2:11-12).9. Free eBook: Liturgical Year 2020-2021, Vol. The element of "silence" cannot be overlooked in adoration. "7 If this happens, then we can slide into the other problem for those who err in relating to Christ as if he were a human person. This would include things such as kissing a crucifix, singing a song we have composed out of love for him, giving a loving glance at a picture, smiling, etc. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is not something new. Sometimes we become preoccupied with our words and thoughts during adoration, rather than allowing ourselves to be enveloped by the beauty, the "awesome majesty" of our God in reverential silence. 3. This is his first article for HPR. 11. "When You open Your hand, they shall all be filled with good" (Psalm 103:28). 10. 6. Mere repeated religious gestures or words, bereft of interior values, are sham, even superstition." with trembling, pay homage to Him" (Ps. We should not try to adore God by will power alone. Human nature demands physical utterance of some sort for its spiritual and emotional moods; and it is to this instinct for self-expression that our whole apparatus of speech and gesture is due. "They shall be as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt. What does it really mean to "adore" the Lord? Regarding familiarity, Rev. The primary and fundamental element in adoration is an interior act of mind and will; the mind perceiving that God‘s perfection is infinite, the will bidding us to extol and worship this perfection. 5. We should never forget that it is impossible to adore the Lord of our own doing, because it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can lift up our heart and mind to God. An admirable example of adoration is given in the Apocalypse, vii, 11, 12: “And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the ancients, and about the living creatures; and they fell before the throne upon their faces, and adored God, saying Amen. If we are truly going to adore God in "Spirit and truth," then we have to know who God is. Benediction and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God, forever and ever, Amen.” The revealed precept to adore God was spoken to Moses upon Sinai and reaffirmed in the words of Christ: “The Lord thy God thou shalt adore, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt., iv, 10). No other is worthy of adoration but the three persons of the Trinity nor do we give this special reverence to anyone else at any time or any place. (CCC #2096) "Adoration is homage of the spirit to the King of glory, respectful silence in the presence of the ever greater God." It is also used as reliquary for the public display of relics of some saints. C.S. If week after week we go to adore the Lord without a genuine desire of conversion to a heart pleasing to him, then our adoration is deficient and defective, because it denies God's sovereignty over us. The primary and fundamental element in adoration is an interior act of mind and will; the mind perceiving that God's perfection is infinite, the will bidding us to extol and worship this perfection. Then, too, we should call upon the Blessed Virgin for help, since she looked upon the adorable face of Our Lord for years. Scripture even calls us to "worship the Lord in 'holy attire'" (1 Chron. They fall far short in conveying the attitude of worshipping God with an adoring heart. . One meets God beyond the senses, beyond the imagination, beyond nature. This worship called forth by God, and given exclusively to Him as God, is designated by the Greek name latreia (latinized, latria), for which the best translation that our language affords is the word Adoration. Carlo Carretto said it is precisely the renunciation of all desire to satisfy the senses that makes prayer strong and real. We should adore God in both these ways, with our will and with a heart that is human, too.12 Thus, affective piety is entirely appropriate in our adoration. (CCC #2628), The Concise Dictionary of Theology2 defines adoration as "the highest reverence to be offered only to God, our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier who alone should be worshiped and glorified." "10 Because of the divine nature of Our Lord, the Blessed Sacrament is the only "reality" on earth that requires our adoration, since no other physical reality is divine in nature! The Cure of Ars would spend hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Human attributes may be predicated of Christ as God and divine attributes of Christ as man — the so-called communication of characters. But in English the words adore and worship are still sometimes used, and in the past were commonly so used, to mean also inferior species of religious veneration, and even to express admiration or affection for persons living upon earth. It is to be expected, then, that men should have agreed upon certain conventional actions as expressing adoration of the Supreme Being. In Luke 4:7-8, when the devil tells Jesus that if he would prostrate himself before him, all the earthly kingdoms would be his. 8. Liturgical Question Box, Msgr. 6. 1. In that silence we enter into the presence of God. What is meditation? It is a sobering thought to hear of surveys which claim that only about 1/3 of Catholics actually believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist: that under the appearance of bread and wine is truly present the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. . Adoration is reserved for God alone. Catholic Answers is pleased to provide this unabridged entry from the original Catholic Encyclopedia, published between 1907 and 1912. The devil hates it when we are silent because he knows that we are either listening for him or focusing on him. But, as was intimated above, whenever the immediate object of our veneration is a creature of this sort, the mode of worship which we exhibit towards it is fundamentally different from the worship which belongs to God alone. True adoration involves a docile heart, an assent to God's sovereignty over our lives, a constant posture of humility before Him, and gifts of love offered in homage. . The importance of Eucharistic Adoration is shown in the fact that the Church has a ritual that regulates it: the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction. St. Elizabeth of Hungary — Last Retreat. XXV) makes clear the difference between invocation of saints and idolatry. One of the accusations made by Protestants against Roman Catholics is that by praying to Mary they are committing idolatry because they are giving to Mary the honor and adoration that belongs to God alone. The only other group of people remaining were those who adored him. 2. Adoration should be a 24/7 attitude of the heart. We shouldn't view adoration as the particular hour we sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament on a certain day of the week. It is hardly needful to remark that Catholics too, even the most unlearned, are in no peril of confounding the adoration due to God with the religious honor given to any finite creature, even when the word worship, owing to the poverty of our language, is applied to both. It is love overwhelmed by the beauty, the strength, the immense grandeur of the Beloved. When Pope Pius X was applauded during Mass, he said that one should not applaud the servant in the presence of the Master! For adoration to be authentic, we must have a proper understanding of who it is that we adore, as well as possess the proper attitude of heart. ", 5. Definition. The monstrance is placed on the altar and everyone is encouraged to sit in the pew and adore Him. Only God is worthy of worship, prayer, and supplication. Initial greeting (enter in silence) Enter in silence and reverence to the Church or the Chapel of the … St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentaries on St. Matthews Gospel, 22, 4. "11 Msgr. A Catholic Dictionary, Donald Attwater, editor, TAN, 1997. What does ADORATION mean? A monstrance, also known as an ostensorium, is a vessel used in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, High Church Lutheran and Anglican churches for the more convenient exhibition of some object of piety, such as the consecrated Eucharistic host during Eucharistic adoration or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. . Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, either reserved in the tabernacle or exposed in a monstrance, continued by successive worshipers day and night without intermission. 11:30). Because of his dignity — reverence is due to every degree of dignity. (See Blasphemy; Idolatry; Mary; Saints; Christian Worship. and Edward G. Farrugia, S.J. News, analysis & spirituality by email, twice-weekly from CatholicCulture.org. 20:1-4). During lent we pray during the Stations of the Cross, "We adore Thee O Christ and we praise Thee . We often find ourselves saying to the Lord "we adore Thee.". It is emotional when the person concerned is unable to live without the object of his love. All the casual talk with bursts of frivolity hardly seems to show the "greatest adoration" for the Blessed Sacrament, especially when the tabernacle is present in Church. In it the object of our deepest and most fitting love is received, not grabbed; it is beheld, not parsed out with clever and incisive words. Prayers of intercession are another form of prayers of petition, but they are important … This is a word from heaven. For those who "adored" the Lord, what did it mean? These acts by people should be given to God, not created things. God forbid we be one of those who give "lip service," but that our hearts are far from what we say! Which, in the most basic terms, is the worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass. Scripture very clearly reveals that our offering to God in adoration of him can be unacceptable, as was Cain's. The second class embraces sins of superstition. Jesus says that the Father looks for those who will worship him in "Spirit and truth" (John 4:23). But everyone "holding hands" does not reflect the meaning of this great prayer of adoration and petition. He is the ultimate end of our worship in such cases, as He is the source of the derived perfection which called it forth. 2:10-11) . The Blessed Eucharist: Our Greatest Treasure, Father Michael Muller, C.S.S.R., (Baltimore: Kelly and Piet, 1868; TAN 1994, p32-33. As St. Thomas teaches, “it is connatural for us to pass from the physical signs to the spiritual basis upon which they rest” (Summa II-II, Q. xlviii, art. The word adoratio very probably originated from the phrase (manum) ad os (mittere), which designated the act of kissing the hand to the statue of the god one wished to honor. 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