The word ‘worship’ in ordinary language can mean any kind of prayer to God, such as: personal prayer either spoken or silent; prayer said in a small group, or prayer said by a community in common. All these have been in use for thousands of years. even before the coming of Jesus Christ.

The Catholic Church believes that Jesus came to provide an even  higher form of worship that human beings can offer to God      

“….the hour will come when true worshippers will worship the Father  in spirit and in truth, that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.”

This is because only God has the right to tell us how we should worship Him.Thus Christian worship given to us by Jesus Christ is so powerful that we are not just trying to ‘reach up’ to God but we actually succeed. This is the way God has commanded us to worship Him.                                    

The following are the main things that Jesus commanded His disciples to do:

The Eucharist (called ‘Mass’):  ‘Do this in remembrance of Me’        This celebration of the Lord’s supper is the centre of all Catholic worship.

Baptism:

       ‘All authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me, going therefore teach all nations baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.                     (Matthew 28 18)

Forgiveness of sin:

                 ‘..whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.’

In the Catholic Church, these special acts of worship are called “sacraments”(which means ‘holy signs’) and Jesus is personally present leading this worship because He rose from the grave and is alive and active among us as God’s appointed High Priest.

Scripture also speaks of other sacraments, namely Ordination of priests, Confirmation, Anointing of the sick, and Marriage, each of which was established by the authority of Christ.

These ‘Sacraments’ are outward signs but they are not empty tokens. On the contrary they are visible expressions of what is actually happening spiritually. In other words, while we are celebrating the Sacraments, a real event is occurring before God in the spiritual realm.

To learn more see section on “Preparing to join the Church”