Worship

Worship is the act of reverent activities dedicated to God (or other deities, depending on the religion), including praise, prayer, devotions, reading from the scriptures, liturgy, and hymns. A church service is often referred to as a worship service, or just a service. Worship can be done in a group setting such as a church service, in a small group setting such as a family, or individually. The worship of God includes the necessity of works of mercy toward other persons in need. Matthew 25:31-46 1 John 3:17-18

Degrees of Worship: Dulia, Hyperdulia, and Latreia

Many Protestants have been taught that Orthodox and Catholic Christians worship Mary as God or Goddess apart from or greater than Jesus Christ and above God the Father. This is based on a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word "worship", which has been redefined as being strictly limited in meaning to "adoration" only.

The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. It comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which means the condition of being worthy of honor, respect, or dignity. To worship in this older, larger sense is to ascribe honor, worth, or excellence to someone, whether a sage, a magistrate, or God.

For many centuries, the term worship simply meant showing respect or honor (Latin, dulia), and an example of this usage survives in contemporary English. British subjects refer to their magistrates as "Your Worship," although Americans would say "Your Honor." This does not mean that British subjects worship their magistrates as gods (in fact, they may even despise a particular magistrate they are addressing), or that Americans give to their magistrates and Supreme Court justices honor due only to God. It means they are giving them the venerable dignity, honor and respect appropriate to their office (dulia "veneration"), not the honor appropriate to God (latreia, latria "adoration").

In the traditional Anglican Solemnization of Matrimony ceremony, found in the Book of Common Prayer, when the groom placed the ring on the bride's finger, he said to her: "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee WORSHIP, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow" (emphasis added). Did he consider his wife a goddess? Was he committing idolatry? No, for he was using the word "worship" in its original sense of "honor" (dulia). This is the meaning of the words in the Book of Common Prayer.

The same goes for a quote from an old (obscure) official Catholic prayerbook entitled All for Jesus!:

"Holiest Virgin, with all my heart I WORSHIP THEE above all the angels and saints in paradise... I consecrate my soul and all its powers...I WORSHIP THEE the spouse of the Holy Ghost..."
—from Devotions to Our Blessed Lady, All for Jesus: Approved Devotions and Prayers for Church and Home, p 283. Imprimatur: John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of NY, Mar 13, 1884.

This quote does not prove that Catholics offer Mary the divine worship of latreia. Note that the prayer says "I worship (ie. honor) thee above all the angels and saints in paradise" (hyperdulia), not "I worship thee above God" or equal to God, or as my God" (latria). Catholics and Orthodox believe it is entirely appropriate that Mary, the mother of Jesus Our Lord and God, should receive a higher honor (hyperdulia) than any other mere creature, such as angels and saints, as God Himself honored her by his messenger Gabriel as "blessed among all women", but never equal to or greater than the supreme honor of unbounded adoration given to the Creator of all (latria). As the Catholic Answers tract "Saint Worship?" explains: Catholics understand according to the doctrine they have been taught that all the honor given to Mary and the saints redounds to the greater honor and praise of their Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ!

See also

Intercession

Theotokos

External links

Catholic Answers Tract: Saint Worship? (catholic.com)

"Mariolatry"? (home.earthlink.net)