The Spirit of the Liturgy

"Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment." - Josef Cardinal Ratzinger

The Worship of God

We must never forget that, when dealing with the realities above us and beyond us, we can never know them as they really are unless we love them. Only a loving knowledge allows us to approach them sympathetically, and understand them as they are. Otherwise, we are always liable to underrate them, diminishing them to fit our own stature. Hence we can only know God perfectly through worship.

Man's act of worship of God when God is not seen may be compared to the action of a child who, having its eyes still closed and not having yet seen its mother's face, turns towards her who can tend it, feed it, warm it and protect it. There is indeed a spiritual instinct which turns man's heart and mind towards him who alone can tend and protect him, but this spiritual instinct needs to open out into a knowledge and free choice, which becomes ever clearer. - M.-D. Philippe, O.P.