On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas Thomas
VII
Has Religion, That is _Latria_,[65] any External Acts? In Ps. lxxxiii. 3 it is said: _My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God._ Now interior acts belong to the heart, and in the same way exterior acts are referred to the members of the body. It appears, then, that God is to be worshipped by exterior as well as by interior acts. We do not show reverence and honour to God for His own sake--for He in Himself is filled with glory to which nought can be added by any created thing--but for our own sakes. For by the fact that we reverence and honour God our minds are subjected to Him, and in that their perfection lies; for all things are perfected according as they are subjected to that which is superior to them--the body, for instance, when vivified by the soul, the air when illumined by the sun. Now the human mind needs--if it would be united to God--the guidance of the things of sense; for, as the Apostle says to the Romans[66]: _The invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made_. Hence in the Divine worship it is necessary to make use of certain corporal acts, so that by their means, as by certain signs, man's mind may be stirred up to those spiritual acts whereby it is knit to God. Consequently religion has certain interior acts which are its chief ones and which essentially belong to it; but it has also external acts which are secondary and which are subordinated to the interior acts.
3. Lastly, S. Augustine praises Seneca[69] for his condemnation of those men who offered to their idols what they were wont to offer to men: on the ground, namely, that what belongs to mortal men is not fittingly offered to the immortals. Still less, then, can such things be fittingly offered to the True God Who is _above all gods_.[70] Therefore to worship God by means of bodily acts seems to be reprehensible. And consequently religion does not include bodily acts. But idolaters are so called because they offer to their idols things belonging to men, and this not as outward signs which may excite in them spiritual affections, but as being acceptable by those idols for their own sake. And especially because they offered them empty and vile things. * * * * * _S. Augustine:_ When men pray, they, as becomes suppliants, make use of their bodily members, for they bend the knee, they stretch forth their hands, they even prostrate on the ground and perform other visible acts. Yet all the while their invisible will and their heart's intention are known to God. He needs not these signs for the human soul to be laid bare before Him. But man by so doing stirs himself up to pray and groan with greater humility and fervour. I know not how it is that whereas such bodily movements can only be produced by reason of some preceding act on the part of the soul, yet when they are thus visibly performed the interior invisible movement which gave them birth is thereby itself increased, and the heart's affections--which must have preceded, else such acts would not have been performed--are thereby themselves increased. Yet none the less, if a man be in some sort hindered so that he is not at liberty to make use of such external acts, the interior man does not therefore cease to pray; in the secret chamber of his heart, where lies compunction, he lies prostrate before the eyes of God (_Of Care for the Dead_, v.).
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