At Best This Is Tacky, With a Huge Helping of Cheese on the Side

Saw an ad for this on TV a couple days ago. While they look like simple images of Mary & Jesus with a votive light in front of them they aren't quite that simple. The image only appears when the candle is lit. Apparently the heat does something to make it appear & that is the miracle. Actually they call it magic.

& that is why I call this tacky, because the are using a gimmick to sell something that shouldn't need it. Some of the copy borders on cheesy as well.

An item that would truly help your devotional life doesn't need a gimmick as I said. For 2000 years the Catholic & Orthodox Churches have been using images to aide the faithful in their devotional lives. & it has been God tht initiated any miracles through those images, not man.

Clearly I have no problem with votive lights, I have no problem with any type of devotion that is within the bounds of Catholic doctrine. I could handle the image appearing only when the candle is lit as a gimmick but still within the far boundries of acceptable. Something along the line of a glow in the dark corpus on a crucifix. (& yes, my family did have 1 of those when I was a child.) & I would have no trouble with anything that, within the above mentioned guidelines, helps a person grow in his or her faith. But by calling this magical or miraculous, this seems to be at least 1 or 2 steps beyond anything that is appropriate.