The Book of Revelation, drawing upon depictions from the Old Testament and intertestamental literature, presents scenes of worship in Heaven. In Jewish and Christian theology, worship on earth is held to be linked mystically to worship in Heaven, to partake of it. Saint Paul taught that angels are present (invisibly) during Christian worship on earth.
Christian worship in churches with traditional, formal liturgies involves various elements found in these scenes and developed from the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Torah. Priests, servers, and choirs are dressed in white garments. Incense is used. Praises are offered to God. The Eucharist is a sacrifice. Some churches include pictures or statues of angels, usually in positions of adoration, in imitation of the worship offered by angels in heaven. Commonly, candles and lamps are found, an echo of the Menorah.
The majesty, formality, and transcendent nature of these rituals helps worshippers to focus on Almighty God and forget, for a space, the busy-ness and distractions of this earthly life. Not only is it right to offer God thanks and praise, but it is also beneficial for humans to find a time, however long or brief, on a weekly basis in which to recuperate.
John the Revelator beheld Jesus as the Lamb that was slain. John the Baptist referred to Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi). Christ is the Passover Lamb, by whose blood mankind is redeemed, and through whose benevolence mankind is liberated from Satanic oppression and death.
In Revelation, this Lamb opens the seals. He judges the world and claims it for His own. Formal liturgy, focussing on the sacrifice of Jesus, is also a space for remembering that He is God and King. The praises sung to Him by choir and congregation are an acknowledgement of His majesty.
Glory is given to Him by offering Him the best. Humans are to strive to honour Him by righteous living, confessing our sins and doing good to others out of love and gratitude. Gold and fine cloth are used, because Christ is worthy. Objects and people are consecrated to Him, because He should be at the centre of our lives; our lives should be given over to Him.
Kneeling in the presence of the King is a means of acknowledging who He is and what He has done for us. Proclaiming the Scriptures to be the word of the Lord affirms our commitment to truth in a world of crookedness and deception. The sign of the cross is a reminder of His suffering and redeeming power.
It is good to have such thoughtful and intense focus on God. It is good to worship Him with both body and soul. It is right to receive revelation from God through His Scriptures. In this world of distractions, humans need to enter the courts of the King.
Psalm 84
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
All Along the Watchtower 
“Saint Paul taught that angels are present (invisibly) during Christian worship on earth.”
During the Holy, Holy, Holy my mind often mediates on the image from Dante’s Paradiso rendered by Gustave Dore.
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I think sometimes about the cherubim about the throne of God, guarding the sacred presence.
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And I think of placing whatever sins I have accumulated being placed on the altar and on the head of the Lamb of God to be taken away, similar to the action of the OT Temple priests when they placed their hands upon the head of the goat in order to transfer the sins of the people upon the sacrificial animal to then be driven from Jerusalem and left to die outside the gates (as did our Lord in His Crucifixion).
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Alfred Edersheim wrote about some of those ideas in “The Temple and its…”, which should be out of copyright now and available to look at online.
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Indeed it is an interesting story. What we see today in Catholic Novus Ordo Masses is a sloppy extension of the priests hands over the bread and wine to be consecrated which takes away the tie between the OT Temple priests and the Fulfillment of their sacrifice in Christ. In a short 10 minute video you can see the difference in the hand positions if you watch for it in the comparison between the Epiclesis in both the Traditional Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass.
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At the beginning of the film, “Luther”, starring Joseph Fiennes, you can also see an old rite Mass partially conducted. You may find the scene interesting.
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I feel that we have as little respect for our inheritance as did Esau. We were happy to sell our Blessing and our Inheritance for a bowl of pottage. If this continues our fate will not be unlike that of Esau I fear.
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You could be forgiven for thinking that NO service as Episcopalian. The Book of Common Prayer is arguably more Catholic than the NO; and my own experiences in my college’s Anglo-catholic chapel are closer to the Old Rite.
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It was/is a disaster for the Catholic Church and the statistics concerning attendance, belief in the Real Presence, the acceptance of immorality and the belief that we do not need to adhere to Teachings passed down throughout the ages. So I would no doubt that there are now other denominations where at the “reverence” due to God is on display in a much richer fashion than what we see in today’s typical Novus Ordo Liturgy.
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Quite possibly.
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Personally, if I had the option between the NO, TLM, and Divine Worship of the Ordinate of St. Peter. I’d choose the last.
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I am very happy to see that other Christians also have come to see the Liturgical Symbology within Revelation where we see Christ showing His wounds to the Father and where His perpetual sacrifice is continually pleading for the sins of mankind. Indeed, the Liturgy or the Mass of Catholics, was only referred to as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (since Vatican II rarely said (referred to as simply the Mass … the sending). It would be nice to restore the full name to remind people of the reverence due in our worship rather than making it more about us than Christ’s atoning passion and death. For our worship is supposed to convey the time when this ‘once for all and all time; Sacrifice can be applied to us in temporal time whilst the Sacrifice is eternally present to the Face of God. I think we have lost much of what the Saints knew and their understanding of the Holy Liturgy and its vital importance to our souls. It is as much a Gift of God’s Grace to men of all times and should be received as joyously as is the compilation of our religious beliefs and writings in the Scriptures and especially the Gospels. But it was revealed by God sequentially and in small doses as mighty tree grows organically from a small seed. Its magnificence and our understanding of this great gift is being hollowed out and we need to recover our patronage and inheritance and protect it so that it may pass down the ages forever.
The Lamb of God references you speak about was another revelation of many centuries of God refining and instructing us; indeed the Lamb of God is not simply a title but it is almost a condensed theology which is lost on most people today. Msgr. Hamburger, an old mentor of mine, wrote a small book on this theme within the Bible that he had thought about most of his life. I was privileged to help him write and edit the text many years ago. I began trying to recreate it in a series of posts but did not get past chapter 7. Maybe someday I will return to the task.
If interested here are the 7 chapters that I did complete which do not appear in order. So you should begin, of course, with chapter 1 and proceed in order to grasp the sequential revelations of the Lamb of God Theme.
https://catholicnewsreport.com/?s=Lamb+of+God+Theme
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Actually, Scoop, and you know this, we always did. Lutherans and Anglo-Catholics specifically but some others also have preserved our tradition from when we were Roman Catholic, perhaps more completely than Rome has since VII. Rather sad it is though when I was young, we looked to the Catholic Church for guidance, now perhaps not so much.
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I have limited experience, though valuable, in such settings. My own church is Baptist, so very different.
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Indeed so was the church I was brought up in, a combination of Reformed and Lutheran, and a confused mess. Thanks to the King of Prussia.
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You still can but probably best to make sure that what you look at is pre-Vatican II. 🙂
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Agreed.
Damian Thompson, the former editor of The Catholic Herald really unloaded on Francis and the bishops (US and UK) the other day.
https://pjmedia.com/faith/editor-in-chief-of-catholic-herald-resigns-after-blasting-garbage-synod-feeble-bishops-and-scandal-plagued-pope-francis/
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I know. Deservedly so in my opinion.
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Indeed.
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The Catholic Herald is one of my go to publications. I hope it doesn’t go down hill.
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Sounds like he expects it to, with the new ownership. Sad, one of mine, as well.
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All good things come to an end they say. Or as that hippie on The Simpsons say, “Entropy, man…”. Still, we nomads just move on. When a source goes corrupt, God usually opens up another one, if you know where to look. There’s always a righteous remnant that sets up a new shop somewhere. “And the reformation keeps rolling along…with a ha ha hee in God’s Artillery…”
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