RE 115 Topic no.

3
WORSHIP and RITUAL
 

1.Define Worship and Ritual.

2.Enumerate the essential
characteristics of worship
and ritual
REFLECTION
1. In your own words, what is
Worship?
2. What is the difference between
prayer and worship?
What is the main problem with
our prayer and worship today?
3. What is Ritual?
 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
PRAYER AND WORSHIP?
 • Worship denotes religious praise and devotion.
It results in the honoring of God. Worship is an
expression of love for God. But, prayer refers to
communication with God. It literally means
talking to God or in simple words thanking God.
 • Prayer can mean confession, but not worship.
 • One of the primary differences between prayer
and worship is that worship requires a certain
procedure to be followed, but prayer does not
require any such procedure to follow.
WHAT IS THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH
OUR PRAYER AND WORSHIP TODAY?
According to PCP II, our worship
are often separated from our daily
living. This means they are often
reduce to mere external
observance of religious
conventions , lacking any real
“heart” commitment
 WHAT IS WORSHIP?
 Worship is interior reverence and homage
offered to the Divine Majesty through
words and action in public ritual.
Authentic worship “In SPIRIT and
TRUTH” is never empty ritualism, but
includes rendering justice to the poor, the
widow and the orphan.
 It takes place in the individual Christian’s
personal prayers, in group prayer, and
especially in the Church’s liturgical prayer .
WORSHIP IN OLD TESTAMENT AND
NEW TESTAMENT

OLD TESTAMENT
In the old testament, Yahweh called the
Israelites to acceptable worship first b y his
covenant commandment:
“ I, the Lord, am your God who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, that place of
slavery. You shall not have other Gods besides
me… you shall not bow down before them or
worship them”
-Dt 5:6-7, 9
But Yahweh have to give a 2nd
lesson on worship through his
prophets who denounced empty
ritualism by stressing that true
worship consist not in words on the
lips but in deeds from the heart.
Authentic worship means doing
good and rendering justice to the
poor, the widow and orphan. -
(cf. Is 1:11-17; 58:1-10; Amos 5:21-
24).
NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament, Christ revolutionized
worship by his obedience to his Father in
inaugurating the New Covenant:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire
but a body you prepare for me;
holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight
in. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the book,
I have come to do your will, O God!”
(Heb 10:5-7).
Jesus purify worship by linking it directly with ed
daily moral living. He proclaim the “the hour is
coming… when authentic worshippers will
worship the Father in Spirit and Truth” (Jn 4:23)
Like the prophets, Jesus denounced
empty ritualism. And promise to send
his Holy Spirit through whom he would
create a new priestly people, sharing in
his very own Priesthood
(cf. LG 10)
RENEWED WORSHIP IN THE PCP II

PCP II explains how worship can be expressed

on different levels. First is the individual
Christian's personal prayer and devotion; this
develops into group prayer, such as block
rosaries, charismatic meeting, etc. Finally there
is the official worship of the church in the sacred
liturgy, which is the source and summit of our
total life of prayer. In the liturgy. Christian
worship takes on its communal and
ceremonial/ritual qualities
WHAT IS RITUAL?
 Ritualsare symbolic actions that help us physically
express our beliefs, values, and deepest concerns. Rituals
are important in celebrating the church's sacraments
because they express the deeper meaning of the
sacraments to those who participate in them and to the
whole community of faith.

Rituals involve these characteristics: they consist

of movements and gestures that convey meaning
(clapping hands at a performance), they are often
repeated (annual celebration of an anniversary),
they can be called symbolic celebrations because
they break us out of life's routines (taking time to
rejoice in god's presence by praying).
 Ritual whether secular or religious, is a social,
programmed symbolic activity that can create,
communicate, criticize, or transform the basic
meaning of community life.
 It creates our fundamental bonding with others,
grounding the structure of social relationships that
provide our basic identity.
 Filipino Catholics are strong on religious rituals,
especially those making the great feasts of
CHRISTMAS AND HOLY WEEK. Authentic rituals
show four constant traits: Symbolic, Consecratory,
Repetitive and involving Remembrance.
What is the difference between ritual worship and
magic?
 Ritual worship is an attempt to get in touch with the spirit
world, to put oneself in harmony with spiritual powers.
Magic, on the other hand, is an attempt to manipulate
spiritual powers.
 Give three examples of rituals in early church that are
described in the New Testament.
 Three examples or rituals in the early church are Christians
gathering together for meals and breaking bread and sharing
the cup; another ritual described in the New Testament is
converts to Christianity undergoing a ritual washing that
symbolized the change they felt inside; lastly, we read about
the laying on of hands, a practice that developed out of the
Apostles' experience at Pentecost.
 
 1.What is Liturgy?
 2. Identify and explain the qualities of
liturgy.
 3. What is the center of the Church’s
liturgy? Why?
Thank you for listening!!