quotations about worship
To worship is to declare ourselves open to another, to a mystery revealed in a people, a love which claims us.
TERRANCE W. KLEIN
"The Place Where I Worship", America Magazine, February 13, 2016
If my soul is not engaged in worship, it is even as though I worshipped not.
CONFUCIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Performance worship substitutes entertainment for liturgy. Our new worship language even reflects it. We once had sanctuaries, but not we have "auditoriums." We once had chancels, now we have "stages."
JONATHAN ALGIER
"Performance Music: Worship?", Patheos, March 13, 2017
Man always worships something; always he sees the Infinite shadowed forth in something finite; and indeed can and must so see it in any finite thing, once tempt him well to fix his eyes thereon.
THOMAS CARLYLE
Essays
If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) and if He desired to be worshiped (a proposition which Jubal found inherently improbable but conceivably possible in the dim light of his own ignorance), then (stipulating affirmatively both the above) it nevertheless seemed wildly unlikely to Jubal to the point of reductio ad absurdum that a God potent to shape galaxies would be titillated and swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered Him as "worship."
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Stranger in a Strange Land
It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. If he worship not the true God, he will have his idols.
THEODORE PARKER
Critical and Miscellaneous Writings
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
EDWARD GIBBON
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Our activity should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to Divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the Eternal Word.
MADAME GUYON
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Christian worship has recognizable parts and any attempt at worship renewal that ignores or rejects the biblical and historical foundations will eventually fail. Christian worship can be both formal and informal and still be genuine worship. Yet, both formal and informal worship ought to be done in humility by worshippers who are constantly in search for the true meaning of worship.
GARRY E. MILLEY
"A little bit of liturgy ... please!", Christian Week, February 25, 2016
To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.
WILLIAM TEMPLE
Nature, Man and God
To worship God in spirit is the service and homage of the heart, and implies fear of God and trust in Him.
MARTIN LUTHER
attributed, Day's Collacon
If we are going to worship in Spirit, we must develop a spirit of worship.
MICHAEL CATT
attributed, The Spirit, Soul & Body of Worship
To change lives, our worship must connect with its congregants. God's story must enter into dialogue with our stories, and vice versa. Unfortunately, this is less and less the case. Too much of our worship is sadly out of step with the lives of many, if not most, of our congregants. Unwilling to address life honestly, our worship floats above the fray in irrelevance. Rather than recognize that pain is an important part of contemporary life, we anesthetize our existence. We fail to allow into our worship the dark side.
ROBERT JOHNSTON
"Rated 'R' for Mystery: Worship Lessons Learned from the Movies", Worship That Changes Lives
Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life.
GRAHAM KENDRICK
attributed, A Heart of Worship: Experience a Rebirth of Worship
Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
The Philosophy of Ingersoll
A life of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worship.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.
C. S. LEWIS
A Mind Awake
Oh! must it not be a sight at which angels rejoice--to see crowds of worshippers pressing into the courts of the Lord?
ASHTON OXENDEN
Sermons on the Christian Life