The Paschal candle is lit for the first time in the darkness at the Easter Vigil, from the fire blessed outside the church. It is to be made of wax, never artificial, renewed each year, one only, and of sufficient size to speak clearly of Christ as the true light. Before it is lit the celebrant cuts a cross into the wax and traces the Greek letter Alpha above it and Omega below, and the four numerals of the current year in the angles of the cross, saying: Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega; all time belongs to him and all the ages; to him be glory and power through every age and for ever. Five grains of incense may then be inserted in the form of a cross, recalling the wounds of the Lord. The lighted candle is carried into the dark church, and three times the deacon or priest sings "The Light of Christ," while the people's candles are lit from it and the church slowly fills with light. Beside the candle the Exsultet is then sung, the great proclamation of Easter that praises this night when Christ broke the prison bars of death, and that speaks of the candle itself as an offering of the Church, fed by the melting wax of the bees. Throughout the fifty days of the Easter Season the candle stands in the sanctuary near the ambo or the altar and is lit for all liturgical celebrations. After Pentecost it is kept in the baptistery near the font. There it is lit for baptisms, and the candle given to the newly baptized or to the parents and godparents is lit from it, joining every baptism to the Easter Vigil at which the sacrament finds its source. At funerals the candle is placed near the coffin, so that the same flame that greeted the Christian at the font accompanies the body to the altar and to the grave. The symbolism is therefore a single line running through a Catholic life: the pillar of fire that led Israel out of Egypt, the Lord who is the light of the world, the light received at baptism, and the light of the resurrection in which the faithful hope to rise. Care for the candle — a clean stand, a proper size, its renewal each year — is a small but real way of keeping that sign legible.

Symbolism

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Easter

symbolism