How to Light a Candle Online to Pray for a Loved One

The internet is a great way to connect with friends and family to share your life across the country and around the world. Most of the time we are sharing our joys, but when a loved one is in need of prayers gratefulness.org is a great way to connect and show some one you are thinking of them.

1. When you need prayers, go to Gratefulness.org.
There you will find a link to light a candle for a love one in need of prayers.
You can also go directly to the Light a Candle page here as well.

2. Once you are on the main candle page you should think of a name for your group and do a search. The site does not have accounts, so if some one else has been using the same name that you come up with you will be sharing that group's candles.

I first named my son's group Heart. There were three other families using that same group. I had to start another group for him using his name.

Follow the link to the search page and search for the name of the group that you are thinking of. If some one else is already using this name, choose another one.

3. When you have found a name for a group that is not being used, go back to the home candle page and click on Begin.

It will take you to a page that says:

"Please take a deep breath
and quiet your thoughts."

When you continue from there you will get a message that reads:

"To light a candle,
enter and click on one which is not lit."

From there you will enter into a page with many other candles.

4. Once you are on the page with all of the candles, find a candle and click on it to light it.
The next page will show an unlit candle to the left of the screen and a message that reads:

"Before continuing,
reflect for a moment
on your reason
for lighting a candle."

After reflecting on your reason, click on "continue".

5. You will then come to a page with an unlit candle and several fields to fill in.
One of the fields is for a message, to leave a prayer or if you prefer to leave blank.
The next is to leave your initials.
The next field is where you name your group.
Click on "continue" to go to the next page.

6. The next page will also have an unlit candle.
This page has fields to select your country and state or province.
There is also a field to enter your full name if you wish.
Click on "continue" to go to the next page.

7. The next page will also have an unlit candle.
This page will also show the message you wrote to your loved one, along with your name if you added it and any location.
You will have the chance to go back and edit if you made a mistake or if you would like to add something else.

There are also instructions that read:

"To light the candle,
click on the wick."

You then click on the candle and after a second or two the image changes and the candle is lit. The message on the screen changes to read:

"Stay here quietly,
as long as you wish,
before continuing."

When you are ready to move on, click "continue".

8. The next page shows your candle with the option to invite others to see and light your candle through email.

By clicking yes, another screen appears with a different fields to enter in the recipient's email and your email address. The subject and message are already filled in for you, but you can change it or add to it. It is a good idea to add the name of the group that you have created so that others can do a search for your candle group once they have followed the link in the email. Give instructions like:

"I have lit a candle for Owain. Search for his group named Owain and please light a candle for him."

Click on send message and another screen will come up that will ask if you would like to send this to some one else. You can continue to email as many times as you like. I like to send it once to myself and then use my address book to forward it to friends and family, it is much easier and faster.

When you are done, click "done".

9. Once again you will see your candle lit on the left hand side of the screen.
The message on this screen reads:

"Your candle will stay lit for 48 hours.
When you return to the candles
you may also look
at messages left by others
and hold their concerns in your heart."

There is a link to "return to candles". When you click on that link it will take you back to the main candle page with all of the other candles burning.

10. If you see your candle you can click on the red link under the candle that has the name of your group on it to access your groups candles.

If you don't see your candle click on the "search" link and from there you can search for your group by entering in your group's name in the search field. Once you click on the Group Search button, it will take you directly to your group candle.

11. Now you have your candle lit and you have a group that you can invite others to light and say a prayer for you or a loved one.

If you go to the address bar at the top of your browser you can copy and paste the address. Highlight and select the address and using your keyboard press the control(Ctrl) button at the same time you press the c button. That will copy the address.

Now you can also paste the address to your email, blog, journal, forum or any other place you can think of. To paste the address simply press the control button at the same time as you press the v button.

Email your candle to as many people as you know and ask them to pass it on. Post it on your blog or forums that you visit regularly and let them know what is going on and why you need them to light a candle.

12. If you have a website or blog, journal etc and you have a bit of experience with codes & scripts you can go to this page:

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/custom.cfm?l=eng.

From there you can create a custom entrance page just for your group. There will be a field to insert a message that explains why the candle group is lit. There will also be a field to enter a text link, select your language and group name. There is a preview option available to see what your entry page will look like.

When you are happy with your entry page copy and paste the html to your site or blog.

13. Pray for your loved one.

~ Don't forget to check back often and light another candle. These candles only stay lit for 48 hours.
~ Be specific when emailing, let people know why you need them to light a candle.
~ Get the word out that you are lighting a candle.