True worship: Quotes, questions, and comments

True worship: A study of Paper 5, section 3 (65-66)

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This document has four parts. First is the section on true worship itself. Next, we prepare the mind for this study by first looking at context and structure of the section on true worship. Then comes a series of questions designed to promote discovery; some of the questions are advanced. Last, you will find notes, some of which contain clusters of quotes that are relevant to the questions.

3. True Worship

^{5:3.1 (65.3)} Though the Paradise Deities, from the universe standpoint, are as one, in their spiritual relations with such beings as inhabit Urantia they are also three distinct and separate persons. There is a difference between the Godheads in the matter of personal appeals, communion, and other intimate relations. In the highest sense, we worship the Universal Father and him only. True, we can and do worship the Father as he is manifested in his Creator Sons, but it is the Father, directly or indirectly, who is worshiped and adored.

^{5:3.2 (65.4)} Supplications of all kinds belong to the realm of the Eternal Son and the Son’s spiritual organization. Prayers, all formal communications, everything except adoration and worship of the Universal Father, are matters that concern a local universe; they do not ordinarily proceed out of the realm of the jurisdiction of a Creator Son. But worship is undoubtedly encircuited and dispatched to the person of the Creator by the function of the Father’s personality circuit. We further believe that such registry of the homage of an Adjuster-indwelt creature is facilitated by the Father’s spirit presence. There exists a tremendous amount of evidence to substantiate such a belief, and I know that all orders of Father fragments are empowered to register the bona fide adoration of their subjects acceptably in the presence of the Universal Father. The Adjusters undoubtedly also utilize direct prepersonal channels of communication with God, and they are likewise able to utilize the spirit-gravity circuits of the Eternal Son.

^{5:3.3 (65.5)} Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self- or creature-interest element; that is the great difference between worship and prayer. There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of his lovable nature and adorable attributes.

^{5:3.4 (65.6)} The moment the element of self-interest intrudes upon worship, that instant devotion translates from worship to prayer and more appropriately should be directed to the person of the Eternal Son or the Creator Son. But in practical religious experience there exists no reason why prayer should not be addressed to God the Father as a part of true worship.

^{5:3.5 (66.1)} When you deal with the practical affairs of your daily life, you are in the hands of the spirit personalities having origin in the Third Source and Center; you are co-operating with the agencies of the Conjoint Actor. And so it is: You worship God; pray to, and commune with, the Son; and work out the details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the Infinite Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe.

^{5:3.6 (66.2)} The Creator or Sovereign Sons who preside over the destinies of the local universes stand in the place of both the Universal Father and the Eternal Son of Paradise. These Universe Sons receive, in the name of the Father, the adoration of worship and give ear to the pleas of their petitioning subjects throughout their respective creations. To the children of a local universe a Michael Son is, to all practical intents and purposes, God. He is the local universe personification of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit maintains personal contact with the children of these realms through the Universe Spirits, the administrative and creative associates of the Paradise Creator Sons.

^{5:3.7 (66.3)} Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the human personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and subject to the divine directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster. The mind of material limitations can never become highly conscious of the real significance of true worship. Man’s realization of the reality of the worship experience is chiefly determined by the developmental status of his evolving immortal soul. The spiritual growth of the soul takes place wholly independently of the intellectual self-consciousness.

^{5:3.8 (66.4)} The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul—the conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind’s assenting to the attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. The mortal mind consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind and the evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the spiritual, and the personal—the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and their unification in personality.

 

Context and structure

“The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena.” What design can we discern here? In the context of the preceding papers, Paper 5 builds directly building on the papers on the Universal Father’s personality, nature, and attributes. Partly because the Father relates exclusively to individuals, we have a paper on God’s relation to the individual, in contrast with the papers on the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit.

In the context of Paper 5, Section 3 follows sections on the approach to God and the presence of God (God’s physical, mind, and spiritual presence; the personality circuit, and the Adjuster).

The following outline of section 3 is organized by paragraphs and paragraph groups, as indicated by double-spacing in the original edition (in which double-spacing seems to have been sometimes a matter of typographical convenience).

 

Paragraph group 1 (paragraphs 1-5): Clarifications surrounding a definition

1. Clarification: It is the Father, directly or indirectly, who is worshiped and adored.
2. Worship, unlike prayer goes all the way to the Paradise Deity concerned.
3. Worship, contrasted with prayer, is defined as “a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of his loveable nature and adorable attributes.”
4. Prayer is properly addressed to the Son, but may be addressed to the Father as part of worship.
5. We worship God, pray to, and commune with, the Son, and are in the hands of the Third Source family as we work out the practical affairs of our daily life and the details of our sojourn on earth.

 

Paragraph group 2 (paragraph 6) Local universe parents in relation to the three kinds of activities mentioned in paragraph 5.

6. The Creator Son receives, in the name of the Father, the adoration of worship and hears prayer, and the Infinite Spirit maintains personal contact with us through the Mother Spirit.

 

Paragraph group 3 (paragraphs 7-8). The role of mind, soul, spirit, and personality in the worship experience.

7. Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the personality under the dominance of the soul and subject to the directionization of the Thought Adjuster (though the mind cannot become highly conscious of all this).
8. The worship experience consists in the attempt of the Adjuster to communicate to the Father the inexpressible longings and unutterable aspirations of the soul. Worship is the act of the mind’s assenting to this attempt. The mind consents to worship; the soul craves and initiates worship; the adjuster conducts it. True worship is experienced on intellectual, morontial, spiritual, and personal levels—unified in personality

Comment on the design of the section. Worship is presented in the framework of the functions of universe personalities, and dimensions of the human personality. As usual, the Divine Counselor writes with a very mature voice, consistent with the teaching that it is our thoughts, not our feelings, that leads us Godward. The information provided will stimulate progress for the next thousand years.

Questions

            How do papers 1-4 and the first two sections of paper 5 prepare the student for the  section on true worship?

Based on the following paragraph, explain the distinction between prayer and worship, and the last sentence in the paragraph, which gives us the first definition of worship that we find in this section.

 

^{5:3.3 (65.5)} Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self- or creature-interest element; that is the great difference between worship and prayer. There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of his lovable nature and adorable attributes.

 

Are we sometimes more interested in worship than in the Father? What is your motivation for worship? How can we leave self-interest and creature interest behind as we worship?

When we turn to the Father (and recognize him—smile), it’s as simple as that. He is personality. There’s the recognition of his matchless personality. And that recognition does indeed already launch our worship. Is there anything more to say? About matchlessness? More to explore about recognition? About the personality circuit (see in Notes)? In the highest sense of the word “recognition,” we achieve that only recognize the Father (in the sense of being able discerningly to differentiate him from the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit) in the third Havona circle (26:7/292-3). How do we grow in our ability to recognize the Father’s matchless personality? What experiences trigger your recognition of the Father’s matchless personality? What experiences trigger the recognition in others?

What role is played in the worship experience by our awareness of the Father’s lovable nature and adorable attributes? Is our worship of the matchless personality keeping pace with the fullness of our best current concept of God, and with what we can absorb in papers 1-3?

 

Note the sequence: we worship God; pray to and commune with the Son; and work out the details of our earthly sojourn and our practical daily activities with the Third Source family. Does worship totally stop when we cease to focus on the Father? We can have a “Father life” that is illuminated by worship (106:9.12/1175.1). This suggests that we can do all other activities worshipfully. Can we be worshipful as we pray without confusing prayer and worship? In your experience, what is it like to be worshipful as you do practical daily activities?

 

How do quotes on the worship of other deities relate to true worship as presented by the Divine Counselor author of paper 5? (See notes.)

 

The next group of questions opens up the following sentence.

 

^{5:3.7 (66.3)} Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the human personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and subject to the divine directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster.

 

What are the powers of the human personality and how do you mobilize them?

What does the word “sincere” add to your experience as you read?

What are the powers of the human personality?

What are the powers of the human mind?

In worship, how are the cosmic mind’s intuitions (16:6/192) and Mother’s adjutant mind spirits (36:5/402) organized in their supporting roles and primary roles?

What are the powers of the soul? (133:6.5/1478.4, for starters)

What are the powers of the body, and how may they be relevant to worship?

What does mobilization mean? Does it mean different things in association with different types of activity?

What does “the divine directionization of the Thought Adjuster” mean”?

 

The next group of questions probes up the following sentence.

 

^{5:3.8 (66.4)} The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul—the conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster.

 

What is betrothal with the Adjuster? (See notes.)

What soul longings and aspirations can be put into words? What is it to have soul longings and aspirations that are too deep for words? Are there other ways of expressing those longings and aspirations? Do we have longings and aspirations that the mind is unaware of?

Why is the mind limited in its ability to be conscious of worship? “The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, spirit-perceiving part of man” (133:6.5/1478.4). “Man . . . experiences spiritual reality in the soul but becomes conscious of this experience in his mind” 103:6.6/1136.1). What additional reasons can you add why the mind’s consciousness of worship is limited?

 

^{5:3.8 (66.4)} . . . . Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind’s assenting to the attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father.

 

Why the “therefore”? Why does this sentence follow from the previous ones? If the worship connotes full mobilization and consists in the Adjuster’s sublime attempt, why does the down-to-earth, factual definition of worship here (the second definition given in this section) state that worship is the act of the mind’s assenting?

 

^{5:3.8 (66.4)} . . . . The mortal mind consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind and the evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the spiritual, and the personal—the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and their unification in personality.

 

“The mind consents to worship.” What does consent mean? How do we grow in our ability to sustain consent when we start to feel the pull of distraction?

How do we renew consent? Does worship stop when the mind gets caught up in distraction? Does is always stop? Immediately stop?

“The soul craves and initiates worship.” Is this craving constant or not?

Does the soul’s act of initiating worship precede the mind’s consent, occur at the same time, follow consent, or more than one of the above?

What does it feel like when the soul initiates worship? Always the same?

How long does the initiating take—what has to happen—before the worship conductor, the Adjuster, can get started?

“The divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mid and the evolving immortal soul.” Is the worship conductor more like the conductor of a symphony, who is looking at and guiding the performers? Or more like a priest who faces the cross, turns his back to the worshippers, and performs the mass on their behalf? Or both?

In what ways do you experience the conducting? As total transcendence of conscious awareness? Is the mind sometimes engaged? The soul?

“True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an experience realized on four comic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the spiritual, and the personal—the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and their unification in personality.”

Why is the unification of these levels in personality important? And how do you do it?

 

NOTES

The personality circuit

Our recognition of the Father is considerably enhanced by the personality circuit. We all “have access to the “bosom of the Father,” “the great circuit of divine love.” ^{5:3.2 (65.4)} “Worship is undoubtedly encircuited and dispatched to the person of the Creator by the function of the personality circuit.” ^{16:9.14 (196.10)} “Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe reality to all moral creatures because the Father has himself bestowed personality upon all such beings and has encircuited them within the grasp of the universal personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he is, then, because he is in us, and last, because we are in him.” (16:9.14/196.10) “By the personality circuit the Paradise Father is personally conscious of, and in personal touch with, all personalities of all levels of self-conscious existence.” (5:6.10/71.5) In the personality circuit “God acts uniquely, directly, and exclusively.” (3:16/45.4) Father “maintains direct and parental contact through the personality circuit.” (5:0.2/62.2)  ^{32:4.8 (363.6)} Through the personality circuit the Father is cognizant—has personal knowledge—of all the thoughts and acts of all the beings in all the systems of all the universes of all creation. Though we cannot fully grasp this technique of God’s communion with his children, we can be strengthened in the assurance that the “Lord knows his children,” and that of each one of us “he takes note where we were born.” ^{40:5.3 (445.4)} “Thus does the Father, who is the farthest from you in personality and in spirit, draw the nearest to you in the personality circuit and in the spirit touch of inner communion with the very souls of his mortal sons and daughters.”

 

Betrothal

The Thought Adjuster is presence of the Universal Father, our soul father, worship conductor, and the spirit nucleus of our personality. Betrothal is a promise to marry in the spiritual sense. It “the supreme decision” (113:1.5/1241.7); we “enter into a solemn and sincere betrothal with the Adjuster” (109:2.4/1196.6); a “life and death engagement” (109:3.4/1197.6). ^{97:4.5 (1066.2)} Hosea . . . proclaimed a gospel of loving-kindness and divine mercy, saying: “I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness.”

Is the Divine Counselor suggesting that we are not yet truly ready for true worship until we make the supreme decision and enter into a solemn and sincere promise of eternal union?

 

Worship of deities not mentioned in 5:3

How do the following passages relate to the concept of true worship portrayed by the Divine Counselor author of the Father papers? “When we worship the Universal Father, actually we at the same time worship God the Son and God the Spirit” (6:2:3/74.8). “Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing and acknowledging the truth and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of the Creators with their creatures” (27:7.1/303.5). “Worship—contemplation of the spiritual . . .” (143:7.3/1616.5). There is a pattern in the book of giving an ideal description of something before giving descriptions that are easier for us to attain. Example: “You must have honestly exhausted the human capacity for human adjustment—you must have been industrious” (91:9.3/1002.8; or 147:4.8/1651.2).