Keeping The Lamp Lit

Non exstinguitur lucerna eius tota nocte. Nemo accendit lucernam et ponit sub modio. Tu illuminabis lucernam meam Domine. Lucerna eius, spes eius. Ad illam operatur omnis homo, quidquid boni ad spem facit. Et in nocte ardet lucerna ista. Si enim quod non videmus speramus, ideo nox est. Si autem et non videmus et non speramus, et nox est et lucerna non ardet. Quid infelicius talibus tenebris? Ut autem non deficiamus in tenebris et per patientiam exspectemus quod non visum speramus, tota nocte ardeat lucerna nostra. Qui enim nobis quotidie loquitur verbum tamquam oleum infundit ne lucerna exstinguatur. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Sermo XXXVII, Sermo Habitus in Natale Martyrum Scillitanorim In Basilica Novarum Ubi Dicit: Mulierem Fortem Quis Inveniet Source: Migne PL 38.226-227

Her lamp is not put out all night long. 1 'Nobody lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel.' 'You will light up my lamp, O Lord.' 2 Her lamp is her hope. Everyone works by its light, at whatever good they do in hope, and this lamp burns in the night. If we do not see what we hope for it is night, but if we do not see and we do not hope it is night and the lamp is not lit. What could be more wretched than such darkness? That we do not perish in the dark, but that with patience we may wait for that which we hope for and is not yet seen, let our lamp burn through the whole night. He who speaks the word to us every day is as one who pours in oil to save the lamp from guttering. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 37, Given in the New Market Basilica on the Birthday of The Scillitan Martyrs, Where it says, 'A strong woman who will find?' 1 Prov 31.18 2 Mt 5.15, Ps 17.29