Article I: On the Notion of Worship

531. DEFINITION. Worship, in general, is honor furnished with submission. And since honor is a sign of our estimation concerning another's excellence, worship can be defined: testimony of another's excellence and of one's own submission (Polm., 2.2, n. 780 and 781). - HONOR is exhibited not only to Superiors, but also to equals, indeed to inferiors, according to that saying of the Apostle (Rom. 12:10): With honor preventing one another. And God himself furnishes honor to his Saints. - But worship is attributed to Superiors alone, because it includes fitting submission of oneself to another's excellence. Cf. n. 554.

DIVISION. 1. By reason of the object which is worshiped, worship is civil or religious, according as it regards natural or supernatural excellence.

Civil worship is called filial, if it regards parents; political, if it regards persons constituted in dignity. Religious worship is called such simply, if it regards the supernatural excellence of a man still a wayfarer, for example of a priest, Bishop, or also of one demonstrating singular sanctity. But it is called SACRED worship (in the stricter sense), if it regards divine excellence, whether in itself or inseparably communicated, as is that of the blessed who are indivisibly joined with God.

2. By reason of the intended end, worship is: absolute, if it is attributed to someone on account of excellence inhering in him, for example to God, or to the Saints on account of their dignity; respective or relative, if it is attributed either to a person or to an inanimate thing on account of the relation which it has with some person worthy of honor, for example to a servant in view of the master; to a statue or image in view of the prototype.

3. By reason of the mode in which it is attributed, worship is internal or external, insofar as it is exhibited either by internal powers of the soul, or by external acts of the body.

But external worship is either public or private. a) PUBLIC, or liturgical, is that which is exhibited in the name and by the authority of the Church, and in the form prescribed by her. b) PRIVATE, that to which one of these conditions is lacking. Thus,

for example, a layman reciting the divine Office exhibits only private worship: because, although he observes the form prescribed by the Church, nevertheless he does not act in the name and by the authority of the Church. Nor does worship cease to be private if all the laymen of some parish, jointly in the sacred building, recite prayers approved by the Church: because they do not act in the name of the Church. On the contrary, it is public, although a subdeacon privately pays the divine Office: because here he acts in the name of the Church and in the form prescribed by her (Kon., n. 322).

Note. The form prescribed by the Church comprehends two things: 1. WORDS, which are either from God or from the Church; 2. RITE, or liturgical action, which again is either from Christ the Lord, as the essential rite of the sacrifice of the Mass and the matter of the sacraments; or from the Church, as the various gestures, inclinations of the head, etc. Each is to be sought from the liturgical books and from decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and the vulgar tongue is never to be employed. See n. 1742.¹