Lighting a candle in prayer is a familiar gesture to many of us. The light reminds us of Jesus, the Light of the world, and invites us into the light of God’s presence. Unfortunately, this holy action can also be a dangerous one for our Mother, Earth.

Most candles are made of paraffin, which is derived from petroleum, a fossil fuel. Using fossil fuels to create candles contributes to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and, as a result, to climate change.

There are ways we can still engage in the ancient practice of candle lighting and care for God’s good creation. Use beeswax, soy wax, or other plant-based waxes, like coconut wax, all of which are largely carbon-neutral. You can also light a virtual candle, which we invite you to do here.

Join us in lighting an eco-friendly virtual candle

Take a moment and breathe deeply. Then read the below prayer. When you’re ready, click the screen or the play button to light your candle.

If you like, leave a comment below after lighting your candle.

I volunteer at the New London Homeless Hospitality Resource Center on 727 Bank Street in New London. I serve as a receptionist at the center and am able to give witness to those experiencing poverty – the poor walk through our door. I’ve looked into their eyes; heard their voices; and listened to their pleas.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13) Holy Week is upon us. I don’t know how you all do it. But I’m about to find out.

This blog post has been submitted on behalf of the ECCT Poor People’s Campaign Working Group. Learn more about The Poor People’s Campaign and the upcoming Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington June 18.

Offered by the Rev. Deacon Ronald Steed

I work at the New London Homeless Hospitality Center, an emergency shelter and housing agency, alongside neighbors who are experiencing homelessness and poverty. I used to think that poverty was a problem to be solved and I found that my ego could not help but to get thoroughly immersed in it.

As a “Problem”, poverty was something I could walk around and consider at a distance… it was a challenge… one my mind was eager to solve. Over time, I felt frustration, anger, and rage at the problem, its intractability, its injustice. And… I began to regard the people experiencing this problem as a problem themselves. My language changed: “you should do this” or “you need to do that”. Poverty as a problem-to-be-solved became de-humanizing to them… and to me.

Now, I see poverty more as a spiritual force in the world and a mystery to be entered into… more as a work of the heart rather than the head. And since it IS a mystery, I have to enter into it WITH the person who is experiencing it. To see it as THEY see it… to respond to it in the ways that THEY want to respond. I have to let go of my solutions for them… let go of my “expertise”… let go of outcomes. Rather, to scatter seeds… to be a midwife.

There are completely different emotions that come with heart-work: empathy, heart-break, hope, contemplation… joy. These are some of the cross-shaped emotions of coming alongside. I invite the Spirit into the heart-space… ask her to be with us… invite Jesus in as well, asking for his healing power to be brought to bear.

One of our Community Navigators was telling me about her heart-break as a person described the INDIGNITY of poverty… of constantly having to ask for help, and then having to ask again, over and over. She has begun to see her work, not so much as finding a house and employment and healthcare for them, but as restoring their dignity, as an act of resistance against a spiritual force. There is a mystery in that to be entered into…