Changes

Jump to: navigation, search

Worship

32 bytes added, 18:13, June 21, 2009
m
link
{{spirituality}}
'''Worship''' is faith in action. In the words of [[Georges Florovsky]]: "Christianity is a [[liturgical]] religion. The Church is first of all a worshipping community. Worship comes first, [[doctrine]] and [[discipline]] second". Orthodoxy sees people as liturgical creatures who are fully complete when glorifying God.
==Language==
Orthodox, inspired by a vision of 'heaven on earth,' have striven to make their worship in outward splendor and beauty an icon of the great Liturgy in heaven.
There is no Orthodox equivalent to the 'Low [[Mass]]'. At every [[Divine Liturgy|Liturgy]], as at every [[Orthros|Matins]] and [[Vespers]], incense is used and the service is sung, even though there may be no choir or [[congregation]], but just the priest and a single reader. Since the Orthodox sincerely believe in the One Church, every service is served as if all of the [[One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church#Unity|One Church]] is present, both the visible and the invisible.
In Orthodox worship, people come and go freely, and nobody is surprised if one moves about during the service, arrives late, or does not stay to the end. The absence of pews, at most churches, adds to the feeling of being at home when at church, or like children in their Father's house, and not patrons at the opera.
*Proskynesis (Greek προσκυνήσις)
*Great prostration, greater prostration, semi-prostration
*Full reverence, great reverence, earthly reverence, "reverence down to the ground" (Slavonic: [[Wikipedia: zemnoy poklon|zemnoy poklon]])
*"Bow to the earth," full bow, large bow
*Great metania
16,951
edits

Navigation menu