Web site allows Christians worldwide to light candles in Nazareth

Published: 2007-05-30

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- A new Web site set up by a group of Palestinian and Cypriot Christians has allowed thousands of Christians worldwide to virtually light a candle at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. "There are many Christians who are not able to come to the Holy Land for lack of money, lack of time or security considerations. The Web site allows them, in real time, to watch as a priest lights a candle in their name and says their individual prayer," said Said Salem, the businessman and tourism consultant who conceived of the idea. "They can feel like they are in the church with the priest lighting the candle." The idea for the nonprofit Web site came to him during Pope John Paul II's 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he said, when friends and acquaintances abroad began calling him and asking him to light a candle or say a prayer for them while the pope visited Nazareth. He came up with the idea of the Mirezo site -- www.mirezo.com -- as a way to allow these Christians to have their prayers said at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. "Mi rezo" means "my prayer" in Spanish.

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