The creation of God is truly beautiful. And so is the Church—as a living organism—replete with a harmony, such as no human mind could conceive. This harmony is one of the many proofs of her divine origin. Certainly, we agree that true devotion must be internal and come from the heart; for, the true adorers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father indeed seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit; and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
But we are not to infer from this that exterior worship is to be condemned because interior worship is prescribed as essential. On the contrary, the rites and ceremonies which are enjoined in the worship of God and in the administration of the Sacraments, are dictated by right reason, and are sanctioned by Almighty God in the Old Law, and by our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles in the New.
The angels, being pure spirits without a body, render to God a purely spiritual worship. The sun, and moon, and stars of the firmament pay to Him a kind of external homage. In the Prophet Daniel, we read: Sun and moon bless the Lord, stars of heaven bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all forever. But man, by possessing a soul or spiritual substance, partakes of the nature of angels, and by possessing a body, partakes of the nature of material bodies. It is therefore his privilege, as well as his duty, to offer to God the twofold homage of body and soul; in other words, to honor Him by internal and external worship.
Genuine piety cannot long be concealed in the heart without manifesting itself by exterior practices of religion; and hence, though interior and exterior worship are distinct, they cannot be separated in the present life. The fire cannot burn without sending forth a flame and heat. Neither can the fire of devotion burn in the soul without reflecting itself on our countenance, and even in our speech. It is natural for man to express his sentiments by signs and ceremonies, for, from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh. And as the fuel is necessary to keep alive the fire, even so, the flame of piety is nourished by the outward forms of religion.
But let us now continue to explain the different forms of our religion. You have been told that everything in the Church is symbolical, typical, and historical, and likewise, this holy temple is for us the House of God. And as such, the temple is a perfect expression of the fullness of the Church of Christ, in which our Savior Himself is included with His divinity and with His humanity—from His birth to His death. The glory of His Resurrection will ever shine in His Church. In her, the Apostles are ever preaching to us. The ancient Prophets do now stir us with the inspiration, which never dies out. The bones of the Martyrs continue to rejoice in upholding the Altars for us—their brethren. Here in the Church are they all,—you are here, and we are here with all our life, with all our histories in one, with our purpose, and with the means by which to obtain our end in the one destination of all. Although we may pray, and yet even offer Divine services in plain houses, in the fields, and on the river banks, still, this would not be sufficient to express the fullness of the Church. It is not only common reason, which tells us, together with our sense of the beautiful, but also our deep veneration for the awful holiness of Almighty God, and our love for Him our Savior, whose works are manifest in so rich, so wide, and such a grand Providence, that we are compelled to build our temples—the monuments of our salvation—according to our best. Therefore we must gather in the Church for prayer. And so this temple with its congregation is a type of, and in reality partakes of, the attributes of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. For this reason, our temples in their outward appearance show their meaning. They are often built in the shape of a cross, sometimes like a ship, then we see them like a star, and now a circle. If the church is lengthwise, with a high bell- tower or pinnacle at one end, we are reminded of a hand showing where the Christian must look to. A circle is something which is often made and seen in our religious life. A circle is made when the sponsors and the priest go around the font with the newly baptized. A circle is made in the Sacrament of Matrimony, and also in the Sacrament of Orders. Mitres and crowns are of a circular shape, and we decorate our house of prayer, i.e. the church, on feast days, with wreaths and garlands of flowers. A circle is significant of something without an end, i.e. eternity. It also denotes joy.
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