When Planning Worship Services
"Every [church/worship] service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best—if you like, it 'works' best—when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it.
As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance.
A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice.
Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
"But every novelty prevents this.
It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. . . . 'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.
"A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant."
--C. S. Lewis, Letters To Malcolm
As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance.
A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice.
Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
"But every novelty prevents this.
It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. . . . 'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.
"A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant."
--C. S. Lewis, Letters To Malcolm
Lots of food for thought in this C.S. Lewis quote!!
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