وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





The lamps, which are lighted by oil, have a spiritual meaning. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, It was used for anointing, after which the Spirit of the Lord descended: When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power (1Sam.16: 13). The Holy Bible also tells us about the anointing from the Holy One (1John.2: 20,27).
Even the candles which we light in church are made of oil, and the lamps in church are lighted by oil for the same symbolic significance.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





We notice that the Lord commanded that lampstands be made in His house, whether the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary. The lamps and the lampstands were made of pure gold (Ex.25: 31); (Ex.37: 17); (2Chr.4: 20). All these are proof of God’s concern about the existence of lights in His house.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





The lamps were lighted continually upon God's command. Extinguishing the lamps' light or negligence in lighting them were considered as treachery to the Lord and deserved severe punishment, . Concerning this, the Holy Bible says: “For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense... therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to astonishment” (2Chr.29: 6-8). All these show us how God cares for lights in His house.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





Lighting lamps has a special profound spiritual meaning. It symbolises constant readiness, perpetual watchfulness and preservation of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
Concerning this readiness, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching” (Lk.12:35).

The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the parable of the five wise virgins whose lamps were burning whilst the lamps of the five foolish virgins went out (Matt.25: 1-12).

The oil of the lamp symbolises the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The constant burning symbolises the constant watchfulness in keeping the heart tied to the work of the Holy Spirit within it.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





What is said about individuals can also be said about the whole church. When people see the lights in church they are reminded of their duties in preserving the light inside them and that their lamps should be lighted continually. They remember that the church is one of the five wise virgins who kept their lamps lighted.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





With regard to lighting candles during the Gospel reading, this is undoubtedly better than reading the Gospel without light. It reminds us of the verse: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119), and also “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19).

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III



The Early Church, ever since the Apostolic Era, has given importance to lights and their symbols. The Book of Acts tells us about the upper room from which St. Paul was preaching after the breaking of the bread: “There were many lamps... where they were gathered” (Acts 20: 8).

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III



The candles that we light before the saints’ icons remind us that the saints were lights in their generations; they were like candles, melting in order that their light might shine before people.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


Lights and Candles

The Orthodox Church is characterised by its lights. We use candles in our prayers, during the Bible reading, in front of the icons of the saints, on the altar, in the sanctuary in general and in front of the altar on its eastern side, and the church remains lighted constantly. Our brethren the Protestants do not use any of these rites despite their symbolic significance.
In this brief article we will discuss the subject of lights in the church, the reason for using them and the spiritual meanings they carry.

(1) The church itself is called in the Holy Bible the golden lampstand. This is clear from the Book of Revelation. St. John the Visionary saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of seven golden lampstands and the Lord said to him: “...the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches” (Rev.1: 20).

(2) The church resembles heaven because it is the house of God or God's dwelling place. This is nearly the expression used about the first house of God. Jacob the Patriarch said: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Gen.28: 17) Since the church resembles heaven, it must have lights to illuminate it like the stars of heaven.

(3) The lights in the church may represent the angels in heaven or the angels whom Jacob saw in his vision ascending and descending the ladder in Bethel (‘House of God’) (Gen.28:12). The lights symbolise the angels because the angels are also called angels of light (2Cor.11: 14).

(4) The lights of the church also symbolise the saints, to whom the Lord says: “Let your light so shine before men” (Matt.5: 16). On this occasion the Lord likens the saints to lighted lamps put on lampstands (Matt.5: 15).

Also, the Holy Bible says: “the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt.13: 43). And the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Jews about John the Baptist as an example of those righteous: “He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light” (John.5: 35). Since the church is full of angels and saints then it ought to be full of lights.

(5) Primarily the church ought to be filled with lights because of God's presence in it: God is Light (John.1: 5) and the Lord Jesus Christ says of Himself: “I am the Light of the world” (John.8: 12).

(6) The church is lighted by lights after the pattern of the Tabernacle and the Sanctuary. They were full of lights and their lamps were never put out. The Lord commanded that the lamps be lighted by pure olive oil under the supervision of Aaron and his children as an everlasting statute. The Lord says: "And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil, which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations" (Ex.27: 20,21).

This is a Divine command, given by God who said on the first day of creation: “ ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good" (Gen.1: 3,4).

(7) The lamps, which are lighted by oil, have a spiritual meaning. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, It was used for anointing, after which the Spirit of the Lord descended: When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power (1Sam.16: 13). The Holy Bible also tells us about the anointing from the Holy One (1John.2: 20,27).
Even the candles which we light in church are made of oil, and the lamps in church are lighted by oil for the same symbolic significance.

(8) We notice that the Lord commanded that lampstands be made in His house, whether the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary. The lamps and the lampstands were made of pure gold (Ex.25: 31); (Ex.37: 17); (2Chr.4: 20). All these are proof of God’s concern about the existence of lights in His house.

(9) The lamps were lighted continually upon God's command. Extinguishing the lamps' light or negligence in lighting them were considered as treachery to the Lord and deserved severe punishment, . Concerning this, the Holy Bible says: “For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense... therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to astonishment” (2Chr.29: 6-8). All these show us how God cares for lights in His house.

(10) Lighting lamps has a special profound spiritual meaning. It symbolises constant readiness, perpetual watchfulness and preservation of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
Concerning this readiness, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching” (Lk.12:35).

The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the parable of the five wise virgins whose lamps were burning whilst the lamps of the five foolish virgins went out (Matt.25: 1-12).

The oil of the lamp symbolises the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The constant burning symbolises the constant watchfulness in keeping the heart tied to the work of the Holy Spirit within it.

(11) What is said about individuals can also be said about the whole church. When people see the lights in church they are reminded of their duties in preserving the light inside them and that their lamps should be lighted continually. They remember that the church is one of the five wise virgins who kept their lamps lighted.

(12) With regard to lighting candles during the Gospel reading, this is undoubtedly better than reading the Gospel without light. It reminds us of the verse: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119), and also “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19).

(13) The Early Church, ever since the Apostolic Era, has given importance to lights and their symbols. The Book of Acts tells us about the upper room from which St. Paul was preaching after the breaking of the bread: “There were many lamps... where they were gathered” (Acts 20: 8).

(14) The candles that we light before the saints’ icons remind us that the saints were lights in their generations; they were like candles, melting in order that their light might shine before people.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Pictures and Icons

Our brethren the Protestants do not believe in the pictures and icons in the Orthodox Church or in the statues in the Catholic Church. They consider them against the second commandment, in which the Lord says: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Ex.20: 4,5); (Deut.5: 8,9).
There was a war waged against icons in the 8th century in 726 A. D. during the time of Emperor Leo III. It continued for a few centuries then calmed down. It was revived in Protestantism since the 15th and 16th centuries and has remained among their beliefs till this day. Some of our Protestant brethren consider icons as remnants of paganism. They reproach Orthodoxy and Catholicism
for venerating icons, kissing them, lighting candles in front of them and kneeling before them.

We will try to reply to all these points, showing the spiritual benefits of icons and why the Church keeps them.

(1) In order to reply to the subject of icons, we must consider the following:

(a) What does the verse, which our Protestant brethren use imply? Why was this verse said and what is its purpose? The reason behind our questioning is the Apostle's phrase “the letter kills” (2Cor.3: 6).

(b) What are the other verses which, if put beside this verse, will complete its meaning and make us realise the spirit and not the letter in the Lord's commandment? We have previously explained the danger of using one verse.

(2) What was God's aim in banning images and statues? The Lord's aim is clear in His words: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” Therefore the commandment is not broken if the purpose of using them is far from worship.

There is no doubt that this forbidding is one of the Lord's Ten Commandments. It was given in an era in which paganism abounded and there was so much anxiety that the believers might apostate that it was forbidden to engrave any stone, even in ordinary buildings or in constructing the altar.

(3) We see that God Himself, who commanded the people not to engrave any idol or form, ordered Moses in the incident of the enormous snakes to “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Num.21: 8). So Moses did this and he was not breaking the second commandment.

Moreover, the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that this act was a pattern of His sacred cross. He says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John.3: 14,15).

(4) When the Lord ordered Moses to build the Ark of Covenant, He asked him to make cherubim of gold on top of it. He said: “And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy, seal. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (Ex.25: 18-22). And it was done.

Forming the images of these two cherubim was not a transgression of the second commandment which orders not to make an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, because the aim was not to worship the angels represented by these two cherubim, . On the contrary, the image of the two cherubim was formed upon a Divine command in the same way that the snake was made upon a Divine command.

(5) In the same manner, Solomon built the Temple and decorated it from within: “he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. One wing of the cherub was five cubits and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other... both cherubim were of the same size and shape. Then he set the cherubim inside the inner room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim. Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold” (1Kin.6: 23-28).

(6) It was not only a matter of two cherubim, but the Holy Bible says: “Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers” (1Kin.6: 29). He made two doors for the entrance and “carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold” (1 Kin.6: 32,35), and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. Thus the house of the Lord was decorated with images, paintings and carvings and the people still worshipped God. They did not worship these images or carvings. They did not disobey the second commandment.

(7) Likewise the Ark of the Covenant, which was respected by priests, people and kings, did not at all represent pagan worship. The Holy Bible tells us that after the Israelites were conquered at Ai, Joshua, the son of Nun and the successor of Moses, together with the elders of Israel, knelt down and prayed to the Lord before the Ark of the Covenant till evening (Josh.7: 6). The Lord did not say to Joshua: “You have broken the second commandments”. But on the contrary, the Lord talked to him, performed a miraculous sign in revealing the sin of Achen, son of Carmit, gave Ai into Joshua's hands and lifted up Joshua's head.
Joshua did not sin by kneeling before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord because he was not worshipping the Ark but he was worshipping the Lord who came and spoke from between the cherubim. Likewise David the Prophet did not sin when he celebrated the return of the Ark, leaping and dancing in front of it (2Sam.6: 12-15).

(8) Similarly, we say that we do not worship the pictures or the icons, but we venerate them, thus venerating those to whom they belong, according to the Lord's words to His disciples: “If anyone serves Me, him MY Father will honour” (John.12: 26). If the Father venerates His saints, should we not venerate them?

(9) We say the same regarding the cross, of which St. Paul the Apostle says to the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians... before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified” (Gal.3: 1).

(10) We thank God that our Protestant brethren now raise the cross on top of their churches without considering it a carved image.

(11) We thank God that in their Sunday Schools, our Protestant brethren distribute pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ, the angels, the prophets, Noah's Ark with its animals, the Good Shepherd and the sheep, David feeding his sheep, Elijah and the ravens looking after him, Poor Lazarus and the dogs licking his wounds, Balaam, and the Devil tempting the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness. In distributing these pictures they are not worried or in any doubt that they may be breaking the second commandment by having pictures of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath.

(12) We cannot disregard the effect of pictures as lessons explaining the events of the Holy Bible and the lives of the heroes of faith and history. An icon may leave a more profound effect on the soul than reading or listening to a sermon.

Icons connect the believers on earth with the angels in heaven and the righteous who abide in Paradise. They give us a strong inner motive to carry out the Apostle's words: “Remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Heb.13: 7).

(13) In venerating pictures, we are in effect venerating their owners. When we kiss the Gospel, we show our love to the word of God and to God who gave us His commandments for our guidance. When we bow down before the cross, we bow down, as one of the Fathers said, “to Him who is crucified on it”. The commandment “You shall not bow down to them or serve them”, does not apply to us at all when we do these things.

(14) It is well known that icons have been recognised since the Apostolic Era. It is said that St. Luke the Evangelist was an artist and that he portrayed more than one picture of the Virgin Mary. Tradition tells us about the image of the face of the Lord Jesus Christ imprinted on a handkerchief.

If you study the history of icons you will find that the strongest eras in faith were those in which people venerated icons. Their faith was not affected but on the contrary, they were virtuous people.

(15) Why should we deprive artists from sharing in activating the spiritual life of people? Pictures give spiritual feelings that affect the soul and effectively transfer to people the life-stories of saints.