Lighting lamps has a special profound spiritual meaning

[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.