Adoration

135. Notion. Adoration taken in a broader sense is an act by which we attest the excellence of another and our subjection toward him. In this broader sense adoration is the same as worship, and in this sense in Sacred Scripture even angels and men, for example kings, are said to be adored.² Adoration strictly taken is an external act of religion by which we attest the supreme excellence and dominion of God and our perfect dependence on and subjection to Him. This adoration belongs and is owed to God alone.³

a. Adoration comprehends a twofold act: one internal, both of the intellect and of the will, namely acknowledgment of another's excellence and of one's own subjection, and the intention of manifesting veneration and submission outwardly by some sign; and another external, namely an act of humiliation and subjection by which the internal act is outwardly signified.

b. The external acts by which adoration can be exhibited are: a. sacrifice; b. prostration on the ground; c. inclination of head and breast; d. genuflection; e. a kiss impressed upon him who is adored, or upon his garment; f. uncovering of the head, etc.

c. All these external acts of adoration (sacrifice alone excepted) are indifferent and can be exhibited both to God and to creatures; therefore in these acts the species of worship which is rendered to someone depends and is discerned not from the external act, but only from the internal act. For he who by an external act, for example of prostration, intends to submit himself to someone as to God, exhibits an act of latria; he who intends to submit himself as to a friend of God exhibits an act of dulia; he who intends to submit himself as to a powerful man exhibits an act of civil worship.

¹ On sacrifice cf. vol. III, De sacramentis, n. 162 ff.

² Cf. Gen. 18:2; 3 Kings 1:16; Acts 10:25.

³ Matt. 2:11.

136. Division of worship. a. Worship is one kind civil or political, another sacred or religious, according as it is exhibited on account of natural or supernatural excellence.

b. Religious worship is twofold: one which is owed to God on account of His supereminent excellence and supreme dominion; the other which is owed to the saints on account of divine excellence communicated to them by a certain participation. The former is called the worship of latria, which is adoration strictly taken and owed to God alone; the latter is the worship of dulia. This again is twofold: one is the worship of hyperdulia, by which we attest the supereminent supernatural excellence of the Blessed Virgin Mary and our subjection toward her; the other is the worship of dulia, by which we attest the supernatural excellence of the saints and our subjection toward them.

c. Some worship is absolute, by which someone is worshiped on account of excellence inherent in him; other worship is relative, by which something is worshiped on account of excellence external to it, or because of relation to a person holy in himself, excellent in himself.

With absolute worship of latria, God, the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, and the sacrament of the Eucharist are adored; with absolute worship of hyperdulia, the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored; with absolute worship of dulia, angels and saints are honored. With relative worship of latria, the most holy name of Jesus, an image of the crucified one, the holy cross, the instruments of Christ's Passion - the crown of thorns, nails, lance, etc. - are honored; with relative worship of hyperdulia, images of the Blessed Virgin Mary are honored; with relative worship of dulia, relics and images of saints are honored.

d. Some worship is public, which has been instituted by the Church and is exhibited in the name of the Church; other worship is private, which either has not been instituted by the Church, or is not done in the name of the Church.

Two things are required for public worship: that it be instituted by the Church, and that it be performed in the name of the Church by a person deputed for this. Hence the divine office recited by a layman is private worship; likewise prayers recited commonly by men of the whole parish in church are private worship. On the contrary, the divine office recited outside choir by a cleric constituted in sacred orders is public worship.

137. On the precept of adoration. 1. By precept both natural and positive we are obliged to adore God with internal and external worship of latria, and Him alone. This precept is natural: for since God, the principle and end of all things, is of highest and most perfect excellence, He must be adored with the most perfect worship.¹ At the same time the precept is positive: The Lord your God shall you adore, and Him alone shall you serve.²

2. From the virtue of religion we are without doubt bound sometimes to worship God as the first principle and lord of all things; but the time and manner in which this precept must be satisfied have not been determined by God. But it has been established by the Church that God should be worshiped by the whole Christian people on Sundays and feast days through hearing Mass and religious cessation from labor. Therefore he who observes the precept of the Church at the same time satisfies the divine precept. But he who cannot observe the precept of the Church, in order to satisfy the divine law, ought at least several times in the year (on any days whatever) to assist at the sacrifice of the Mass.

¹ That by the law of nature worship, both internal and external, both individual and social, is owed to God, moral philosophers and apologists show at length. Cf. C. Gutberlet, Lehrbuch der Apologetik, 2nd ed., Munster: Theissing, 1895, I, p. 25 ff.; G. Wilmers, De religione revelata, Ratisbon: Pustet, 1897, p. 16 ff.; Th. Meyer, Institutiones iuris naturae, Freiburg: Herder, 1900, II, p. 24.

² Matt. 4:10.

(St. Thomas, II-II, q. 84.)

Adoration is spoken of in three ways, namely: 1. for any veneration whatever shown to someone because of the excellence of dignity, whether he is God, an angel, or a man; 2. for every act of religion, whether internal or external, by which divine worship is shown to God; 3. for a certain distinct act of religion, as it is taken here. And it is an external act by which we show reverence to God through gestures of the body, for example by genuflecting, prostrating ourselves, and the like. But in order that it be a true act of religion, showing due worship to God, an internal act must be joined to it; nevertheless the name of adoration is not given to that internal act except insofar as it is included in the external act (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 84, aa. 1 and 2).

Definition of Adoration.—Adoration or worship is honor shown to God through bodily acts offered in acknowledgment of His supreme excellence and of our dependence on Him.

(a) Thus, it is acknowledgment of dependence on God, and as such it differs from mere honor, which may be shown even to an equal.

(b) It is an acknowledgment of supreme excellence, and so it differs from veneration shown to creatures who are above us. Adoration (latria), therefore, is not the same thing as the sacred cult or veneration shown the Blessed Virgin (hyperdulia) and the Saints (dulia) on account of their supernatural grace and glory; much less is it the same thing as the civil cult shown to persons illustrious for natural qualities, such as acquired knowledge, political dignity or power, etc.: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt, iv. 10).

Unity and Variety of Adoration.—Adoration is but one, though it has various expressions. (a) The unity of adoration depends on the unity of its object. There is but one God to whom belong the various divine attributes, and the three Divine Persons share the same majesty. Hence, there is but one adoration. (b) The variety in adoration is in the expression. The higher expression of adoration is internal: it does not depend on bodily acts or places, and it is offered by Angels as well as by man. The lower expression of adoration is made through bodily acts, such as genuflections, prostrations, prayer with face to the east, and the use of sacred places for worship, all of which externals are employed as aids to devotion and symbols of the divine glory (Matt., xviii, 20; Luke, xix. 46). Some of the actions here mentioned are sometimes used in the religious or civil cult shown to creatures, but internal adoration belongs to God alone.

How are the external acts of religion divided? - These acts are distributed into three classes. To the first pertain those acts through which someone exhibits his body for venerating God; such is adoration. To the second pertain those acts by which something from external things is offered to God. Concerning these a twofold consideration occurs. The first indeed is concerning those things which are given to God by the faithful, where one must consider sacrifices, oblations, first fruits, and tithes, and the sanctification of feasts, which is treated in the third precept of the Decalogue. The other is concerning vows, by which certain things are promised to God, and this must be remitted to the second precept of the Decalogue. Finally, to the third class pertain those acts by which something divine is assumed by men, which is either some sacrament, or the divine name itself. But there will be place to speak concerning the assumption of a sacrament in the treatise on the Sacraments. The assumption of the divine name, however, is made in three ways: in one way by way of an oath for confirming one's own words; in another way by way of adjuration for inducing others; in a third way by way of invocation for praying or praising. Concerning prayer it has already been said; concerning the others it will have to be said in the second precept of the Decalogue. Therefore here there will be discussion only of adoration, sacrifices, oblations, first fruits, and tithes. S. Th. 2. 2, qq. 84, 85, 86, 89; Bouquillon, de Virt. relig., l. 1.

What is adoration and of how many kinds is it? - Adoration is honor exhibited to another by an external gesture of the body, by which we testify our submission and the excellence of another; or insofar as it is a sign of internal estimation, reverence, and submission toward another, and consequently also of his excellence. Therefore adoration requires two internal acts: one of the intellect, the other of the will. The former is a speculative judgment concerning the excellence of another, and a practical judgment that it is honorable for us to be submitted to him on account of his excellence and our inferiority with respect to him. But the latter is the command of the will to lower oneself on account of that superior excellence in another. Whence at last the execution itself exists in the exterior gesture of the body.

Adoration is one thing political, another religious, according as it exhibits worship to another on account of a merely civil dignity or excellence, or on account of a supernatural excellence which is found in God and in his Saints. The latter comprehends under itself three species or quasi-species. The first is latria, which, with the genus taken for the species, is also simply accustomed to be called adoration; it is supreme and singular, which we owe to God alone, on account of the divine excellence proper to him, and which therefore is communicable to no other, according to Matt. 4:10. The second is dulia, which belongs to the Angels and other Saints, on account of the supernatural and created excellence which is in them. The third is hyperdulia, which is exhibited to the Blessed Virgin, on account of her supernatural and created excellence, but one altogether singular and greater and more eminent than all other created excellences. Species or quasi-species, because there is not sufficient agreement whether they are one species from one relation to God or threefold from a threefold diverse proper excellence.

Moreover any species of adoration is divided into absolute and respective. It is absolute when something is adored or worshiped on account of an excellence intrinsic to itself; and thus God, the Most Holy Trinity, Christ also as man, and the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist are adored with absolute worship of latria; but the Saints with absolute worship of dulia, and the Most Holy Virgin with absolute worship of hyperdulia. It is respective when something is adored or worshiped on account of an excellence and sanctity extrinsic to itself, but intrinsic to him to whom it is referred in moral estimation; and thus the Most Holy Name of Jesus Christ, the instruments of the Passion, and the Cross are adored with respective worship of latria; relics and images of the Saints, etc., with respective worship of dulia; images of the Most Holy Virgin, etc., with respective worship of hyperdulia. The title "The Penitent Heart of Jesus" is altogether condemned. Holy Office, 15 July 1892. The image of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, representing the Heart alone, is permitted only for private devotion, but is by no means to be exposed on an altar for public veneration. Holy Office, 26 Aug. 1891. Because there is one excellence of the Three Divine Persons, one honor and reverence is owed to them, and consequently one adoration. Trent, sess. 25, Decree on Invocation, etc.; S. Th. 2. 2, q. 81, a. 3; q. 82, a. 2 ad 3; q. 84; q. 103, aa. 3, 4; Suarez, de Relig., tr. 2, l. 1, c. 2; Struggl 11 seqq.

A determinate place is not required for adoration as though by necessity of the thing itself, but only according to fittingness, not on account of God who is adored, as though he were enclosed by place, but on account of the adorers themselves: first indeed on account of the consecration of the place, from which those praying conceive special devotion, so that they may be heard more; secondly on account of the sacred mysteries and other signs of sanctity which are contained there; thirdly on account of the gathering of many adorers, from which prayer becomes more fit to be heard. The obligation of adoration is abundantly satisfied by otherwise fulfilling obligations toward God, in which adoration of God is contained implicitly and often also explicitly, as, for example, when prayers are poured forth to God, when one assists at the sacrifice of Mass, etc. E. M.

Can men who have departed from life with a reputation for sanctity be adored? - They can be honored with private worship. But they cannot be honored with solemn and public worship, unless they have been numbered by the Supreme Pontiff in the Catalogue of Saints or Blessed. Public worship, however, is that which is exhibited in the name of the Church, or as instituted by her; private worship is that which proceeds only from private devotion, even if it is done before others. Therefore it is not licit to erect churches or altars in honor of Saints not canonized, or at least not beatified, cf. 463; nor is it licit to invoke them publicly in litanies, nor to expose their relics or images for public veneration, or to carry them around in processions. Yet it is permitted to keep these images or relics privately, to kiss them reverently, etc., because such worship is altogether private, which is not prohibited. Struggl 18; E. M.

Those are called Saints who solemnly, a definitive sentence having been issued, are enrolled by the Roman Pontiff in the catalogue of Saints, and their worship is permitted to all the faithful. Those are called Blessed who, from a special concession of the Roman Pontiff, can be honored with some public worship only in some place or in some Religious Institute. Those are Venerable concerning whom the cause of introduction of their beatification has been signed by the Roman Pontiff. Servants of God are those who have died with a reputation for sanctity or martyrdom. But "Our Most Holy Lord Pius Pope X... forbade Servants of God, whose causes are henceforth introduced, to be called Venerable; likewise he decreed that solemnities are not permitted to be carried out on the occasion of the decree issued concerning the introduction of the cause... nor panegyric orations. But he permitted that Servants of God be adorned with the title Venerable only after the decree issued concerning heroic virtue or concerning martyrdom, yet in such a way that from this permission no argument of granted veneration can be inferred or claimed... Solemnities for giving thanks to God even after the decree issued concerning heroic virtue or martyrdom he likewise prohibited; yet by this prohibition he did not intend to prevent the addition in Masses, as is fitting, of a collect for thanksgiving." S. R. C., 26 Aug. 1913. This Decree also contains several other prescriptions to be observed in the beginning of causes of Servants of God, namely so that the cause may be duly instituted. There are special Instructions concerning the processes of causes of Martyrs in regions of unbelievers. Cf. Consulente Ecclesiastico, 1905, p. 313 seqq. Likewise there is a Decree to be observed concerning judicial order in causes of Servants of God proceeding by way of an excepted case. S. R. C., 11 Nov. 1912. "Our Most Holy Lord Pius Pope X, for treating causes of lesser moment of Servants of God, namely concerning reputation for sanctity in general, concerning non-cult, concerning the validity and relevance of processes, and other similar things, constituted a particular Congregation." Decree S. R. C., 9 Dec. 1908.

You will resolve: It is by no means illicit to place an effigy or statue of some deceased person not canonized, whether in an oratory even public, or in a church, provided this is not done for honoring him with public worship, but from another manifest motive, for example, if he is the founder or benefactor of the church, or his statue is placed at his tomb in the church. Thus also images of emperors, kings, and other distinguished men could be hung; and the Basilica dedicated to Saint Peter at Rome is adorned with images or statues of Pontiffs not enrolled in the Catalogue of Saints. S. R. C., 14 Aug. 1894, Decr.

A priest can indeed accept a stipend and celebrate Mass in honor of a man deceased with a reputation for sanctity, or in thanksgiving for a benefit obtained, etc., provided that he takes the Mass from the feast or from the feria occurring on that day, but not from the common of non-Pontiffs, nor recites a special prayer concerning him or with his name. The reason is that to perform the sacred rite for the aforesaid intention is not to honor someone with public worship, since the intention of the celebrant is something altogether private. Elbel 443; E. M.

Note: For the public worship of relics, it must be certainly established that the relics to be venerated pertain to a Saint or Blessed one solemnly recognized as such by the Church. In addition, the seal of some Bishop or Prelate ought to be affixed; but the seal of the Bishop of the place suffices for relics to be honored with public worship, nor is an authentic written document necessary. In order that new relics, although authentic, be exposed for the public veneration of the faithful in a church or in a public oratory, it is required that they be recognized and approved by the Bishop of the place, even if they were sealed at Rome by the Apostolic Prefect. Trent, sess. 25, de Invocat., etc.; Sixtus V, Const. Dominus omnipotens, 13 Nov. 1588. For ancient relics, their immemorial exposition and public veneration suffice; this rightly supplies any other document and bears before itself a valid presumption of authenticity. For private worship only private moral certitude is required, such as, for example, is had from a man worthy of faith.

A relic of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ for public veneration is to be separated from other Relics of Saints in a special case. S. C. Indulg., 22 Feb. 1847; S. R. C., 25 May 1906; A. A. S., v. 1, p. 507. One sins gravely by stealing notable relics, or even the smallest part of a very precious relic, for example of the Most Holy Cross, because, although they are not estimable by price, nevertheless this taking away can gravely sadden the possessor. But in the Roman district it is prohibited under penalty of excommunication to steal relics, even the smallest, pertaining to churches, from the Constitution of Clement VIII and Paul V. Therefore not in every case is the theft mortal sin, and it is a grave real sacrilege.

As to images, halos, or rays, cannot be placed on images of the deceased, although they are commonly held as Saints, unless they have been beatified by the Church; likewise neither tablets and images, nor lamps or any other lights, namely in veneration and worship, may be hung at their sepulchers. But with the license of the Ordinary or Bishop, it is permitted to keep similar relics of a Saint in a place separated from the church and secret, to receive offerings and tablets, and to recount in little books the benefits received, yet not without the recognition and approval of the Bishop, and with a declaration first made by the author that he does not intend to win for his statements any faith other than that of human history, as Urban VIII established in the Decree Sanctissimus, 13 March 1625, and another special Constitution Caelestis Hierusalem, 5 July 1634; S. R. C., 31 July 1821; General Decree, 14 Aug. 1894; Leo XIII, Const. Officiorum ac munerum, General Decree, sec. 13; Pius X, Encyclical Letter Pascendi, 8 Sept. 1907, paragraph De sacris Reliquiis.

Images of the Blessed are to be painted with rays only; of the Canonized, with a diadem around the head. Ferraris, v. Veneratio SS., n. 46. Likewise images of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, of Angels and Saints, ought to be painted or sculpted in that form and habit which from ancient time has been in use in the Church. Urban VIII, Const. Sacrosancta Tridentina, 15 March 1642; Benedict XIV, Const. Sollicitudini, 1 Oct. 1745.

As to the Blessed, it is not permitted to name churches or altars after them, and their images and relics can be retained and exposed only in those churches in which it is permitted to celebrate their office. Urban VIII, cited Decree Sanctissimus; Clement XI, Const. 82, n. 11. Images of Saints are laudably blessed, and privately any priest can bless them. S. R. C., 12 July 1704. S. R. C., 27 Sept. 1659; 17 Apr. 1660; 12 June 1660, Boianen.; Pius X, Motu proprio Sacrorum antistitum, 1 Sept. 1910; L. 1. 3, nn. 45, 532; Epist. Resp. at the end of c. 1; Benedict XIV, de Canon. SS., l. 2, c. 11; Struggl 18; Scav., ed. 12, Milan, 1874, l. 2, n. 168 seqq. There is an Instruction of the S. R. C., 22 May 1912, on the privileges which, in the triduum or octave to be celebrated within the year from beatification or canonization, are usually granted by Rescript of that Sacred Congregation from the Supreme Pontiff. E. M.

463.a What is the nature and obligation of sacrifices? - The offering of sacrifices, considered in common, is from the natural law itself. For it proceeds from natural reason that, just as some things are offered to temporal lords in recognition of dominion, so also we should offer to God, as the supreme lord of all, certain sensible things as a sign of due subjection and honor. But the determination of sacrifices is from human or divine institution. The sacrifice which is offered exteriorly signifies the interior spiritual sacrifice by which the soul offers itself to God, because exterior acts of religion are ordered to interior acts. But the soul offers itself to God in sacrifice, as to the principle of its creation and as to the end of its beatitude. Therefore the honor of sacrifices is to be exhibited to God alone. This also we see observed in every republic, that its supreme ruler is honored by some singular sign which, if it were offered to anyone else, would be the crime of lese majesty. Trent, sess. 22, c. 3.

Moreover there is a threefold good of man. The first indeed is the good of the soul, which is offered to God by a certain interior sacrifice through devotion and prayer and other interior acts of this sort, which are ordered to divine reverence. The second is the good of the body, which is offered to God in a certain way through martyrdom and abstinence or continence, or when someone subjects his own body to some affliction on account of divine reverence, and it is offered by exterior sacrifice. The third is the good of exterior things, from which an exterior sacrifice also is offered to God, if it again is ordered to divine reverence: directly indeed, when we immediately offer our things to God; mediately, when we communicate them to neighbors on account of God.

But sacrifices are properly so called when something is done concerning things offered to God, as that animals were killed and burned, that bread is broken and eaten and blessed. And the name itself sounds this: for sacrifice is so called from this, that man makes something sacred.

Hence sacrifice is commonly defined: the offering of a sensible thing, made to God by a legitimate minister, through real change, for acknowledging his supreme dominion and our subjection. Wherefore only priests offer sacrifices which are specially ordered to divine worship not only for themselves, but also for others. But other sacrifices anyone can offer to God for himself. All are bound to offer interior sacrifice to God, for all are bound to offer a mind devoted to God. Likewise all are bound to offer exterior sacrifice to God when exterior acts of other virtues are assumed into divine reverence, which fall under precept. But as to the exterior sacrifice by which something is exteriorly offered to God in protestation of divine subjection, under the New Law the faithful are bound to that one sacrifice which Jesus Christ instituted at the Last Supper, concerning which there will be discussion in the treatise on the precepts of the Decalogue and of the Church, and on the Eucharist. S. Th. 2. 2, q. 85; Lessius, de Virt. Rel., c. 2, d. 4.

463.b What is the nature and obligation of oblations? - By the name of oblation here is understood the presentation of some thing for the worship of God, not so that some sacred thing is as it were consumed, as in sacrifice, but so that it remains whole to be deputed to divine worship, or to be expended for the uses of ministers. In the New Law, oblations of this sort are free, unless they are to be made from the necessity of the Church or from introduced custom. Since the priest is mediator between God and the people, oblations are to be presented to him by the people, not only that he may assume them for his own use, but that he may faithfully dispense them in those things which pertain to divine worship and for the uses of the poor, who, as far as possible, are to be sustained from the goods of the Church, because the Lord too had purses for the use of the poor.

Likewise in the New Law there is no special obligation to offer first fruits from the fruits of the earth received, unless according to the custom of the country and the need of the ministers of the Church. For first fruits are given by way of oblation, of whose nature it is that it be voluntary. But first fruits are offered because we ought to exhibit to God that which is chief, and in recognition of the benefit of God, who grants the earth and the fruits of the earth. S. Th. 2. 2, q. 86.

463.c Is there, and of what sort, an obligation of paying tithes? - The precept of tithes is partly of natural law, partly of positive law. "For natural reason dictates that the people should furnish the necessities of life to those who ministered in divine worship for the salvation of the whole people, just as stipends for livelihood are owed by the people also to those who watch over the common utility, namely Princes and soldiers and others of this sort.... The determination that a tenth part be paid was instituted by the authority of the Church in the time of the New Law.... Thus therefore it is clear that men are bound to the payment of tithes, partly indeed from natural law, but partly also from the institution of the Church, which nevertheless, the circumstances of times and persons being considered, could determine another part to be paid.... Ministers of the Church ought to have a greater care for promoting spiritual goods among the people than for collecting temporal goods; and therefore... they laudably do not demand tithes of the Church where they could not be demanded without scandal, because of desuetude or because of some other cause. Nor, however, are those in a state of damnation who do not pay in those places in which the Church does not ask, unless perhaps, on account of obstinacy of mind, they have the will not to pay even if they were asked. "But the root of the payment of tithes is a debt, by which carnal things are owed to those sowing spiritual things, according to that saying of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 9:11: If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things?... For upon this debt the Church founded the determination of the payment of tithes. But all things whatsoever a man possesses are contained under carnal things, and therefore tithes are to be paid from all things possessed.... And therefore in the New Law men are bound to personal tithes, according to the custom of the country and the need of ministers. But the right of receiving tithes is spiritual, for it follows that debt by which expenses are owed to ministers of the altar from the ministry, and by which temporal things are owed to those sowing spiritual things; this pertains only to clerics having the right of souls. Tithes are owed by the faithful to clerics insofar as they are ministers of the altar sowing spiritual things among the people. Whence such clerics, insofar as they have ecclesiastical possessions, are not bound to pay tithes; but from another cause, namely because they possess by their own right, or by succession from parents, or in any other way of this sort, they are obliged to pay tithes. Clerics are bound to give a tithe to the Supreme Pontiff if he should require it. For natural reason dictates that provision be made from all goods for him who has care for the common state of the multitude, whence he can execute those things which pertain to the common salvation." S. Th. 2. 2, q. 87.

257. • Adoration taken more broadly is worship exhibited to someone on account of his dignity, or is the act by which someone exhibits his own subjection to another in testimony of that one's excellence. Thus Princes and others constituted in dignity are said in some way to be adored; likewise those who are specially loved by others.

But adoration taken more strictly is honor exhibited to God on account of his highest excellence and supreme dominion.

Hence worship is distinguished as 1º Of Latria, which can be exhibited to God alone on account of his supreme dominion over all creatures.

2º Of Hyperdulia, which is attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

3º Of Dulia, which belongs to Angels and other Saints.

The worship of latria is due to God 1º by natural right on account of his highest majesty and supreme dominion over creatures; 2º by positive divine right, as is proved from innumerable texts of Sacred Scripture, for example Matt. 4. 10: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.

Worship is either direct or relative, according as it is rendered either to God himself or to the Saints, or to images or to those things which have a special relation with them.

258. • Men who have departed from life with a reputation for sanctity cannot be honored with solemn and public worship, unless they have been enrolled by the Supreme Pontiff in the catalogue of Saints or Blessed. But public worship is that which is exhibited in the name of the Church or as instituted by her; private worship, however, is that which proceeds only from private devotion, even if it is done before others. Therefore it is not lawful to erect Churches or altars in honor of Saints not canonized, or at least not beatified; nor is it lawful to invoke them publicly in litanies, nor to expose their Relics or images to be publicly venerated, or to carry them around in processions. Nevertheless it is lawful to preserve these images or Relics privately, to kiss them reverently, etc., because such worship is altogether private.

1º New Relics of Saints are not to be exposed to public veneration, unless the Bishop has recognized them. - Thus the Council of Trent, sess. 25. on the invocation, veneration, and Relics of the Saints.

2º Aureoles, or rays, cannot be applied to images of the dead, although they are commonly held as Saints, unless they have been beatified by the Church; likewise it is not lawful to hang lamps at their sepulchers. - V. Casus, n. 447.

855. 1. Notion. In the broad sense, adoration is an act by which we profess the excellence of another and our subjection toward him; in this sense kings and men endowed with excellence are said to be adored.² In the strict sense it designates the act by which we profess the infinite excellence of God and His supreme dominion, and our dependence upon Him; of this we speak here. Adoration embraces a twofold act: internal, by which the intellect and will together acknowledge the divine excellence and their own subjection;³ external, or the manifestation of this interior sense by some sensible sign, for example, by sacrifice, prostration upon the earth, genuflection, and other such things, which vary among different nations.

¹ St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 84; Suarez, De Virtute et Statu Religionis, Tr. I, l. II, c. 1-2; Billuart, diss. III, art. 1; Bouquillon, De virtute religionis, Bruges, 1880, n. 46-50; Muller, § 40; M. d'Hulst, Careme 1893, Conf. I; Tyrrell, External Religion, La Religion exterieure, lectures II-IV.

² 3 Kings 1:16; Acts 10:25.

³ St. Thomas, with many other theologians, enumerates adoration among the external acts of religion, because he considers it especially as a bodily act; but he supposes that it is nothing other than the expression of interior adoration (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 84, a. 2).

856. 2. Thesis: properly so-called adoration, internal, external, and public, is due to God. (A) Scripture. Christ, tempted by the devil, answered him:⁴ "For it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve." Moreover He thus openly declares to the Samaritan woman that this adoration ought to be internal:⁵ "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore Him. God is a spirit; and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth." That it ought likewise to be public, and therefore external, is clear from the institution of the eucharistic sacrifice, by which the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is vividly represented:⁶ for sacrifice is an external and public act of adoration, offered to God in the name of the whole community.

⁴ Matt. 4:10.

⁵ John 4:23-24.

⁶ This we proved in De Eucharistia, n. 153-161.

857. (B) Reason shows the same. (a) For God is the supreme Lord of men: since He created them out of nothing, and indeed as to their whole being, both as to substance and as to faculties; besides, He conserves them in being; for by their own weight they tend to nothingness, since they are from nothing, and unless they were positively sustained by God at every instant, they would be reduced to nothing; indeed, He concurs with them in acting: for although they enjoy activity implanted in them by God, they cannot break forth into act unless they are helped by the supreme cause of all things. Therefore men, entirely as they are, depend upon God and are constituted under His dominion. But the supreme Lord, upon whom all things depend, has a right, and indeed a strict right, that His dominion be acknowledged by all rational creatures: for they are rational for this reason, that they may follow the order of reason and spontaneously and freely confess their dependence upon the supreme Cause; this indeed is done by adoration, by which we profess God as first principle and last end, or, in other words, as supreme Lord; therefore God has a strict right that He be adored by men, and he who denies it to Him is guilty of true injustice.

858. (b) That this adoration ought to be not only internal, but also external, is clear from a twofold argument:

1. External worship is necessary by reason of itself. For God is the author not only of the soul, but also of the body, and has lavished upon us not only spiritual but also bodily benefits; therefore we depend upon God also as to the body; therefore we ought to express that dependence not only internally, but also in a sensible mode, namely by using the body which we have received from Him. - This indeed will be still more apparent if it is noted that man, as leader of sensible creatures, is as it were the pontiff of irrational nature, and therefore is bound to praise and adore God not only in his own name, but also in the name of inferior creatures. But this he cannot do better than by exhibiting external worship by the help of the body, which is a microcosm, or compendium of the whole of sensible nature.

2. External worship is necessary also by reason of internal worship, namely to express and foster it. For we are so constituted by nature that the interior affections of the soul, especially when they are more vivid, are expressed in a sensible mode, by the eyes, countenance, gesture, and whole bearing of the body; therefore if man truly and sincerely reveres and loves God, spontaneously and as it were necessarily he will manifest reverence and love by external acts, words, gesture, and the whole bearing of the body; but we are bound sincerely to love and adore God; therefore also to express this worship by external acts. - Otherwise internal worship would soon perish: for since, from what has been said, man is naturally prone to manifest outwardly the interior feelings of the soul, when external signs and ceremonies decrease, generally the very sentiments of religion are diminished, and when such signs are removed, commonly religion itself perishes. Nor is this wonderful: for man is led by sensible things to spiritual things, by external things he is stirred to the thought and practice of interior things, and if incentives of this kind are lacking, gradually even the dispositions of the soul languish and are extinguished.

Augustine had already observed this:⁷ "For those praying," he says, "do with the members of their body what is fitting for suppliants, when they fix their knees, when they extend their hands, or even prostrate themselves on the ground, and if they visibly do anything else; although their invisible will and the intention of the heart are known to God, nor does He need these signs in order that the human mind may be opened to Him; but by this man rather stirs himself to praying and groaning more humbly and fervently." Nor can it be said that from this it happens that our religion consists only in external rites; for, as the Angelic Doctor deservedly says,⁸ "because in all acts of latria, that which is external is referred to that which is internal, as to the more principal, therefore external adoration itself is done for the sake of internal adoration; namely that, through the signs of humility which we exhibit bodily, our affection may be stirred to subject itself to God, because it is connatural to us that we proceed through sensible things to intelligible things."

⁷ De Cura pro mortuis, c. V, Migne, P. L., XL, col. 597.

⁸ St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 84, a. 2.

859. (c) This adoration ought not only to be external, but also public or social. For man was born for society, and in fact lives in society. Now not only each man, but also society itself, as a moral person, arises from God and depends upon Him; therefore it is necessary that not only private individuals worship God, but also that the whole commonwealth, after the manner of one body, exhibit adoration to God. - For this reason indeed God chose a special day, which would be as it were exclusively devoted to divine worship: for He willed that on this day all should rest from servile work, so that they might be able to exhibit public honor to God, as we shall explain below.

860. 3. Points to be noted for practice. (a) Therefore the faithful should be admonished that external and public acts of religion are indeed necessary, but derive their principal value only from interior acts: "God is a spirit; and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth." Wherefore genuflections, inclinations of the head, and other signs of adoration should be performed with the intention of worshiping and loving God.

(b) Since, from what was said in the Treatise on the Incarnate Word, n. 243-246, Christ is the mediator of religion and the supreme Pontiff, through whom the Angels praise the divine majesty and the Dominations adore it, nothing is more fitting than to praise, adore, and glorify God through Christ: "Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, is to Thee, God the Father almighty, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory."⁹

⁹ Roman Missal, Canon of the Mass.

382. Etymological notion. The name adoration, like the Greek word προσκύνησις, seems to have been taken from ad os, i.e., to bring to the mouth, or to kiss. For adoration was customarily made in this manner: the one adoring would kiss the feet or the hem of the garments of the person to be adored.²⁸¹ Others derive the name of adoration from ador (spelt, épeautre), which is a kind of grain customarily employed in sacrifices. Finally, others think that this word is taken from the preposition ad and the verb oro,²⁸² because prayer for the most part either accompanies, precedes, or follows adoration.²⁸³

²⁸¹ Cf. Wirthmüller, Die moral. Tugend der Religion, § 49.

²⁸² In the German language: Anbetung.

²⁸³ Cf. Billuart, De relig. diss. 3, a. 1.

383. Real notion. In a general sense, adoration is honor shown to another because of his superior excellence, in protestation of our submission toward him. Therefore adoration extends less widely than honor; for an equal or even an inferior can be honored, but none except a superior is adored. Since, however, threefold excellence can be distinguished, namely, divine, created supernatural, and created natural, hence a threefold adoration is also distinguished: the first, which is of divine excellence and is called latria; the second, which is of created supernatural excellence existing in angels and saints and is called dulia; the third, which is of created natural excellence and is called civil worship.²⁸⁴ In Sacred Scripture the name adoration is not rarely taken in the second and third senses; e.g., Abraham adored the angels and the sons of Heth;²⁸⁵ Bathsheba adored King David;²⁸⁶ "when Peter had entered, Cornelius came to meet him and, falling at his feet, adored."²⁸⁷

Here we speak principally of adoration which is latria. This adoration comprises a twofold act: one internal, namely, of the intellect (acknowledging the divine excellence and our subjection) and of the will (intending this acknowledgment and subjection); the other external, by which this acknowledgment of the divine excellence and of our subjection is truly manifested. The principal act by which God is adored externally is sacrifice. This act indeed is reserved to divine adoration alone; but other external acts customarily employed in adoration, e.g., genuflection, inclination, prostration, a kiss, uncovering the head, etc., can be employed not only in divine adoration but also in dulia and civil worship.

²⁸⁴ Cf. ib.

²⁸⁵ Gen. 23:7.

²⁸⁶ 3 Kings 1:16.

²⁸⁷ Acts 10:25.

384. Divisions. Since adoration is a species of worship, it is useful to set forth certain frequently occurring distinctions of worship. Therefore there is distinguished:

1. Absolute and relative worship. The former is that by which some person is worshiped because of a perfection and excellence intrinsic and proper to him. In this manner God is worshiped with the worship of latria, and the saints with the worship of dulia. The latter worship is that by which some thing is worshiped because of the excellence of the person whom it represents or to whom it is referred. Absolute worship cannot be offered except to persons; relative worship, however, is shown to inanimate things, e.g., the cross, images, relics, etc. In itself, indeed, nothing would prevent relative worship from being shown also to persons, since persons too can have a close relation to God, e.g., the Mother of God; nevertheless, in order to avoid ambiguities and occasions of error, relative religious worship is not to be shown to persons. For someone could falsely think that such worship rested in the person himself.²⁸⁸ Thus, e.g., the cross can be venerated with the relative worship of latria because of its intimate connection with Christ crucified, who is God. But the Blessed Virgin, although as Mother of Christ she has a much closer relation to God than the cross has, is not to be venerated with the relative worship of latria; nor is it to be said that the Blessed Virgin can be adored relatively, as the cross is in fact adored relatively in the ceremonies of Good Friday. When danger of error is absent, nothing prevents relative civil worship from being shown not only to things but also to persons. Thus, e.g., an ambassador of a king is sometimes honored in the same manner as the king himself.

2. Public and private worship. The former is rendered in the name of the Church by persons legitimately deputed for this, through acts to be shown by the institution of the Church,²⁸⁹ e.g., all strictly liturgical devotions. The latter is that which either was not instituted by the Church or is not performed in the name of the Church, e.g., private worship rendered to some servant of God not yet beatified.

3. The worship of latria, hyperdulia, dulia, and civil worship. This distinction was already indicated above. The worship of latria is adoration in the strict sense, which is shown to God alone because of His infinite dominion. Hyperdulia is the worship which is due to the Blessed Virgin alone because of her singular excellence, by which she far surpasses all angels and saints. This altogether singular excellence of the Blessed Virgin consists principally in this, that she is the Mother of God,²⁹⁰ but secondarily both in the fact that she shines with most splendid virtues and in the fact that for us she is in a most special manner the mediatrix and dispenser of benefits. The worship of hyperdulia shown to the Blessed Virgin is indeed neither absolute nor relative latria (as Protestants calumniously object to us), but is very useful. Therefore proposition 26 was deservedly condemned by Alexander VIII: "The praise which is rendered to Mary as Mary is vain."²⁹¹ The worship of dulia is shown to saints and angels because of their excellence supernaturally received through the grace of God. Civil worship is shown to men because of their natural excellence, e.g., to a king, princes, superiors, etc.

²⁸⁸ Cf. S. theol. 3, q. 25, a. 3 ad 3.

²⁸⁹ Code of Canon Law, c. 1256.

²⁹⁰ Cf. S. theol. 3, q. 25, a. 5.

²⁹¹ Denz. n. 1316.

385. Obligation of adoration. Principle 1. We must render to God the internal and external worship of latria.

a) Natural law strictly requires that we acknowledge the infinite excellence of God and subject ourselves most fully to God. But this is an act of latria or of adoration strictly so called, as is abundantly clear from the things explained above.

b) Divine positive law also commands this adoration or latria: "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve."²⁹²

Adoration to be rendered to God does not of itself require a bodily act; and therefore the angels adore God with the mind alone. But we men, composed of soul and body, ought to adore God by acts both of the mind and of the body. Internal adoration of the mind is more principal, and without it external adoration is pure hypocrisy; and therefore Christ said: "The true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth."²⁹³ Nevertheless, adoration made by external signs is also very useful and necessary, for through these external signs our affection is aroused to subject itself to God. Moreover, internal adoration vividly exercised is necessarily manifested by external signs, just as all vivid internal affections produce some bodily movements; finally, since adoration is the principal act of divine worship, and we ought to worship God also with external and public worship, it follows that man is bound to manifest his internal adoration by external signs.²⁹⁴

The precept of adoring God obliges in the same manner as the precept of worshiping and praying to God; hence recall the things said above in nn. 327 and 340. It has been established by the Church that God be adored on Sundays and feast days by hearing the sacrifice of the Mass, which is the most excellent act of adoration.

²⁹² Matt. 4:10.

²⁹³ John 4:23.

²⁹⁴ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 84, a. 2.

386. Principle 2. The absolute worship of latria is due to the one and triune God alone and to Christ, God and man; but the relative worship of latria is due to the cross and the other instruments of the Passion or Redemption, and also to images of God and of Christ.

The first part of this thesis suffers no difficulty, since it is the most grave sin of idolatry if someone adores any creature whatsoever with absolute latria. Christ as man (even according to His body) can be adored absolutely, because in Christ there is only one person, namely, the divine Person.²⁹⁵ Hence, e.g., I can adore the most Sacred Heart of Christ. Likewise the consecrated Host is adored with absolute latria, because the substance of bread has been converted into the body of Christ, who is God.

The other part of this thesis is disputed. For whether the cross of Christ, the instruments of the Passion or Redemption, and images of God are to be adored with proper and true latria, although relative, or are only to be venerated with some lesser worship, has been disputed from the times of Blessed Bellarmine, who was the first to assert: "It is not to be said that any images ought to be adored with latria, but on the contrary that they ought not to be so adored."²⁹⁶ But St. Thomas and all the ancient theologians after the Second Council of Nicaea rightly teach with the Council of Trent:²⁹⁷ "The honor which is shown to them [images] is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that through the images which we kiss and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ." Hence nothing prevents us from venerating the cross and images of Christ with truly latreutic relative worship.²⁹⁸

Therefore even in the liturgy of Good Friday there is the "Adoration of the Cross," and St. Thomas painted a Cross on the wall of the convent at Anagni and wrote beneath it:

The Cross is my certain salvation; the Cross is what I always adore. The Cross of the Lord is with me; the Cross is my refuge.

As regards the worship to be shown to the true Cross of the Lord, the following things have been established by positive law:

1. Particles of the Holy Cross must be preserved separately and exposed for veneration, but not in those reliquaries in which other relics are preserved at the same time.²⁹⁹

2. Particles of the Holy Cross can be exposed for the veneration of the faithful in the same manner as the Most Holy Eucharist. In such an exposition, one knee is to be bent whenever someone passes before that exposed particle. The incensation, however (with a triple swing), must be made while standing and not while genuflecting.³⁰⁰ Benediction is given in the same manner as benediction with the Most Holy Eucharist.³⁰¹

3. Particles of the Holy Cross must never be exposed above the tabernacle in which the Most Holy Eucharist is preserved enclosed.³⁰²

4. Particles of the Holy Cross are to be preserved becomingly and not openly, in a separate case and in a separate place; but those passing before that place must incline the head, but not genuflect.³⁰³

²⁹⁵ Cf. ib., 3, q. 25, a. 2.

²⁹⁶ De imag. sanct. II, c. 24.

²⁹⁷ Sess. 25, De invoc. sanct. (Denz. n. 986).

²⁹⁸ Cf. S. theol. 3, q. 25, a. 4, and Prümmer in Commer'sches Jahrbuch XXII, 292-305.

²⁹⁹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 27 May 1826 and 18 Feb. 1843 (Decr. auth. n. 2844, where all decrees issued up to that time concerning the veneration of the Holy Cross are found collected). The Code of Canon Law, c. 1287, § 2, establishes the same.

³⁰⁰ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 15 Sept. 1736 and 16 Dec. 1909 (Decr. auth. nn. 2324 and 4243).

³⁰¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 23 May 1835 (l.c., n. 2722).

³⁰² Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March 1836 and 25 May 1906, ad 1 (l.c., nn. 2740 and 4186).

³⁰³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 May 1746, ad 7 (l.c., n. 2390 ad 7).

387. Principle 3. The worship of dulia is due to the saints, the angels, and their images. If this worship is shown to the saints or angels themselves, it is absolute; but if it is rendered to their images or relics, it is relative.

Thus the Catholic doctrine, vehemently attacked by Protestants. Enough was already said above in n. 344 concerning the invocation of saints. But from such invocation the veneration of the saints already arises by that very fact, for the excellence of the saints and their intercessory power before God are acknowledged. Dulia, indeed, taken in the strict and absolute sense, is service duly shown to a ruling creature, and in this sense dulia does not pertain to the virtue of religion, because it does not directly include the worship of God.³⁰⁴ But if, in the prerogatives of the saints, veneration is shown to gifts received from God, God is honored indirectly; and therefore the veneration of the saints is customarily considered an act of the virtue of religion. Nevertheless, such worship of the saints is absolute, because the saints and angels possess the dignity of a person to whom proper veneration is due and whose worship is not to be referred totally to some prototype. (Cf. the things which the Council of Trent³⁰⁵ defined concerning the worship of saints as Catholic doctrine.)

The worship to be shown to images and relics of the saints is relative, for it is referred wholly to the prototype. The following can be held as a general rule concerning absolute and relative worship: If the prototype is adored with absolute latria, its image is to be adored with respective latria; but if the prototype is worshiped with absolute hyperdulia or dulia, its image or relics are worshiped with respective hyperdulia or dulia.

Concerning the veneration of images and relics, the Church has established most wise laws, namely:

1. No relic is to be exposed for public worship unless it has first been established as genuine from an authentic document of some Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, or of the Ordinary of the place, or of another ecclesiastical man to whom the faculty of authenticating has been conceded by Apostolic Indult.³⁰⁶

2. Relics of the blessed cannot be carried about in public processions unless there is a special indult, or unless it is in places where their Office and Mass are celebrated by concession of the Apostolic See.³⁰⁷ Nevertheless, from this it does not yet seem to be prohibited that in some procession a reliquary be carried about in which, besides relics of the blessed, relics of saints are also contained.

3. Non-notable relics can everywhere be reverently preserved; but notable relics (such as the body, head, arm, forearm, heart, tongue, hand, leg, or that part of the body in which the martyr suffered, provided it is entire and not small) cannot be preserved in private houses or oratories without the express permission of the Ordinary of the place;³⁰⁸ indeed, without the permission of the Holy See they cannot be transferred permanently to another church.³⁰⁹

4. Images of saints and of the blessed ought not to be printed and published without the approval of the Ordinary of the place.³¹⁰

5. Images of the blessed can indeed be exposed everywhere throughout the world, but nevertheless they cannot be shown for public veneration or placed upon an altar except in those churches where Masses in their honor are also permitted.³¹¹

6. It is never lawful to place any relics or images whatsoever (even an image of the Crucifix) in such a way that the tabernacle in which the Most Holy Eucharist is preserved is their direct base.³¹²

7. Men who have died celebrated by a reputation for sanctity can indeed be worshiped and invoked in a private manner, but cannot be honored with public worship in churches or oratories before they have been enrolled in the catalog of the blessed or of the saints. Likewise, it is not lawful to adorn their images with halos or to light lamps at their tombs; "their images or deeds and acts can, however, be displayed upon the walls of a church or in stained-glass windows, provided those images exhibit neither any indication of worship or sanctity nor anything profane or foreign to the custom of the Church."³¹³

8. In some places there exist miraculous images to which the faithful approach as suppliants with great confidence. No special power indeed inheres in them, but by His ineffable providence God has ordained that He Himself, through the mediation of these images, produce greater and more frequent miracles or benefits. Special devotion of the faithful toward these miraculous images is entirely lawful and conformable to reason. Therefore Pius VI rejected the contrary doctrine of the Synod of Pistoia: "Likewise, the doctrine and prescription generally reproving every species of worship which the faithful are accustomed to render to some image in particular, and to have recourse to that image rather than to another: rash, pernicious, injurious both to the pious custom practiced by the Church and to that order of providence by which God has willed these things to happen, not in all memorials of the saints alike, He who distributes His own gifts to each one as He wills."³¹⁴

³⁰⁴ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 103, a. 2.

³⁰⁵ Sess. 22, c. 3 and sess. 25.

³⁰⁶ Code of Canon Law, c. 1283, § 1. Cf. Pontifical Commission, 17 July 1933 (Act. Ap. Sed. XXV, 345).

³⁰⁷ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 27 Sept. 1659 (Decr. auth. n. 1130). Code of Canon Law, c. 1287, § 3.

³⁰⁸ Code of Canon Law, c. 1282.

³⁰⁹ Ib., c. 1281, § 1.

³¹⁰ Const. Officiorum et munerum, 26 Jan. 1897. Code of Canon Law, c. 1385, § 2.

³¹¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 27 Sept. 1659. Code of Canon Law, c. 1277, § 2.

³¹² Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March 1836 (Decr. auth. n. 2740 ad 1).

³¹³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 14 Aug. 1894 (l.c., n. 3835).

³¹⁴ Prop. 70 (Denz. n. 1570).

S. Th. II-II, q. 84.

681. Adoration etymologically is the action of one moving his hand to his mouth, or kissing the hand, as a sign of reverence and worship (Job XXXI, 27; III Reg. XIX, 18), and therefore in a broad and less proper sense it is taken for the external act by which worship and honor is shown to any superior, angel, saint, or prince, in protestation of our submission (Jos. V, 15; Apoc. XIX, 10; XXII, 8; Gen. XVIII; IV Reg. II, 15; Gen. XLIII, 26; XXIII; III Reg. I, 16). - In the theological sense adoration {aanbidding} is the reverence to be rendered to God alone, and it is taken generally for every act of latria; and specially for the formal testification of the divine excellence and of our submission. This is an act of religion; the former is an act of dulia, namely, of reverence owed to an excellent creature; nevertheless it would be an act of latria if in an angel or saint someone adored God who appears or speaks in his person (a. 1).

682. Internal and external adoration. - Religious adoration is twofold: internal, which is made by the mental signification of submission, and is the same as devotion; this also is found in the angels; external, which is the external testification of submission to God through an act or movement of the body. This is adoration strictly so called (Esther XIII, 14; Lk. IV, 8). Moreover, it is made in various ways: by prostration, genuflection, inclination, joining or extending of the hands, lifting of the eyes, etc.

Internal adoration can exist without external, but not conversely, because God is not worshiped without the intention of worshiping; moreover, he does not intend to worship God who, internally unwilling to submit himself to God, externally feigns that he submits himself. Therefore external adoration 1. is a sign of the internal; 2. is its effect, because a fervent affection toward God spontaneously and naturally breaks forth into acts of external reverence; 3. is at the same time its cause, for external reverence provokes the internal and adds fervor to it (a. 2).

683. Internal adoration does not require a determinate place, but external adoration does: 1. on account of the consecration of the place, from which those praying conceive a special devotion so that they may be heard more; 2. on account of the sacred mysteries and other signs of sanctity which are contained there; 3. on account of the coming together of many adorers, from which we are incited to pray better, and prayer becomes more capable of being heard (a. 3).

684. The observance of feasts* contains several acts of religion; yet because it was instituted for the social exercise of religion, it pertains essentially to the worship of external adoration; moreover, the very cessation from bodily works is already a certain (negative) handing over of the body to divine things. Hence the consideration of the observance of feasts is rightly joined to the doctrine on adoration.

Adoration taken more broadly is an act by which someone exhibits his own subjection to another in testimony of the other's excellence; thus princes and others constituted in dignity are said to be adored in some way. But more strictly adoration is the honor exhibited to God on account of his highest excellence and supreme dominion.

I Say. There is a true precept of adoring God. This is clear both from natural right, by virtue of which we are obliged to acknowledge the highest majesty of God and his supreme dominion over creatures, and from positive divine right, because it is said, Matt. iv, 10: "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." - But as pertains to practice, the faithful are not to be disturbed concerning the fulfillment of this precept who sufficiently satisfy the precept of praying to God, concerning which there will be treatment below; for it is altogether impossible to pray to God and not adore him.

Related to adoration is worship, which, insofar as it is habitually furnished to God, can be defined: the complex of those acts by which we testify to the infinite excellence of God and exhibit service to him. - Cf. Scavini, lib. 2, tract. 5, n. 7.

Omitting those things which are handed down at length in dogmatic theology concerning the necessity and divisions of worship, here we add certain things concerning the worship, relics, and images of the Saints, insofar as they can pertain to practice.

§ 1. To the Most Holy Trinity, to the single Persons of the same, to Christ the Lord, even under the sacramental species, the worship of latria is owed; to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the worship of hyperdulia; to others reigning with Christ in heaven, the worship of dulia.

§ 2. To sacred relics also and images there is owed veneration and relative worship of the person to whom the relics and images are referred (Can. 1255).

Worship, if it is offered in the name of the Church by persons legitimately deputed to this and by acts from the institution of the Church to be exhibited only to God, Saints, and Blessed, is called public; otherwise, private (Can. 1256).

It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke the Servants of God reigning together with Christ, and to venerate their relics and images; but before the rest, let all the faithful follow the Most Blessed Virgin Mary with filial devotion (Can. 1276).

§ 1. It is licit to venerate with public worship only those Servants of God who by the authority of the Church have been numbered among the Saints or Blessed.

§ 2. To those canonically numbered in the roll of Saints the worship of dulia is owed; Saints can be honored everywhere and by any act of that kind of worship; but the Blessed cannot, except in the place and mode which the Roman Pontiff has conceded (Can. 1277).

The ministers of the Church in exercising worship ought to depend solely on ecclesiastical Superiors (Can. 1260).

When the decree has been published by which in the name of the Supreme Pontiff it is declared that all the virtues of a Servant of God in heroic degree, or martyrdom, have been well proved, the Servant of God can be called Venerable; which title imports no permission of public worship. - Cf. can. 2115, § 2.

§ 1. Notable relics or precious images, and likewise other relics or images which are honored in some church by great veneration of the people, cannot validly be alienated nor perpetually transferred into another church without permission of the Apostolic See.

§ 2. Notable relics of Saints or Blessed are the body, head, arm, forearm, heart, tongue, hand, leg, or that part of the body in which a martyr suffered, provided it is whole and not small (Can. 1281).

§ 1. Notable relics of Saints or Blessed cannot be preserved in private houses or oratories without the express license of the Ordinary of the place.

§ 2. Relics not notable can be kept with due honor even in private houses and piously carried by the faithful (Can. 1282).

§ 1. Only those relics can be honored with public worship in churches, although exempt, which are established as genuine by an authentic document of some Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, or of the Ordinary of the place, or of another ecclesiastical man to whom the faculty of authenticating has been conceded by apostolic indult.

§ 2. A Vicar General cannot declare relics authentic without a special mandate (Can. 1283).

Ordinaries of places should prudently remove from the worship of the faithful a relic which they know certainly not to be authentic (Can. 1284).

§ 1. Relics, when they are exposed, must be enclosed and sealed in reliquaries or cases.

§ 2. Relics of the most holy Cross are never to be exhibited for public veneration in the same reliquary with relics of Saints, but must have their own separate reliquary.

§ 3. Relics of the Blessed, without a particular indult, are not to be carried about in processions, nor exposed in churches, except where their office and Mass are celebrated by concession of the Apostolic See (Can. 1287).

It is unlawful to sell sacred relics; and therefore Ordinaries of places, vicars forane, and others having care of souls should diligently take care lest sacred relics, especially of the most holy cross, be sold, or pass into the hands of non-Catholics. - Cf. Can. 1289.

An unusual image is not to be placed in Churches, even exempt ones, and in other sacred places, unless it has been approved by the Ordinary of the place; who is not to approve an image to be publicly exposed which does not agree with the usage of the Church, or which is of false dogma, or which does not display due decency, or which furnishes to the rude a particular occasion of error. - Cf. can. 1279.

I. Adoration, taken generally, is an act by which someone subjects himself to another in testimony of that other's excellence. The chief reason of adoration is the excellence, or dignity, of the person adored. There are, then, as many adorations as there are kinds of dignity. There are, moreover, two dignities: one uncreated, the other created. Adoration, then, is divided, first, into that which is owed to uncreated majesty, or to God, and is called latria; and into that which is shown to creatures on account of the excellence of the supernatural order participated from God, of grace, of sanctity, of beatitude, by which the Saints and the blessed spirits are honored; and this is called dulia. But because the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ the Lord, is wonderfully eminent above all the Saints, and heavenly spirits, she is therefore adored with a peculiar worship, which is called hyperdulia — that is, above the worship of dulia to be shown to the Saints, and below the worship of latria owed to God.

II. Adoration, again, is distinguished into internal and external. The former is an interior act by which the spirit subjects itself to God, as the supreme founder of all things. By this reasoning, Angels, and blessed souls, adore God. This bursts forth outwardly, and manifests itself by external signs, such as the bowing of the head, the prostration of the body, kisses, genuflections, and similar signs of this kind. Internal adoration can exist without external; the reverse cannot. Indeed, exterior adoration, destitute of interior, is not adoration, but flattery, feigning, and mockery. We are bound to show both to God, as St. Thomas excellently teaches (II-II, q. 84, art. 2): "Since man is composed of a twofold nature, namely intellectual and sensible, we offer God a twofold adoration: namely, a spiritual one, which consists in the interior devotion of the mind; and a corporeal one, which consists in the exterior humiliation of the body. And because, in all acts of latria, that which is exterior is referred to that which is interior, as to what is principal, therefore the exterior adoration itself is done for the sake of the interior, so that, namely, by the perceptible humility which we show corporeally, our affection may be excited to subject itself to God: since it is connatural to us that we proceed through sensible things to intelligible ones."

III. Adoration is divided, third, into absolute and relative. Absolute, say the theologians of Salamanca, with other more recent writers (tract. 21, ch. 1, punct. 1, n. 3), is that which is shown to creatures who are, of themselves, capable of excellence, and sanctity. Only rational creatures, however, are capable of this dignity, and sanctity; and therefore to them alone is absolute adoration owed. This description, according to the common mind of Theologians, can hold a sound sense; but, so that the calumny with which the heterodox reproach us may be entirely removed, it must be said that all religious worship regards God, is resolved into God, and rests, and finds quiet, in God. Wherefore, if we wish to speak exactly, only the adoration shown to God is absolute in every respect; but the worship which we offer to the Saints is referred to God as to the true and first principle: for we honor the Saints on account of God, on account of the dignity, grace, and sanctity intimately conjoined with, and participated from, God. Wherefore the worship of these always expresses a reference to God. It is called by Theologians, however, absolute adoration shown to the Saints, in relation to images, and relics, which, being inanimate things, are destitute of intimate excellence; and the worship which is offered to them regards the persons whom they represent: for this reason the worship shown to them is relative.

IV. Adoration which is shown to creatures on account of natural gifts and dignities is customarily called reverence, and can be made by the same external signs by which God is worshipped. For external bodily actions are indifferent, and can be employed both for worshipping God, and for honoring men. By genuflection, by prostration of the body, God is adored; and yet by these same signs Judith, seeing Holofernes, adored him, prostrating herself upon the ground (ch. 10). By genuflection too we adore Supreme Pontiffs. We stretch out our hands to heaven, so that we may adore God: "I spread out my hands to the Lord my God" (Esdras 1:9); and the Royal Prophet says: "The lifting up of my hands as evening sacrifice." And yet we also use this sign to implore men's aid. The striking of the breast is likewise, of itself, indifferent; although, according to common use, it is more properly determined for obtaining pardon of sins from God, nothing nonetheless prevents us from using the same sign to appease a man whom we have offended, and to ask forgiveness for the offense inflicted. But this sign pertains more to the virtue of penance than to that of religion. Private external adoration, then, unless it is made divine by the intention of the one adoring, depends on that intention, unless some peculiar law, use, or custom has already destined it to divine worship. Hence it is that, while private persons perform such external actions publicly, it does not suffice for them to have a good intention; but the circumstances of place, time, persons, and custom must be observed. Of all these kinds of external actions, the most excellent, and which is owed to God alone, is sacrifice, by which God is proper to himself owed.

V. Question I. Is there a divine and natural precept of worshipping God by both internal and external acts? Response: The affirmative conclusion is certain, of faith. That there is a divine precept is established from several texts of Scripture, chiefly from Exodus 20, and Deuteronomy 5: "I am the Lord thy God.... Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing." This commandment is affirmative, insofar as it prescribes worship; and negative, insofar as it forbids the worship of other gods. It is more congruently expressed in negative words, because man, by natural instinct, is so borne toward the worship of God, that he needs rather the rein of prohibition, to restrain him lest he slip into superstition, than to be urged by goads, that he might adore his Creator. That this precept, moreover, is natural, is likewise clear. For what is more implanted in us by nature than to venerate him from whom we have received all things? Since, moreover, we have received a twofold nature from God, spiritual and corporeal, it follows that he ought to be worshipped by us with the acts of both natures, or by internal adoration, or by internal and external mixed together. All of which are more certain than to need proof.

VI. Question II. When does this precept, of itself, oblige? Response: This precept, insofar as it is negative, obliges always, and for always, as do all negative precepts, which forbid actions evil by their own nature; but, insofar as it is affirmative, it obliges at fixed times. Certain more recent Probabilist writers — Fr. Thomas Tamburini (Bk. II, on the Decalogue, ch. 4, §2, n. 4), Fagundez (Bk. I, on the Decalogue, ch. 32), Bassaeus (Bk. III, on the Decalogue, ch. 5, dub. 2), and others whom Roccaberti, whom Leander cites, teach that this precept, of itself, at no time imposes adoration directly, and per se; but only presupposes it. This lax opinion is not worthwhile to expound in words; I will only say that it betrays laxity, and horror. The common opinion of Theologians teaches that this precept, of itself, and directly, imposes adoration. At what time, and how often it must be exercised, see what has been said concerning the acts of faith, hope, and charity: for the reasoning of both precepts is the same. For we have been brought into the light for this reason: that we might worship our God by faith, hope, charity, and acts of religion; and thus our moral, and Christian, life ought to live by these actions. We ought, then, to repeat these offices of religion with such frequency as suffices to nourish and foster our moral and Christian life. Besides the natural and divine precept, there is likewise given an ecclesiastical mandate, on feast days, by which we are bidden to worship God with all our resources. For all feasts regard this worship of God, and all the faithful, on these days, together with the Priest, offer sacrifice to God.

VII. Question III. Is there a determined place in which God must be worshipped? Response: If the discourse concerns a place prescribed by natural or divine right, it is certain that no place is designated; but, since God is present everywhere, we can, and ought to, adore him everywhere. The Church, however, God himself so prescribing, has erected temples, in which sacrifices, and the solemn rites of divine worship, might be celebrated. The Angelic Doctor adduces three congruent reasons, by which he establishes the fitting and becoming institution of temples (II-II, q. 84, art. 3, ad 2): "A determined place is chosen for praying, not on account of God who is adored, as though he were enclosed in a place, but on account of the ones adoring; and this for a threefold reason. First, indeed, on account of a special consecration of the place, from which those praying conceive special devotion, so that they may be better heard, as is clear from the adoration of Solomon (3 Kings 8). Second, on account of the sacred mysteries, and other signs of sanctity which are contained there. Third, on account of the concourse of many adoring, from which prayer is made more likely to be heard." He adds, in the same place, ad 3: "It is more fitting for us to adore God with the temple's face turned toward the east, both on account of Christ, who is the light of the world, and is called the East; and on account of paradise, established in the east — as though, wishing to return to paradise, we, while we pray, turn ourselves in that direction."

I. God alone is of infinite dignity, which can be communicated to no creature. This infinite dignity, moreover, is common to all three Persons; therefore the worship of latria is owed to God alone, one and triune, according to that saying (Matthew 4): "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." For latria is the servitude which we are bound to show to God alone. Hence it follows that the individual Persons can be adored separately by the worship of latria, since each individually is God; provided, however, that none is explicitly excluded — for each can be conceived without the other. Wherefore the Church has dedicated to each individually a feast day, so that we might adore them distinctly.

II. Since, however, external adoration, generally considered, is indifferent, it is necessary to designate some sign by which we manifest the worship owed to God alone. This, moreover, is sacrifice, which it is unlawful, without superstition, to offer to any creature, however excellent. For, as the Angelic Doctor says (II-II, q. 84, art. 1): "No one ever thought to sacrifice, except to him whom he either worshipped, or thought, or feigned, as God" — which Augustine had already taught (Bk. X, On the City of God, ch. 4). It is certain, then, among all, that both the one God, and the three Persons individually, can, and ought, to be adored by us both jointly, and separately.

III. Question I. Can Christ the Lord, as man, be adored with the adoration of latria? Response: That Christ, as the second Person of the Trinity, ought to be worshipped with the worship of latria, is established from what has been said. This alone is brought into controversy: whether, as man, he ought to be adored with the same worship. All Theologians, with St. Thomas (Part III, q. 25, art. 1), affirm this, and give this reason: "Since in Christ there is only one divine person, and the human nature is also one hypostasis, and one supposit, there is indeed one adoration of him, and one honor, on the part of him who is adored; but on the part of the cause by which he is honored, several adorations can be said to exist, so that, namely, he is honored by one honor on account of his uncreated wisdom, and by another on account of his created wisdom. Christ, taking specifically both his divine nature, and..." his human nature, comprehends both; therefore in him shines infinite dignity, by which he claims for himself the worship of latria. For, that we may adore some whole, and its parts constituting that whole, it is not necessary that the reason of adoration be present in each and every part; but it is enough that the reason of adoration reside in some part. We adore the Eucharist with the worship of latria, because there is found there the flesh, which is the reason of adoration. And, while we worship some holy person, we venerate all his parts with the worship of latria, although the sanctity which is the cause of adoration is not present in all of them. Therefore, that we may adore Christ with the adoration of latria, even considered specifically as man, it suffices that his humanity be terminated by a divine subsistence, which is the formal reason of adoration.

IV. Question III. Is the humanity of Christ, considered as abstracted from the Word, to be adored with the worship of latria? Response: Theologians deny this, with the same St. Thomas — since humanity, considered as precisely abstracted from the Word, betrays only a created, and limited, dignity. Therefore, according to this reasoning, not the worship of latria, but of dulia, is owed to it. Here are the words of the Angelic Doctor (III Part, q. 25, art. 2): "The proper adoration of latria is owed to the hypostasis of infinite dignity; but the reason of honor can be that which does not subsist, on account of which the subsisting person is honored. Adoration of Christ's humanity, then, can be understood in a twofold way. In one way, so that it is the adoration of that which is adored, and thus to adore the flesh of Christ is nothing other than to adore the incarnate Word of God — just as to adore the King's garment is nothing other than to adore the clothed King; and according to this, the adoration of Christ's humanity is the adoration of latria. In another way, the adoration of Christ's humanity can be understood, so that the perfection of Christ's humanity itself is the reason for which Christ is adored, and thus the adoration of Christ's humanity is not the adoration of latria, but of dulia."

V. Question III (bis). Is it lawful in practice to adore the humanity of Christ with the worship of dulia, on account of the created perfections with which it shines? Response: Several deny this, such as Vázquez, Sylvius, and others. The contrary opinion affirms this, resting on the authority of St. Thomas, who says that the same person of Christ is adored with the worship of latria on account of his divinity, and with the worship of dulia on account of the perfection of his humanity (loc. cit.). That such a twofold adoration can be shown to Christ the Lord on account of the two natures is already established from what has been said. But whether they can, and ought, really to be offered separately in practice is not a question of such great moment as to need a more severe discussion. While we adore Christ with the worship of latria, we honor, by a supreme and more excellent worship, both his divinity, and the humanity conjoined to it. If someone wished to meditate separately on Christ's humanity, and to worship it with a peculiar veneration on account of its created perfections, he would perform a true office of religion. Nonetheless, as it seems to me, it is better, these distinctions set aside, to adore Christ the Lord with the worship of latria according to the common, and obvious, manner.

VI. Question IV. Was the body of Christ, during the three days of his death, to be adored with the worship of latria? Response: The common opinion affirms this, because it was united to the divine Word. The same must be asserted of the natural blood shed in his passion, since this was never separated from the Word. The same, too, must be said of the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which the body of Christ is coupled, in an ineffable manner, to the divine person by hypostatic union. And this the Council of Trent defined, against Luther and Calvin.

VII. Question V. Is the host to be adored by the Priest, elevated in the Mass, absolutely, or under an added condition? Response: This is St. Thomas's own response: "It must be said that one who adores a non-consecrated host can adore it under a condition, namely, if it is consecrated. It is not, however, necessary that this condition always be actually explicit; but it suffices that he hold it habitually. Whence one adoring it does not sin, because he does not adore a mere creature, but Christ according to his intention. The priest, however, so far as it is in him, makes the people commit idolatry, because he offers them a mere creature." It is not necessary that this condition be expressly added; but it suffices that it be present habitually, and implicitly. It is absolutely lawful to adore it, since no prudent reason of suspicion occurs that the Priest failed to consecrate it. It suffices that he be so disposed, as a Catholic, that, if he knew it was not consecrated, he would abstain from adoration. He, however, who adores a host really not consecrated, does not exercise an act of the virtue of religion, but an act of idolatry, which is not imputed to him as fault, on account of invincible error.

VIII. Question VI. Is the flesh, or blood, which sometimes appears in a consecrated host by miracle, to be adored with the worship of latria? Response: The common opinion affirms this. Because that flesh, or blood, either is Christ's, or is something divinely produced referring to Christ. No one doubts that the former is to be adored with the worship of latria; if it is something divinely produced, it represents Christ himself. Now every image of Christ is to be adored, if it truly is one, with the reverence of latria. And in all these apparitions which are narrated to be made divinely, Christ the Lord is represented; indeed they are instituted for the purpose of representing him, so that faith and devotion may be wondrously increased. To this opinion St. Thomas accedes (III Part, q. 76, art. 8), where he asks whether, when flesh, or a child, miraculously appears in the Eucharist, the body of Christ is truly there. To this question he responds thus: "But on the contrary is this, that by such an apparition made, the same reverence is shown to that which appears as was shown before — which indeed would not happen, if Christ were not truly there, to whom we show the reverence of latria." If all confess that the consecrated host, under the species of bread, presented to us, is to be adored with the worship of latria, by a stronger right we owe such worship to it once the miraculous apparition has occurred. Would God, then, work a notable prodigy so as to diminish the worship due to the most august sacrament? For we suppose the apparition to be wrought by divine power, for the greater glory of God, the confirmation of faith, and the devotion of the people.

All Catholics affirm it.

I. Question I. Is the Cross of Christ to be adored? Response: All Catholics affirm this. For the Cross of Christ is an image of Christ. But the image of Christ is worshipped with the same worship as Christ himself. That the Cross is a special sign, or symbol referring to the person of Christ, is clear from that text of Matthew 24: then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man — from which text all the commentators teach that the Cross of Christ is meant. The Angelic Doctor explains this matter excellently. He says: it must be said that no reverence is shown to the image of Christ insofar as it is a mere thing (say, a carved or painted sign); for reverence is owed only to a rational nature. It remains, then, that reverence is shown to it only insofar as it is an image; and thus it follows that the same reverence is shown to the image of Christ as to Christ himself. Since, therefore, Christ is adored with the adoration of latria, it follows that his image is to be adored with the adoration of latria (III Part., q. 25, art. 3).

It should be added that the Cross to which the incarnate Word was affixed must be adored not only because it is an image of Christ himself, but also on account of its physical contact with his members, and on account of that precious blood with which it was sprinkled, as the same Angelic Doctor teaches in the place cited, art. 4. If, then, we speak of that very Cross on which Christ was crucified, it is to be venerated by us in two respects: in one respect insofar as it represents to us the figure of Christ, which is present in it; in another respect from its contact with the members of Christ, and from the fact that it was drenched with his blood. Hence in both respects it is adored with the same adoration as Christ, namely the adoration of latria.

II. Question II. Are the other inanimate instruments of Christ's most sacred Passion — the lance, the cords, the nails, the scourges, the crown, the reed, the sponge, and the like — to be adored with the worship of latria? Response: All Catholics affirm this, on account of their physical contact with the body of Christ. For it is from this contact that they become notable relics, and acquire a special relation to Christ himself, as St. Thomas explains in the place cited, ad 3: the precious wood, as sanctified by contact with the sacred body and blood, is fittingly to be adored; likewise the nails, the garments, the lance, and the like. These, however, do not represent the image of Christ as the Cross does, which is called the sign of the Son of Man that shall appear in heaven. It is, then, contact with the most sacred body of Christ that brings it about that we worship these inanimate instruments with the same worship as Christ, because it is entirely on account of Christ that we adore them; for they are not capable of any intrinsic adoration in themselves, since they possess no intrinsic dignity.

For this reason, animate instruments — such as the hands of those who crucified him, or the lips of those who kissed [Judas' kiss] that same Christ — are not to be adored, on account of the crime perpetrated by such members. For sins defile even the external members through this contact. Wherefore, although they would otherwise be worthy of adoration, on account of the crime committed they are worthy not of adoration but of detestation.

III. Azor adduces the authority of St. Augustine, drawn from Sermon 8 on the Words of the Lord, to argue that Augustine taught that inanimate instruments are to be adored not with the worship of latria but of dulia; and Leander presses the same authority — a man who marks even the smallest faults of other casuists with his censorious pen. But that sermon is in fact spurious, and is placed among the apocryphal works, as may be seen in the Appendix to Tome X [of Augustine's works]. Indeed, the very words that Azor and Leander cite in opposition are not even found in that sermon, as the theologians of Salamanca note (tract. 21, cap. 10, punct. 10).

IV. The arguments customarily raised against us by heterodox writers — namely, that we worship wood and metal — are wretched falsehoods, refuted so many times already. For in these symbols and figures we worship Christ himself, and we venerate these signs on this one ground alone: that they call to our memory the exemplar which they represent. Equally worthless is the other fabrication they blurt out, that no son worships the gallows or the noose by which his father was hanged. To this argument St. Thomas replies that in the Cross of Christ, insofar as it is considered according to the intention or opinion of the unbelievers, one sees the reproach of Christ; but insofar as it is considered according to its effect for our salvation, one sees in it the divine power by which he triumphed over his enemies. The Cross of Christ, therefore, is worshipped not as an infamous punishment chosen by the Jews to put Christ to a most shameful death, but as the standard of the victory which Christ won over the enemy of the human race, and as a triumphal monument of our salvation. Finally, as to the objection that the hands of the Virgin, of her spouse Joseph, and of the disciples, which touched the body of Christ, would likewise have to be adored with the worship of latria — the reply is that the case is not parallel. For instruments devoid of a soul are not, considered in themselves, capable of veneration; hence the whole of the worship we show them is referred entirely to Christ. The Virgin, her spouse, and the disciples, however, are themselves adorned with intimate excellence, and are therefore worthy of worship in themselves — though of the worship we show to the Saints, not of latria — because the Blessed Virgin, according to herself, is capable of veneration; and so the reasoning is not the same (III Part., q. 25, art. 5, ad 3, where he explains this more fully in the body of the article).

V. As to the Cross itself, a distinction must be drawn between that Cross on which Christ hung and other crosses fashioned in its likeness. The former is worshipped on a twofold ground: by reason of the image of the extended Christ which it bears in itself, and by reason of its contact with that same most holy body. Wherefore even if that Cross were broken into pieces and lost the very shape of a cross, it would still be to be adored with the worship of latria, on account of that distinct contact. All other crosses, made to represent that first one, are adored on the single ground of the image; hence, if they should lose the figure representing Christ, they are in no way to be worshipped. Finally, in order for the Cross of Christ to be worshipped, it must have been deliberately made for the purpose of recalling the sacred mystery. For this reason other crosses that happen to arise by chance — from timbers, straws, or other things crossing one another fortuitously — are not to be worshipped; rather, like any other wood, they may be disregarded or put to ordinary use. The names of God are to be venerated insofar as they refer to what they signify, and are honored as representing those persons; for they signify God, Christ, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin — names that make known persons worthy of holiness and veneration. Therefore, just as images are to be honored, so too such names, due proportion being kept, are to be honored. So the theologians commonly teach.

I. Question I. What, and of how many kinds, is adoration? Answer. Taken generally, it is an act by which someone subjects himself to another in testimony of that other's excellence. There are as many adorations as there are kinds of dignity. There are two dignities, uncreated and created. To the uncreated divine Majesty is owed the adoration called Latria. To creatures, on account of the supernatural excellence of grace and sanctity participated from God, is owed an adoration far inferior, which is called Dulia. To the Blessed Virgin, who after God stands eminent above all the Saints, is owed the adoration called Hyperdulia.

II. Adoration is one interior, the other exterior. The former subjects the spirit inwardly to God; the latter breaks forth into exterior acts. Again, one adoration is absolute, and the other respective. The absolute is owed to God alone; the respective, to the Saints: for we worship the Saints for God's sake, or we adore God in his Saints. For the worship which we offer to the Saints is always referred to God, as to the supreme Lord, from whom the Saints receive a share in their dignity and excellence.

III. The adoration which is shown to creatures on account of their natural gifts and dignities is commonly called observance, and can be shown by the same exterior signs by which God is worshipped. For the exterior actions of the body are absolutely indifferent of themselves. By kneeling, by prostration of the body, God is adored. Similarly, by these signs Judith, having seen Holofernes, adored him, prostrating herself upon the earth: chapter 10. By kneeling, and by bending the body, we worship supreme Pontiffs, Princes, and Kings. Exterior adoration, then, that it be made divine, depends upon the intention of the one adoring, unless it be destined, by some peculiar law, rite, custom, or circumstance, for the adoration of God. Wherefore, when private persons perform such actions publicly, it does not suffice that they have a good intention, but the circumstances of time, place, nation, and custom must be regarded.

IV. Question II. Is there a divine precept of adoring God with acts both internal and external? Answer. The affirming opinion is certain, of faith. This commandment is affirmative insofar as it commands the worship of God, and negative insofar as it forbids that the worship owed to God alone be paid always and forever to creatures. This precept, insofar as it is affirmative, obliges of itself at fixed times. God must be worshipped in every place; yet temples have been erected in which sacrifices and the solemn rites of divine worship are celebrated.

V. Question III. Must Christ the Lord be adored as man with the worship of latria? Answer. The worship of latria is owed to the one and triune God alone: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve: Matthew 4. Each divine Person, then, can and must be adored by us both conjointly and severally. Wherefore that Christ, as the second Person of the Trinity, must be adored by us with the worship of latria is certain. It could only be disputed whether he must be adored with such worship as man. And this too the Theologians affirm, in this sense: that in Christ the Lord there is one hypostasis, and one subject of infinite dignity, to whom the worship of latria is owed. But to the humanity of Christ, as abstracted from the divine Word, only the worship of hyperdulia is owed, because thus it betokens only a finite dignity. During the three days of death, the body of Christ had to be adored with the worship of latria, because it was conjoined with the divine Word. The same must be said of the body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, hypostatically conjoined to the divine Person, as the Council of Trent defined against Luther. The consecrated Host must be adored absolutely, no express condition being added. It suffices that a Catholic be so disposed in affection that, if he knew it were not consecrated, he would abstain from adoration.

VI. Question IV. Must the Cross of Christ be adored with the worship of latria? Answer. All Catholics affirm it: since the Cross of Christ is his image. Now the image of Christ is adored with the same worship as Christ himself. But the Cross to which Christ was affixed must be adored with the worship of latria, not only because it is a symbol and image of Christ, but also on account of physical contact, and that precious blood with which it was sprinkled. The other inanimate instruments of Christ's passion too must be adored with the worship of latria, on account of physical contact.

VII. The arguments which the Heretics are wont to object — that we worship wood and metals — are lies and calumnies: for in the recounted figures and symbols we worship Christ himself. The Cross of Christ is worshipped, not as the infamous gibbet chosen by the Jews to punish Christ with a most shameful death, but as the banner of victory, and the instrument which Christ used to free us from the power of the devil. Nor is there anything for them to snarl about, that the hands of the Blessed Virgin, of Joseph, of the Disciples, which touched Christ's body, would have to be adored with the worship of latria: since instruments destitute of soul are not capable of worship, considered in themselves; therefore the whole worship which we show to them is referred to Christ. The Blessed Virgin and the other Saints are adorned with an intimate excellence, and so are worthy of worship, although we refer even the very worship which we render to the Saints unto God, as St. Thomas teaches, III, q. 25, art. 5, ad 3. We adore those Crosses which have been instituted and destined to represent Christ's passion. Other crosses which by chance arise fortuitously in wood, straw, or other things are not to be adored, but must be disregarded like other pieces of wood.

Of the adoration, which is an act of Religion, D. Thomas treats here. But of Adorations in particular I shall treat in 3. part. Tract. 1. disp. 27., where I shall dispute at large what Adoration is owed to God, what to Christ, to the most holy Blessed Virgin, to Images, and to the Cross. Now Adoration is threefold: Dulia, Hyperdulia, and Latria, which is the chief; which division takes its origin from the Diverse consideration of the object about which Adoration is concerned; for if the object is simply infinite, Latria is owed to it; if it is honored with certain insignia of excellence, Dulia is exhibited to it; but if it attains a dignity surpassing the others, it will be honored with Hyperdulia, as will appear below.

Note from D. Bonavent. in 3. dist. 9. art. 2. quaest. 1. that Latria is an external act of Religion, which is called Adoration, as I said disp. 1. quaest. 2.; and indeed it differs from Dulia, by which the Saints are adored, and from Hyperdulia, which belongs to the most holy Virgin, most illustrious among pure creatures; and much more does it differ from that improper adoration which is exhibited even to Princes, of which Genes. 23. 33. et 42.

I assert therefore first, that LATRIA is in the genus of Virtue.

It is proved by the arguments of S. Bonavent. alleged dist. 1. quaest. 2. For an act proceeding from a habit that makes good, and renders the one operating good, is an act of virtue: such is the adoration of Latria: Therefore. See the rest there.

I assert second, that it is an act of a special virtue. So D. Bonavent. art. 2. quaest. 2.

It is proved by D. Bonavent., by the arguments alleged quaest. 3. disp. 1. That act which is about a special good object, about which there is a special difficulty, is good: Such is the act of Latria, which is concerned with the worship owed to God alone, as is said Deuter. 6., and I showed disp. 1. quaest. 1., and I shall show more at large in 3. part. disput. 27. Therefore.

I assert third, that Adoration, or Latria, is an act of a Cardinal virtue. So D. Bonavent. dist. 1. quaest. 3.

It is proved by D. Bonavent. and D. Thom. An act of a Theological virtue regards God immediately, as faith the uncreated truth, hope and Charity the uncreated goodness under different aspects; but Latria signifies the worship exhibited to God, and therefore that created entity; but it regards God only mediately, as I said disp. 1. quaest. 4. Therefore. The arguments on the opposite side lie solved there. Where you must take note that some of them touch rather the act that is merely external than the internal act of Religion, and therefore pertain more to this question. And if the internal act of Religion differs from the internal worship of Theosebia, much more does it differ from the external worship of Latria, of which we are here speaking. This noted, those arguments will collapse.

I assert that Latria is distinct from Dulia.

It is proven by D. Bonaventure, from the Gloss on Psalm 98, at the words Adorate scabellum pedum eius (Adore his footstool), where he says: Latria is the adoration that is owed to God alone. Dulia is the adoration that is shown even to a creature.

Hence he argues secondly. Habits are differentiated by acts; and acts by objects: Therefore, if Latria is the worship owed to God, and Dulia the worship owed to a creature as creature, it seems that Latria is a worship distinct from Dulia.

Thirdly, because, just as the gifts that regard the Creator and the creature are differentiated, as wisdom and science, so too must the virtues and their acts be differentiated: But Latria regards the worship owed to the Creator, and Dulia the worship owed to the creature: Therefore.

Fourthly it is proven by the Holy Doctor: If the same honor were shown to the creature that is shown to the Creator, it would no longer be an act of virtue but of vice: For if anyone were to sacrifice to a man, he would commit the crime of Idolatry. Hence Exodus 22: Qui immolat Diis, occidetur, praeterquam Domino soli (He that sacrificeth to gods shall be put to death, save only to the Lord alone), and D. Augustine, book 10 of de civitate, chapter 4: Many things are assumed in Divine worship that are paid to human honors: whether out of excessive humility, or pestilent flattery: yet so that those to whom they are paid are held to be men, who are said to be to be honored and venerated: but if much is added to them, then to be adored. Who indeed judged that sacrifice should be offered, save to him whom he knew, or thought, or feigned to be God?

You will object first with the Gloss on that Psalm 7, Domine Deus meus in te speravi (Lord my God, in thee have I hoped), which says: Lord of all by power, to whom Dulia is owed; God of all by creation, to whom Latria is owed: Therefore both are owed to God.

The Holy Doctor answers that Dulia is there taken broadly, according to the common analogy of Latria and the species of Dulia. Moreover, Dulia is said more of the Lord than of God, because Lord is communicated to the creature, and is said analogically of the Creator and the creature; but God is not so communicated; and if it is said of the Creator and the creature, it is said equivocally. Yet Dulia is not properly to be shown to God, but Latria.

You will object secondly. Just as there is one faith by which everything to be believed is believed, so there ought to be one virtue by which everything to be worshiped is worshiped.

The Holy Doctor answers that there is one Faith by which the same object is believed under the same formal aspect. Such is theological faith, which believes all things true on the divine truth revealed; but faith that has different objects is different, as the faith by which I believe something asserted by a creature, and this faith looks to the Cardinal virtue, and is rather to be called fidelity: But the worship of God regards different objects, namely the uncreated Excellence and the created excellence, and therefore must be constituted as different.

You will object thirdly. Just as God and neighbor are loved by one charity, though they are different objects, so God and the creature ought to be honored by one worship.

The Holy Doctor answers that the account is different, for in Charity there is one principal object, namely the goodness of God, which is lovable in itself, and the neighbor is loved for God himself: But Latria and Dulia regard an altogether and ultimately different worship, the one and the other.

You will object fourthly: More and less does not differentiate the species: but Latria and Dulia differ as greater honor and lesser: Therefore they are not different species.

The Holy Doctor answers first that the major is false in the moral genus: the minor is also false; because Latria and Dulia have different (as I said) formal objects.

Therefore some conditions of each adoration are common, some proper. The common ones are, that due worship be shown both to God and to the saints devoutly and piously, as the Holy Doctor shows on chapter 6 of Luke at these words: exiit in montem orare (he went out into the mountain to pray). And so the same conditions press, as were said of prayer in disp. 3, question 5 and 10. And so he brings the example of Abraham, Genesis 22, who, wishing to go to adore and sacrifice, compelled his servants to wait on the slope: Expectate hic cum asino: Ego autem, et puer illuc properantes, postquam adoraverimus, revertemur ad vos (Wait here with the ass: but I and the boy, hastening thither, after we have adored, will return to you). This the Holy Doctor explains most beautifully at those words, John 4: Veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu, et veritate. Nam Deus tales quaerit adoratores (True adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God seeks such adorers).

HENCE also the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 14: Orabo spiritu, orabo et mente: psallam spiritu, psallam et mente (I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind: I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind). The reason is the one Christ gives there, John 4: Spiritus est Deus: et eos, qui adorant, in spiritu, et veritate oportet adorare (God is a spirit: and they who adore him must adore him in spirit and truth). In the same way, proportionally, the Angels and the blessed souls of the saints are to be adored in spirit and truth, as Chrysostom observes on this passage, homily 32 on John, Augustine tractate 15 on John.

HENCE the Holy Doctor infers that God is to be adored especially in purity and sanctity, as I said of the one praying in disp. 3, questions 4, 5, and 10. Whence Chrysostom compares sinners who adore while offering supplication to those who offer dung. He infers that God is to be adored with humble subjection together with the protestation of the Divine majesty. Whence also to adore is to prostrate the body at the feet, and to incline our summit to his depths, as D. Augustine explains. Isaiah 60: Adorabunt vestigia pedum tuorum (They shall adore the footsteps of thy feet). Therefore he says God is to be adored with due honorification: Venite adoremus, et procidamus ante Deum (Come let us adore, and fall down before God), Psalm 99: Praeoccupemus faciem eius in confessione (Let us come before his face with confession), and Matthew 2: Procidentes adoraverunt Deum (Prostrating, they adored God). Thus adoration is a suppliant inclination, even for making petition.

LIKEWISE God is to be adored with due solemnity according to place and time, as is said, Psalm 5: Introibo in domum tuam, adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum in timore (I will enter into thy house; I will adore toward thy holy temple in fear). And Isaiah 66: Veniet omnis caro, ut adoret coram facie mea (All flesh shall come to adore before my face).

BUT presently the Holy Doctor, in conference 22 on chapter 4 of John, again expounding those words: Veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu, et veritate (True adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth): first, he says, they ought to be true adorers, or supplicants; for to adore and to supplicate are the same thing, as Papias and Valla say, book 5 of elegances, chapter 11. But truth is that which shows what is, as D. Augustine says, de vera religione, chapter 36. Therefore the true adorer is he who, conscious of his own unworthiness and vileness, has acknowledged it, and at the same time confesses that God is the forgiver of sins, Christ the Savior, and the saints, especially the Blessed Virgin, are intercessors. Whence St. Gregory, book 5 of the Morals, chapter 27, says: He offers prayer who humbly sees that he himself is dust, who attributes nothing of virtue to himself, who acknowledges that the good things he does are from the mercy of the Creator. Such was Abraham, who said, Genesis 18: Loquar ad Dominum, cum sim pulvis, et cinis (I will speak to the Lord, since I am dust and ashes). The Publican, Luke 18. Such adore in spirit and truth in the temple of the heart, as D. Augustine says in the cited Tractate on John; thus the Apostle said, 1 Cor. 14: Orabo spiritu: Psallam spiritu, etc. (I will pray with the spirit: I will sing with the spirit, etc.).

MOREOVER, they adore (the Holy Doctor says) in spirit and truth who adore in simplicity and sincere truth. And so the Holy Doctor does not confound, in distinction 3, question 9, question 4 and the cited place, adoration and prayer, as Tanner thinks, disp. 5, question 2, dubium 1.

HENCE Hugh of St. Victor says, de sacramentis, book 1, part 12, chapter 6: To adore God is to subject to him the whole mind in humility unto devotion, and to believe him the beginning and end of all good: Thus Deuteronomy 6: Dominum Deum tuum timebis, seu adorabis (Thou shalt fear, or adore, the Lord thy God), as the Holy Doctor reads according to another version, with Hugh: On the contrary the Pharisee, not adoring but standing, prayed thus within himself, Luke 18, as D. Gregory notes, book 19 of the Morals, chapter 12.

THESE, according to the analogy, are the things Latria and Dulia have in common; but yet some objects belong to God altogether properly, as objects of Divine worship.

MOREOVER the proper matter of Divine worship is discerned first from the quality of the office and rite, of which kind are the sacrifices, which are offered to God alone, especially the most holy sacrifice of the Mass, and the internal sacrifice of the mind, whereby we vow to God.

SECONDLY from the intention, by which we worship the excellence, as Divine, which is an object of prayer other than the creature, which is the object of Dulia.

THEREFORE the adoration of Latria is due to God alone; as the Holy Doctor notes everywhere, and D. Thomas, article 3, and as I said above.

THEREFORE the Platonists erred, wishing to show Latria even to the Angels, as D. Augustine relates, books 8 and 10 of de civitate; and this error is refuted by the Apostle, to the Colossians 2: Nemo vos seducat, volens in humilitate, et religione Angelorum (Let no man seduce you, willing in humility and religion of Angels, etc.), expounding which passage Chrysostom, homily 7, there mentions their errors. I shall treat of these more gladly in part 3, Tomus 1, disp. 27.

125. Thesis I. All men are bound to render to God the worship of interior and exterior adoration.

Proof. Reason dictates that a subject or dependent show honor to his ruler, and that such honor be proportioned to the ruler's dignity and the subject's dependence. But all men depend in every respect upon God, their Creator and Sovereign Lord, the Ruler of the Universe, the Master of life and death. Moreover, God is worthy of infinite honor. Therefore man owes God the greatest possible honor, such honor as is incommunicable to any created being.

The honor rendered in acknowledgement of God's sovereign dominion is called adoration. This, we maintain, ought to be both interior and exterior.

1. Interior adoration. We owe God the reverence and honor of our highest faculties, i. e., of our intellect and will. But operations of these faculties are interior; they are not, in themselves, perceptible by the senses. Therefore, we owe God the worship of interior adoration.

2. Exterior adoration. Man owes God the homage not of a part of his being, but of his whole being. His body, as well as his soul, is entirely dependent upon God, and should, therefore, contribute by outward or bodily action to the extrinsic glory of God. (No. 22.) Besides, on account of the close union between soul and body, interior reverence naturally finds expression in external action; and outward acts, in their turn, promote interior reverence. As outward action falls under the senses, our external reverence helps our fellow-men to elicit and express the reverence and honor which they, too, owe to God.

126. Men are not isolated individuals, but they are, as we shall prove later on, naturally social beings. Hence, in this connection, we may insert a thesis on the worship which men in their social capacity owe to God.

Thesis II. Men are obliged to render public worship to God.

Proof 1. Society is natural to mankind; hence it comes from the Author of nature. Society, therefore, no less than private individuals, is dependent upon God, and owes Him the worship due to His infinite Majesty. Consequently, men are obliged, as members of society, to render to God the homage proper to society, which is the worship of public adoration.

Proof 2. The public acknowledgment of God's supreme dominion over all created things is necessary for the welfare of civil society; so much so, that a notorious infidel has said: "If a God did not exist, we should have to invent one for the public good." On this public acknowledgment are based, in great measure, the sanctity of oaths, the binding power of contracts, the strength of the marriage bond, the fidelity of subjects as well as the integrity of rulers, and consequently the stability of governments and civil constitutions. Hence, those who attack the worship of God are dangerous enemies of mankind, for they are endeavoring to sap the foundations of society.

127. The vices directly opposed to religion are impiety, idolatry, and superstition. Impiety is the refusal to give supreme honor to God. If it takes the positive form of direct dishonor to God, it is called blasphemy. Idolatry consists in worshiping a creature with an adoration due to God alone. By superstition we mean certain practices, with a religious intent, that are irrational or unworthy of their purpose.

128. The principal acts of adoration are prayer and sacrifice, which have been practised by all nations from their beginning. The special forms that both should assume have not been determined by nature. Of course, God had the right to determine such forms by a supernatural Revelation and to make them obligatory upon all His subjects. No act of ours is sufficient by itself to regain the favor of our Creator if we have once lost it by sin; we could never know, except from a supernatural source, how to obtain the Divine pardon.