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How are you coping with the darker nights? It’s a question that’s resurfaced this week as the evenings draw in, just days after the clocks went back. In Scotland—where some areas experience up to two hours less daylight than the rest of the UK—Professor Hester Parr of Glasgow University has launched A Wintering Well guide. Its purpose is to help people manage the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, which can bring persistent low moods, fatigue, disturbed sleep, poor appetite, and difficulty concentrating. Intriguingly, The Wintering Well guide recommends using a light box—sitting in front of it for about half an hour each day to receive around 10,000 lux. It also offers other practical ideas, such as lighting candles to help lift your mood. I have to admit, the past week has felt a little challenging—especially knowing it will be a couple of months before the days begin to lighten again. Lighting a candle each evening, as a small sign of hope for brighter times ahead, I find is always reassuring. Of course, people light candles for different reasons—to celebrate, to mourn, to remember, to hope. It’s no coincidence that candlelight plays such a central part in many of November’s observances, from All Saints and All Souls this weekend to Remembrance and the beginning of Advent. The theme of light and darkness is a continuum throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Though the root causes of daily darkness can press in on us and sometimes pull us down, people of faith are called to keep their eyes fixed on the eternal light as the author of Psalm 139 puts it: “even the darkness is not dark to you, [for] the night is as bright as the day, the darkness is as light to you.” Christians embrace the teaching of St John the Evangelist, whose Prologue proclaims Jesus as the true light that shines in the darkness, for the darkness has not overcome it. Few would disagree that the world - especially at this time of the year -could use a renewal of the joy that even the smallest sources of light can bring - and everyone can play a part. Pope Francis encouraged us to ‘ light candles of hope in the midst of darkness.. to encourage others with small acts of faith and love and remembering. In this weekend of All Souls, we should take him at his word and in some little way, illuminate the lives of those around us.