Let us all run to meet HIm

St Sophronius:  'Let us all run to meet Him.... let there be no one who does not share in this meeting, let no one refuse to carry a light. We add to this the bright shining of candles. In this way we show forth the divine splendour of the coming of Him who makes all things bright, in the abundance of whose eternal light all things are bathed in light when the evil shadows have been driven away. In this way we show the brightness of soul with which we must go to meet Christ.... we must hurry out to meet Him who is truly light, enlightened by the beams of His brightness and nearing in our hands the light which shines for all men.... that is why we go in procession with lamps in our hands and hasten, bearing lights showing both that the light has shone upon us, and signifying the glory which is to come...'
(PG 87:329 in Liturgical Practice of the Fathers (Wilmington, 1988).