The Virtue of

Divine Worship

GROUP 4
 NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF DIVINE WORSHIP

What religiosity first experience in the interiority of the heart, that it desires to express internally. In
the acts of worship the divine virtues tend to give expression to the devotion, hope and love, which
they cherish. Men’s prayer gives voice to their adoration, and the liturgical actions, symbol and
sacraments are signs that announce the faith of the heart and express its hope and love.

“When the Church prays or sings or acts, the faith of those taking part is nourished and their minds
are raised to God so that they may offer him their spiritual homage and receive his grace more
abundantly” (SC 33; cf. 59)
 NATURE AND OBJECT OF DIVINE WORSHIP
1. Nature of Divine Worship
According to its etymological origin the term worship means “to ascribe worth”. In its present
usage, to worship not only means to ascribe worth, but to ascribe supreme worth to someone or
something. Obviously supreme worth can only be accorded to the supreme being, and this is the
transcendent reality of the holy and divine. This reality alone can be the object of worship.
• For many religions the divine reality is a personal God.
• for Christians it is the personal, triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• If supreme worth can be accorded to the supreme being only, then vice versa the duty to
worship God is a self-evident conclusion from the very idea of him as “ that than which nothing
greater can be conceived” (Anselm)
• To have God of necessity means to worship him.
• The Object of divine worship, according to this definition, is the religious acts and the public or
private cult offered to God
 NATURE AND OBJECT OF DIVINE WORSHIP
2. Different Forms of Worship
Every morally good act stands in the service of God’s honour and glory and contains an
acknowledgement of his absolute supremacy. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor
10:31).
• The forms of divine worship can be distinguished according to the different means and ways,
which people use in order to give expression to their reverence for God and devotion to him.
Prayer and sacrifice hold first place as the most fundamental expressions of religion. God is
venerated through words directed to him or through gifts given away from men's possessions
and somehow handed over to God. Added to this in many religions is the reading of the sacred
books as the word that comes from God.
• Other forms of worship are the sanctification of special days and seasons, processions and
pilgrimages, the segregation of sacred Nature and Foundation of Divine Worship, places and
objects, the veneration of divine symbols and images
 NATURE AND OBJECT OF DIVINE WORSHIP
• Extraordinary acts of worship are the vows. Vows are obligations based upon a freely made
promise made to God. The vow is a kind of self-imposed, personal law. As to its binding force,
interpretation and fulfilment, the intention of the person who makes the vow is to be respected
as a decisive criterion and norm. To the extent that this is not clear, the vow is to be interpreted
in the broad sense. For the details in regard to the conditions, binding force, dispense and
cessation of vows see the Code of Canon Law.
 NATURE AND OBJECT OF DIVINE WORSHIP
3. Worship of God and veneration of saints.
• The supreme worship of adoration belongs to God alone. He alone is the All-Holy and Most
High, who merits total devotion and unconditional surrender. Because Jesus Christ is the Son of
God and of one nature with the Father, equal worship is due to him as to the Father.
• Yet since the motive of divine worship is the glory and holiness of God and since this glory
and holiness manifest themselves in a particular way in the saints, it follows that God can and
should also be honoured in his elect. This is the basis for the veneration of the angels and
saints.
 FOUNDATION OF DIVINE WORSHIP

The duty and necessity to worship God is at times denied altogether. Others approve of it in
principle, but they disavow the need and obligation of external and particularly corporate worship.
Therefore firstly we shall set forth the reasons for a person's obligation of divine worship in general
and secondly the reasons for the need of external and corporate worship.
 FOUNDATION OF DIVINE WORSHIP

I. Divine Worship in General

• Holy Scriptures assign to the duties of worship the first place in the decalogue. "I am the Lord
your God... You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex 20:2f). It is revealing that the
commandments of the first tablet do not concern themselves with the duty of worship generally
speaking - this duty and need was for the ancient nations undisputed and self-evident - but only
with the true worship of the only, true God. Adoration and worship is due to Yahweh alone. "To
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear," enjoins the Lord (Is 45:23; cf. 42:8;
48:11). Contemplating the greatness of God, the wonders of his creation and men's dependence
on him, the psalmist calls upon the congregation: "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us
kneel before the Lord, our Maker!" (Ps 95:6; cf. 96:7-9).
 FOUNDATION OF DIVINE WORSHIP
2. External and corporate worship
• The religion of the Old Testament was a religion of a strictly ordered, external cult, so much so that the prophets
repeatedly had to reproach its externalization and to recall the fundamental need for inner devotion and love.3 Christ
wants a worship of the Father "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:23). The external offering without the devotion of the heart
is worthless; but this does not mean that the external offering as such is objectionable. "If you are offering your gift
at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar
and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Mt 5:23f). Christ approves of the
external cult. He himself participated in it (cf. Lk 4:16). Through the mandate of baptism, the institution of the
eucharistic sacrifice and the institution of the priesthood he laid the foundation for the liturgical, common worship
of his Church. When celebrating the last supper with his disciples, in which he gave his body and blood to them for
the first time under the pieces of bread and wine, he charged them: "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19). The
early Christians were only fulfilling the will of their master when they regularly came together for the breaking of
the bread and the common praise of the Lord (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor 11:17-34).
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

False cult is most directly opposed to the nature of worship insofar as it falsifies the worship due to God at the root.
Here either the external acts of worship do not really render due honour to God, but instead attempt to place God at the
service of humans and are destitute of the spirit of devotion (false cult of the true God), or worship has as its object false
gods (idolatry), or a resemblance of religious faith and trust is put in the devil and other dark and magic forces
(superstition and magic).
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

1. False worship of the true God

True worship is centered on God's honor and glory. It is an expression of a person's devotion and total submission to
God. False worship on the contrary attempts to get hold of God by means of religious practices for human utility; or it
makes use of means which are unworthy of God, because they are not truly an expression of a person's inner devotion
and oblation to God, but rather an outlet for human passions and ambitions.
• Quasi-magic practices of piety. Of this nature are certain rites and prayers to which special effects are attributed, if
performed in rigid adherence to prescribed rituals and if repeated the required number of times.
• Vain worship by unworthy means. Unworthy of God are those means and acts, employed in the service of the cult,
which are not a genuine expression of a person's devotion to God. This is above all the case if external sacrifices and
liturgical actions are employed as substitutes for a person's personal obedience and devotion to God.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

2. Worship of false gods (idolatry)

• The most extreme form of false cult is the worship and adoration of fictitious deities, demons and the devil. Against
such inane and impious aberration God commands, in the first precept of the decalogue, the categorical rejection of
any deity beside himself. “You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex 20:3). “Human life finds its unity in the
adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an
endless disintegration."
• Worship of a whole heaven of deities of good and evil nature is a rather frequent religious phenomenon. The
religions of the ancient Orient, of Greece and the Roman empire, with whom Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament were confronted, were all polytheistic. The root of the worship of the many gods and goddesses was
generally not wilful apostasy from the true God but simple ignorance. This idolatry therefore does not usually
involve personal guilt. Yet objectively polytheism is an error and aberration; it is to be rejected and must be
overcome. Time and again Scriptures stand up against the threat of idolatry and fight against it vehemently.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

3. Superstition
Superstition in the wide sense is beliefs and practices objectively groundless and therefore futile and absurd. This broad
concept of superstition also includes the quasi-magic abuses of genuine religious beliefs and practices, which have been
mentioned earlier as forms of false worship of the true God. In the narrower sense superstition consists in futile beliefs
and practices occasioned by the credence in imaginary powers. Whilst the error of superstitious religious practices lies in
the reliance on inappropriate, futile means, by which a person wants to obtain favours from truly existing, spiritual
powers, namely from God and the saints, the error of superstition in the narrower sense primarily lies in the assumption
of powers which have no existence at all.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

• Vain Observances
Vain observances consist in the observance of certain signs and conditions and in the use of certain things for no valid
reason. Examples of vain observance of certain signs and conditions are the fear of black cats that cross one's way as a
sign of bad luck; the dread of the number 13 as a bad omen; the observation of lucky and unlucky days. The Hindus
regard Wednesday as the unluckiest of days. Friday passed among the ancients as the luckiest day. But in Christian times
it became, as the day on which Christ died, a day of ill omen. Tuesday and Thursday are supposed to be lucky days.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

• Divination
Divination is the attempt to foretell the future by certain means or to obtain other occult knowledge. Such other occult
knowledge can concern the fate of a missing person, the whereabouts of lost things, the perpetrators of unsolved crimes,
forgotten memories, the condition of absent persons, and the like.

1. Astrology. It assumes that there is a regular connection between the position of the stars at the moment of a person's
birth and that person's character and destiny. This leads to the attempt to read a person's future from the stars.
Astrology is a very ancient form of divination, spread among many people, and also widely practiced today.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

2. Fortune telling from cards, tea leaves, crystal balls etc.

These means frequently constitute the equipment of the more popular fortune-tellers. There is no doubt
that very often such soothsaying is more an exploitation of the naive credulity of the customers than an
actual paranormal capability. As professionals they may be masters of the art of association. On the other
hand one cannot exclude that these aids may serve as a means of concentration to paranormally endowed
mediums, just as the stars can be for sensitive persons. The same can hold for palmistry, which attempts to
read the future from the lines of a person's hand. In addition, however, the lines of the hand give veritable
clues to a person's character, just as a person's handwriting does. But even in the case of paranormally
gifted mediums, here as much as in all other instances of precognition, the uncertainties are so many that a
sure reliance on the predictions is not possible nor can it be considered responsible.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

3.Spiritism
This form of divination consists in the attempt to conjure up spirits of the dead (necromancy) or the spirit
world, and to obtain from them occult knowledge and insights into the future. The judgment of science is
that all demonstrations hitherto of communications with spirits from the other world can without
artificiality be explained by a combination of abilities of living persons. It is also noteworthy that no great
discoveries have ever been made or helped by spiritistic séances, e.g. no informations gained about the
conditions of the planets or the secrets in the depths of the sea or the earth.
 FALSE WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITION

• Magic
Magic is the attempt to bring about certain effects by mysterious powers in a preternatural way. Magic is
divided into white magic, which aims at helpful or at least permissible effects, and black magic, which
seeks to inflict harm or strives after other sinful ends. Often the term magic is used to designate practices
that undertake to attain certain effects with totally insufficient means, naturally in vain. Such practices
are of course plain superstition. But also the use of really existing, though mysterious powers is called
magic. Inasmuch as these powers are not purely imaginary, the belief in them and their use cannot be
classified as superstition.
Scientists have been able to prove on an experimental basis that some people possess the ability to
influence objects and other persons physically and psychologically merely by means of their spiritual
forces. For example the conviction of many dice-players that they can mentally influence the number
they want to throw has been confirmed by experiments. The desired numbers have occurred much more
often than probability calculus would admit.
 Virtue
Represent the set of values and behaviors that permits the human being. To yet closer to God. They
are based on christianity and characterize the morality. --Are traits or qualities which dispose one to
cunduct one self in a morally good manner traditionally VIRTUES have been name FAITH, HOPE,
and CHARITY'S.

DEFINITION OF VIRTUE The term Virtue in Greek often refers to MORAL EXCELLENCE and
GOODNESS A VIRTUE is a right inner disposition and a disposition is a tendency to act in a
certain ways , Disposition is more basic lasting and pervasive than the particular motive or intention
behind a certain action.It defers from a sudden impulse in being a settled habit of mind and
internalized an often reflected trait. Virtues are general Character traits that provide inner sanctions
on our particular motives intentions and outward conduct.
 Virtue
THE LAW OF DEVINE LOVE IS THE STANDARD FOR ALL HUMAN ACTIONS It is evident
that not all are ableto labor at learning and for that reason christ has given a short law. everyone can
know this law and know one maybe excused from observing it because of ignorance, this is the law
of divine love, A scripture says the LORD WILL QUICKLY execute sentence the earth. AN
EXPLANATION OF THE DIVINE SERVICE. when people hear the term DIVINE SERVICE after
the think that this is what we do for GOD that it is our duty toward GOD. in reality the opposite is
true, in the devine service GOD comes to us in his word and in the sacraments, and we respond wit
THANKS & PRAISE The worship and devine service of the Gospel is to recieve gifts from GOD.
this removes any pressure we may put on ourselves to think or feel a certain way. Our role is simply
to come and receive the blessings of our gracious father
QUSTION
TIME
THANK
YOU