How do we define "worship?"

[Bruised_Reed]

Thank you all for your responses; they have been helpful.

But I must admit that for me, personally, the greater devotion I have to the saints, the less I am focused on God. The more trust I place in them rather than in God. The more I border on them as the answer to my problems rather than God. That is all despite my intellectual knowledge and assent that they are not God and that I am not worshiping them. (I realize this on reflection.)

That is why I am afraid that we are just kidding and lying to ourselves about this.

I’m curious what your devotion to a saint looks like (for lack of a better way of putting it)? What does it involve?

I wonder this because my devotion to a saint involves asking for their intercession and reading their writings, prayers or at least their biographies. I get to know them and their relationship to God which in turn teaches me how to follow God more closely, in thought, word and deed.

Especially Mary, she seems the fastest way to her Son. We can crawl on our own power to Him but she picks us up and brings us to Jesus through her intercession.

 

[GregoryPalamas]

In every religion that worship the central act of worship is Sacrifice. In Christianity the principle sacrifice is the one made by Christ for the salvation of humanity. We mingle our sacrifice with His each time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. To the extent that we lose track of the sacrifice of Christ and our mutual sacrifice with Him the less we worship. In its purest form Buddhists do not worship. When Hindus worship it is by sacrificing to the God who sacrificed his existence for creation. In the purest form of worship in Judaism it was centered around blood sacrifice. Christians worship when they offer the sacrifice of the Mass. Do Protestants who believe only a symbolic sacrifice truely worship? I can’t say. But their lack of real sacrifice in most cases makes their activity something other than worship.

CDL

 

[VociMike]

Thank you all for your responses; they have been helpful.

But I must admit that for me, personally, the greater devotion I have to the saints, the less I am focused on God. The more trust I place in them rather than in God. The more I border on them as the answer to my problems rather than God. That is all despite my intellectual knowledge and assent that they are not God and that I am not worshiping them. (I realize this on reflection.)

That is why I am afraid that we are just kidding and lying to ourselves about this.

Just to show that this is not a universal situation, I cannot think of the saints without thinking how God called them home and how he provided the grace for them to become saints. At the same time, they are due great honor for heeding God’s call and accepting his grace in order to do his will. So there’s nothing either-or, it’s very much a case of both-and for me.

There is an ancient saying “God’s glory is man fully alive”, and every time I reflect on the saints I experience the truth of that saying.