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Worship

“Working with words, we tend to become enmeshed in ideas and abstractions. We quickly forget that the One whom we name as the “Word” (Logos) is fully human as well as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Logos has fingers and toes. In our own lives, it is possible to concentrate on the ideas to the exclusion of all else. There is a genius in the life of the Church. Though the great decisions of the faith often seem to concentrate on the finer points of doctrine (ideas), the true life of the Church is primarily expressed as worship.” (Father Stephen Freeman)


“…the Christian faith is not some “thing” ensconced in a set of propositions located in texts from which religious truth may be extracted by the autonomous reader who is equipped with either the right exegetical tools or pious feelings….Christian orthodoxy is truth lived at a variety of levels of knowledge, worship, and good works. Truth is in the act as well as in tradition and shared memory.” (Vigen Guroian)


“…in Christianity the abstract is intensely practical. As we have learned in earlier chapters, the insight that the good, true, and beautiful things in creation participate in God, and act as a ladder on our ascent toward Him, helped furnish Christians with a powerful apologetic for asserting the goodness of the material world…It is precisely because the good things of this earth participate in divine goodness and beauty that they should be revered and honored rather than defiled through sin….Our species, homo sapiens, possesses dual or perhaps triple sets of sensory organs to cope with the many dimensions of life on our planet. Our physical senses – touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste – are matched with a set of spiritual senses that enable us to meet one another with love, kindness, bravery, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, self-control, faithfulness, and gentleness (see Gal 5:22). To these fruits of the Spirit God adds the capacity to know Him – to encounter God with contrition, awe, repentance, worship, glory, peace, even the ecstasy of immediate communion with our Creator.” (Robin Phillips, Dynamis 9/17/2020)


“If we begin with the Cross, rather than with some abstract notion of divine omnipotence, then we can see that God and we ourselves are still engaged in a massive cosmic struggle. The Cross and Resurrection ended Satan’s sovereignty over the world and over our individual destinies. Yet the struggle continues, just as sin continues, as natural disasters continue, and will do so until Christ comes again in glory. Once more we need to remind ourselves: there is profound significance in the fact that at the Empty Tomb the angel speaks of Christ not as “the Risen One,” but as “the Crucified One” (Matt & Mk). “…spiritual emptiness is a sign that one has lost a sense of purpose and meaning at its roots. One merely goes through the motions of life, soldiering on without a point. That is why the inspiration of an occasional party, even a celebration of worship, may not last. The spirit of the occasion only endures if it renews us in the motivation to carry on the work that God has called us to do.” (Fr. Basil)


“ “Liturgy,” as I’m using the word, is a shorthand term for those rituals that are loaded with an ultimate Story about who we are and what we’re for. They carry within them a kind of ultimate orientation…Liturgies work affectively and aesthetically—they grab hold of our guts through the power of image, story, and metaphor. That’s why the most powerful liturgies are attuned to our embodiment; they speak to our senses; they get under our skin. The way to the heart is through the body.” (James Smith) 


“In Malachi's day people complained that worship brings on weariness. Today, people complain that worship is “boring.” Worship was not designed by God as entertainment, but for His people to have communion with Him…By participating in liturgical prayer, we attract the grace of the Holy Spirit and sanctify ourselves in ways that we do not even realize Just as we are oblivious to the influence of the culture around us and yet we unconsciously absorb it, the same effect occurs in church. When we participate in liturgical worship, we also join the communion of the saints and the angels in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Malachi 1:12-14, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou)


“The practices of Christian worship train our love—they are practice for the coming kingdom, habituating us as citizens of the kingdom of God…Love is a sacrament. Love is fully revealed in the eucharistic service. It is embodied in the communion of those who have come together to worship Christ for the love of him and of all things. In doing so, the gathered church becomes perfectly identified with Christ’s own body…there is no separation between worship and life. To worship Christ is to live for Him and in Him…worship is an ascent of the heart and mind to the Holy Trinity in adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.” (James Smith, Vigen Guroian,  Orthodox Study Bible, Philippians 2:17, Psalms 119:1)


“In the meantime, this distinction between ‘corporate’ and ‘private’ worship is a contradiction of the basic and ancient concept of Christian worship as the public act of the Church, in which there is nothing private at all, nor can there be, since this would destroy the very nature of the Church… the purpose of worship is to constitute the Church, to bring what is ‘private’ into new life, to transform it into what belongs to the Church, i.e., shared with all in Christ.” (Father Alexander Schmemann)


“In our age of individualism, most of us think of worship as a private matter. It is our choice whether to attend worship or not. And that decision is based on what we can “get out” of our participation…worship is corporate. That is, it is the worship of the community of believers…When we meet together, the Lord fulfills His promise, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Our gathering amplifies our praise, multiplies our prayers, and fills all who are present with a common Spirit…The more we serve the Lord in praise, thanksgiving, and petition, the more our souls are lifted, our burdens relieved, and our spirits soar.” (Fr. Basil)


“…they understood worship as intimately involved with the ordinary. It wasn’t just a thing for high and holy days, it was the cadence by which you woke and worked, slept and ate.” (Sarah Clarkson)


“Here are two types of worshipers—one (Cain) merely discharges a duty at the proper time, while the other (Abel) goes out of his way to please God with the first and the best… Abel by faith offered a better sacrifice. Cain’s offering as well as his reaction to God’s displeasure did not reflect faith.” (NET Bible, Genesis 4:4-5)


“In this vein, we might ask, what do we gain from our worship attendance? If we participate in services merely for what we get out of them, we will drift from place to place and group to group trying to find something that will satisfy us. But worship is its own purpose. It needs no other. Likewise, we should find joy in serving just as we should attain fulfillment in loving. We should love and serve for their own sake. Indeed, we should do everything that we do “in the Name of the Lord” (Colossians 3:17) and for the glory of God, not for earthly gain.” (Fr. Basil)


“I think if we are honest, most of us go through periods of life where our faith gets tested. We may choose to take a step back in our prayer life, cut back on worship, or stop reading Scripture at some point. This might be due to a traumatic life event that makes us question the existence of God. It might be that our life not going particularly well and maybe we blame God. And it might be with some sense of boredom. Doing the same and the same regarding worship and prayer might start to dull our enthusiasm. I know I have been through these periods. When I go through one of them, I make it a point to keep showing up, to keep showing up in prayer and in worship. I may not show up with great fervor or energy, but I continue to show up. I suppose I could say that my pledge to God is a commitment to always show up, even when I don’t feel like it. (This is the kind of commitment one needs to be married or have children. We all go through spells where we don’t want to be married or a parent or both. It may last a day or two or longer, but the key to being married or being a parent is showing up, even when you are upset, tired or bored of the repetition.)” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)


“The Lord desires that our worship be intimately connected with the daily activities of our lives. We must never compartmentalize our participation in the Church’s divine services, but rather “commend ourselves, each other, and our whole life to Christ our God.”…worship need not be stored away, like a finely woven cloth, in order to protect it from the jostle of our everyday occupations and routine living.” (Dynamis 8/12/2021)


“Man was created with an intuitive awareness of God and thankfulness to Him for the creation. In return, the creation itself was made to be a means of communion and revelation of God to man. Man was thus created as a Eucharistic being, the priest of creation, to offer it in thanksgiving to God, and to use it as a means of living in communion, the knowledge and love of God. Man was created to worship. In our fallenness, turning from God to created things as ends in themselves, we lost the intuitive knowledge of God and our essential attitude of thankfulness to Him. Secularism is rooted in this loss of divine awareness, the darkening of our intuitive perception of the creation as the sacrament of God’s Presence. It is a denial of our essential reality as human beings, and our reduction to purely material animals. Thus the refusal to worship and give thanks, to offer the creation in thanksgiving back to God, is a denial of our very nature as humans.” (OCA Synod of Bishops)


"We may go to beautiful churches well-prepared for worship, but often we don’t take the presence of God with us through the week…The Lord desires that our worship be intimately connected with the daily activities of our lives.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Jeremiah 7:9-11, Dynamis 7/19/2018)

“…there is no separation between worship and life. They are one.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Philippians 2:17)

“One must act in such a way that the soul does not turn to God only when you are standing in prayer, but should do so as far as possible throughout the day. It should be an unceasing offering of oneself to Him.” (St. Theophan the Recluse)

“The membrane between the church and the world is thin. We want to cross it lightly, gracefully, so that suddenly, even for those who do not show up on Sundays at God’s physical house, a house with many mansions still might shine through in their imaginations. This kind of agility is not born by taking the physical house, the church, lightly. No, worship is what prepares us for the strangeness of life.” (Lillian Daniel)

“If we really think about it, “Church” begins when the worship service ends. Only if we are able to convert what we have heard and received into action will we be able to fulfill Christ’s call to spread His word throughout this hurting world.” (Marianne C. Sailus)

“Attending church, taking communion, teaching church school, singing in the choir – all are empty exercises unless we are truly doing them for God. It is good to do these activities, not because we ought to do them for church, but because we want to do them for God.” (Life Application Study Bible, Jeremiah 7:2, 3)

“We may go to beautiful churches well prepared for worship, but often we don’t take the presence of God with us throughout the week…Going to church and belonging to a group can become more important than a life changed for God…Many use religious affiliation as a hideout, thinking it will protect them from evil and problems.” (Life Application Study Bible, Jeremiah 7:9-11)

“The Church has always understood and taught that what we do outside of the Church walls and how we live our lives is part of our Liturgical life because Christianity is indeed the way of life God wants us to live all of the time, not just on Sundays.” (Sacramental Living)

“Following a long list of religious rules requires strong self-discipline and can make a person appear moral, but religious rules cannot change a person’s heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.” (Life Application Study Bible, Colossians 2:23)

“You can never please God by outward actions – no matter how good – if your heart attitude is not right.” (Life Application Study Bible, Psalm 51:17)

“You are worth what your heart is worth.” (Pope John Paul II)

“Too many people use the term secular to mean the absence of religion when in fact it is the absence of worship… Negation of worship, ironically, is also what erects a barrier around our hearts that keep us from truly understanding the truth we seek to understand. (Father Alexander Schmemann, Sacramental Living))

“Bible study, discussions, forums, exchanges of ideas, etc., though worthwhile, are not worship. Further, these activities without worship can lead us away from being God-focused to actually being self-focused because the focus during study often shifts from God who transcends the world and life and is the very cause of it, to ourselves as we seek to harness the truth and force fit it into our understanding or intellect instead of letting our understanding unfold from God as we engage in worship of Him.” (Father Alexander Schmemann, Sacramental Living)

"…there is no separation between worship and life [your faith and life]. They are one.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Philippians 2:17)

“God created us human beings fundamentally as worshipping beings....To deny this aspect of our humanity is to ultimately deny our humanity itself. Because we were also created as inherently social creatures, it follows that we were created by God to give social expression to our religious feelings through rituals, acts, and rites of worship. Though personal and certainly intimate, our worship is, at the same time, a fundamentally social, or corporate, expression of our faith.” (Archbishop Demetrios of America)

"…we should listen closely to Christ’s indictment of those who neglect the state of their heart and instead exploit the minutiae of tradition. Clearly, God wants us to uphold His commandments (Jn 14:15). His chief desire, however, is that we do so with hearts filled with love for Him and for others…” (Dynamis 7/23/2014)

“The"act” or appearance of being religious includes going to church, knowing Christian doctrine, using Christian clichés, and following a community’s Christian traditions. Such practices can make a person look good, but if the inner attitudes of belief, love, and worship are lacking, the outer appearance is meaningless.” (Life Application Study Bible, 2 Timothy 3:5)

"We perform the externals of life rightly when our hearts love God first, foremost, and above all. If our hearts are not filled with the living God, then our meticulous keeping of the"letter” – fulfilling the commandments and dictates of tradition – will never save but rather condemn us.” (Dynamis 7/23/2014)

“The state of mind and being that breeds happiness is made possible over time as we learn to worship God and live life sacramentally which is to see everything good in life from God and even see God’s goodness at work in the bad stuff. Worship of God is what really fulfills us spiritually and what fulfills us spiritually is ultimately what leads to true and lasting joy.” (Sacramental Living)

“The Lord desires that our worship be intimately connected with the daily activities of our lives. We must never compartmentalize our participation in the Church’s divine services, but rather commend ourselves, each other, and our whole life to Christ our God.” (Dynamis 7/23/2015)

“…there is no separation between worship and life [your faith and life]. They are one…We are called to live in the world seeing everything in it as a revelation of God, a sign of His presence, the joy of His coming.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Philippians 2:17, Father Alexander Schmemann)

“The distinction between things that are Caesar's and things that are God's does not imply the division of a believer's life into the secular and the sacred. Rather, God is Lord over all of life..." (Orthodox Study Bible, Matthew 22:15-22)

“Too many people use the term secular to mean the absence of religion when in fact it is the absence of worship… Negation of worship, ironically, is also what erects a barrier around our hearts that keep us from truly understanding the truth we seek to understand. (Father Alexander Schmemann, Sacramental Living)

“The opposite of a slave is not a free man. It’s a worshiper. The one who is most free is the one who turns the work of his hands into sacrament, into offering. All he makes and all he does are gifts from God, through God, and to God." (Mark Buchanan)

“Your spirit needs and wants closeness with God. You want to know the living God personally, not as an idea or concept, not as a distant monarch. You can draw near to God through prayer, worship, and Bible meditation. You need not live like a monk, but you probably need more prayer in your life. The habit of worship has become a convenience to be wedged between sports and other recreations. Instead, make worship your top priority.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 7:19)

“All worship is sacramental” (Orthodox Study Bible, 1 Corinthians 12:19-22)

"The more you pray, the less you'll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry." (Rick Warren)

"...true worship is a living, dynamic expression of both the believer's faith and the community's faith….Each of us must learn the fullness of Christ and worship with the Church…" (Orthodox Study Bible, Romans 12:1, Dynamis 2/28/2014)

“If we become more concerned with the means of worship than with the one we worship, we will miss God even as we think we are worshiping Him…“When we claim to honor God while our hearts are far from him, our worship means nothing. It is not enough to study about religion or even to study the Bible; it is not enough to act religious. Our actions and our attitudes must be sincere.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 12:6, Matthew 15:8,9)

“Humanity by nature worships. Some seek to worship the Creator, while others worship the creation. A brief definition of being fully human is giving glory and thanks to the true God. Those who refuse to worship Him become darkened in their hearts.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Romans 1:21)

“When people worship the creature instead of the Creator, they lose sight of their own identity as those who are higher than the animals—made in the image of God.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 1:23)

“Our rituals … are all designed to focus us away from ourselves and to God.” (Sacramental Living)

“The way we gain communion with and knowledge of God is from the heart to the mind, not the mind to the heart. This is why ritualistic worship, prayer, fasting, giving, Church services, and other disciplines are incredibly important. These practices may seem archaic, even silly, in the postmodern world but the postmodern world in many ways is a world created by our intellectualism in which we cater, even in religious circles, to our ego and to some extent worship ourselves, which is the wall that separates us from God.” (Sacramental Living)"Ceremonies and rituals serve as reminders of our faith as well as instruct new or young believers, but we should not think that they give us any special merit before God. They are outward signs and seals that demonstrate inner belief and trust.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 4:10-12)

“Ceremonies and rituals serve as reminders of our faith as well as instruct new or young believers, but we should not think that they give us any special merit before God. They are outward signs and seals that demonstrate inner belief and trust.” (Life Application Study Bible, Romans 4:10-12)

“God designed us to worship Him… God ever draws us to Himself.” (Dynamis 9/30/2014)

“The house of the Lord is not just the Church where we worship on Sunday. It is also the heart of every Christian whose body is built up into the Lord’s temple (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).” (Hieromonk Maximus)

“God is always most interested in the building and developing of our character. He wants more than anything for us to love Him, worship Him, and grow to love others more purely." (Ray and Nancy Kane)

“Self as the new god is worshiped at the expense of community and enthroned in a position of the utmost importance. Worship of self has contributed to the downfall of families and societal stability, with careers, social and financial gain, and self-fulfillment reigning supreme...life is not meant for personal gratification or personal gain, but that we might give glory and worship to God in all we do.” (Abbot Tryphon)

“We, too, should ruthlessly find and remove any centers of false worship in our lives. These may be activities, attitudes, possessions, relationships, places, or habits—anything that tempts us to turn our hearts from God..." (Life Application Study Bible, Deuteronomy 12:2,3)

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