Day of the Little Candles 2022

We wanted to humbly share pictures from the December 7 celebration of the Day of the Little Candles. This is a Colombian tradition which gives honor to Our Blessed Mother on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The lanterns shown in the pictures we handmade. A link on how to do this is provided below.

Beginning in 2012 we have celebrated the Day of the Little Candles. We invite members of the Children's Rosary each year to also put out candles or lanterns in honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Here is a LINK of how to make the lanterns in English. Here is the LINK in Spanish.

We thank all of you who participated this year at your homes. 

A Prayer to Our Lady Spoken 15 years Ago by St. John Paul II

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In anticipation of this Feast, last night we participated in the Colombian tradition called the Day of the Little Candles. We began by placing two lanterns in front of our house. One lantern was placed on each side of Our Lady. We placed within the lanterns candles made to look like wedding cakes. These we have had for many years but as I thought of Our Lady I thought that we should give the best to her and so the fancy wedding cake candles would be perfect! 

Our Lady of course was fond of weddings and took a special interest that one particular wedding did not go without sufficient wine. And so the candles were placed inside the lanterns. The illuminated heart with the flame in the middle was a very special image that one of my children was able to capture in the picture above.

We prayed in the dark before a statue of Our Lady. Kostin our older son knelt down in front of Our Lady. We included in our prayers the Children's Rosary. We went inside and then an idea came. Asher had asked if we could put more lanterns outside. 

It was then that I remembered four more candles we had. The kids rushed to help in setting up the additional candles and the lanterns we had made. Within two of the lanterns, were candles with the image of St. John Paul II. While outside looking at the candles and praying, a memory came - a prayer that is at the end of our Children's Rosary book. It is a prayer uttered by St. John Paul II at the Piazza di Spagna on December 8th 2002 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception) 15 years ago. Remembering the prayer I went and got a copy of our Children's Rosary book and said the prayer aloud before the statue of Our Lady. This is that prayer:

"Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us!"

Pray, O Mother for all of us.

Pray for humanity who suffers poverty and injustice,

violence and hatred, terror and war.

Help us to contemplate with the rosary

the mysteries of Him who "is our peace,"

so that we will all feel involved

in a persevering dedication of service to peace.

Look with special attention

upon the land in which you gave birth to Jesus,

a land that you loved together with Him,

and that is still so sorely tried today.

Pray for us, Mother of hope!

Give us days of peace, watch over our way.

Let us see your Son as we rejoice in heaven. Amen!

Looking at the candles more I marvel at this image of St. John Paul on a candle. A candle that was being used to honor Mary by shining its light through a window in the lantern cut out to look like Our Blessed Mother. Now 15 years after he utter the words addressed to Our Blessed Mother, he was still drawing our attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary of whom he loved so much. 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

Children's Rosary Book

Children's Rosary - A View from Heaven
A Journey to Bring the Baby Jesus to the Children

Don't forget to unify prayers with the children during their meetings. A schedule of meetings is present on our website. By clicking "Join in Prayer" you can add your gold flashing light to our View from Heaven map.

For more information about the Children's Rosary visit our website: www.childrensrosary.org
Visite nuestro sitio web en español para obtener más información: www.rosariodeninos.org

A Gift for our Lady on her Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Thank you so much for all your prayers and involvement in our efforts to make this Feast of the Immaculate Conception a particularly special one for Our Lady.  Today is the last day of the Immaculate Conception novena to Our Lady that many of you have joined in praying.  Today at 146 Four Mile Rd. West Hartford CY USA we  be celebrated the Day of the Little Candles, a Colombian tradition to honor Our Lady's Feast.  Lanterns are put out the eve before the feast throughout Colombia.  Processions through the street are held holding statues of Our Lady.  As we have a wonderful aupair living with us from Colombia we joined in this lovely tradition by putting hand made lanterns with images of Our Lady in front of our house.  Many stopped and viewed the lanterns others saw them only passing by as they drove down our street.  

This weekend there are three Children's Rosary groups meeting,  two for the first time.  The Children's Rosary at St. Brigid Church in West Hartford will meet at 3:15 PM EST on Saturday the 8th.  The Children's Rosary at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury CT will meet at 3:30PM EST Saturday the 8th.  The Children's Rosary at St. Thomas in West Hartford will meet at 9:45 AM EST on Sunday the 9th in the chapel. I hope many of you may consider attending a children's rosary this weekend and if you cannot be there in person join them in prayer.  I am asking that all three Children's Rosary groups pray for all the members of the Children's Rosary and their intentions.  Another gift to Our Lady is the completion of the new Children's Rosary book which has just been completed and was sent to the publisher today. 

So many of you have worked so hard and offered up many prayers to make all of these gifts to Our Lady possible.  Thank you.  

We are so grateful to Our Lord who has poured so many blessings upon all our efforts and made these beautiful gifts possible.  May I humbly ask that during the next week collectively as members of the Children's Rosary we bombard heaven with prayers, rosaries, and Masses of thanksgiving.  There is a feeling that comes that there are more blessings being bestowed upon each one of us than we are even aware.  Might we not lose this moment to thank Our Lord for His abundant generosity.