The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-10-15
ALMOST A LOST ART.

We have heard of Cost arts; of arts practiced
long ago, but now unknown to us, and battling all
attempts of recovery. Cardinal Wiseman's re
markabIe essay on 1.-The Lost Arts" and Wendal
Philips popular lectures on the same subject tell
Us what these arts of long. long ago were. There
are terms words and ideas that are passing out of
our material civilization, and were it not for the
Catholic church, would now be almost lost. There
are ideas which may be lost forever to those outside
the Church. and indeed to those within the Church
unless some means be found to reinstate them in
the conscience and heart of the world.
One of these ideas, now all but obsolete in large
districts of this land, Is the idea of worship of
Almighty God Worship in its strict sense is an
act of the creature directed toward the Creator
purely for the sake of the Creator and for His sole
~ l4enor and glory The confession of cur sins is
not worship: angels who have no sins offer worship
perpetually before the throne Nor is it worship
to ask Gods help when tempted and in trouble.
Worship is something higher and greater. To wor-
ship Almighty God is to set Him before you, to fix
on Him solemnly and eranestly the eyes of the
soul. and if need be the eyes of the body when a
Crucifix is present; to forget yourself, to direct
the entire being toward Him; to adore Him for
Himself and Himself alone. for what He is eter
nay: not for what He is to us or to His creation;
for what He has done for us; not for any event
in time or for His relation to this world alone.
Nor yet with the idea of making reparation to Him
for our evil deeds or a request for anything or
help that we may need should we adore God but
simply with this intention. to praise, gorify and
adore Him in His eternal state for being the great
q am, without beginning and without end; for
this and this only. and nothing less and nothing
more This is the strict. severe and. apart from the
Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass. the pure idea of
worship.
In this sense worship is fast becoming a lost
art, an art Impractical by the American people
and almost unknown.
Worship must be done that may see and
recognize it; worship must be so impressively done
that men may be deeply moved and affected by the
sight. the believer strengthened and-as in the
Montreal Eucharistic Mass in the open-the
believer awed if not convinced. One thing more.
Worship in its essential elements is and has been,
and must ever be in this fallen world the sin
and its inherited consequences give it cast
which it must ever retain until the disease has been
completely cured and done away. Worship we,
who are imprisoned III tins body OF SIN render
it. is and must be in its general character proptia
tory and sacrfciaI; it has had this cast from the
time of the fall; it will retain it until the work of
Redemption in It's fullness is accomplished and is
complete.
The worship now offered in heaven to Judge
from the teachings of the theologians and the
elimpses permitted as in the Apocalypse is a
rihcial worship. like unto that of the Eucharist
offered by Jesus Christ. the Great High Priest at
a golden altar where He satnds to glorify the
triune God and to make ntercession for us.
Worship, humanity speaking, is a sacred science;
ii has its principals, canons, and laws to which hui
man Invention and the ideas Of the age must yield
respect. In the Christian Church worship has ever
been liturgica in character. All existing liturges
may be traced to one fountain head and the infer
cnce is that God must have indicated in general
outline the worship which He approves and accepts
1t has always been sacrfcial in character and
since Christ left us, Eucharistic. Therefore there
can be no new liturgy. Worship, to be done Alright
must done the Lord commanded Moses as
Chri mmanded His apostles in the way APP
gro Nv the Church founded by our Lord Jesus