qualis Rex said...

Father Charles, YOU are the male version of Martha Stewart of your order! Genius. And beautiful. Well done!

kam said...

A true Franciscan! Making something from just what God gave us.

Anonymous said...

And you are probably the only person who has ever used the words "kludge" and "unbleached beeswax candle" in the same sentence!

Lynn said...

Yeah, just so long as your "I fixed it" doesn't tip over and wind up on FAILblog in the fire category :)

Mike said...

What an incredibly unique way to respect the dead. Thanks for sharing. I really like thereifixedit.com - even better than fail blog

Anonymous said...

You can get unbleached beeswax votive-size candles from Mount Saviour (Benedictine) Monastery near Elmira NY.
~Walt near Scranton PA
http://guardianoftheredeemer.wordpress.com

Brother Charles said...

Thanks, Walt! I have been on retreat there, and I see from their website that the candles can be ordered online! Peace.