Worship

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something.

Evelyn Underhill (2001) defines worship thus: "The absolute acknowledgment of all that lies beyond us—the glory that fills heaven and earth. It is the response that conscious beings make to their Creator, to the Eternal Reality from which they came forth; to God, however they may think of Him or recognize Him, and whether He be realized through religion, through nature, through history, through science, art, or human life and character." Worship asserts the reality of its object and defines its meaning by reference to it.

An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, or by a designated leader.

Read more about Worship:  Aspects of Worship

Famous quotes containing the word worship:

    Almost like a god looking at her terribly out of the everlasting dark, she had felt the eyes of that horse; great glowing, fearsome eyes, arched with a question, and containing a white blade of light like a threat. What was his non-human question, and his uncanny threat? She didn’t know. He was some splendid demon, and she must worship him.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    God keep your worship! I wish your worship well; God restore you to health! I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it!
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    If worship have kept me, I had not gone.
    If wit might have me saved, I needed not fear.
    Sir Thomas More (1478–1535)