Adore, Worship, and Venerate…Not all words are created equal

 Recently, I got into a debate with a sincere protestant friend who has the idea that Catholics worship the Blessed Mother. The specific complaint was that Catholics kneel and then pray to Mary. To this person, being on one’s knees means we worship the individual to whom we are praying.

Well….

In the course of the conversation of trying to explain that, no, Catholics, in fact, do not worship Mary, but venerate her, it occurred to me that we Catholics don’t say we worship so much since the retranslation of the Mass and the Nicene Creed in 2011.

Now, when referring to how God in the Trinity is recognized, we say the word ADORE.

The reason being is fairly simple. In the original Latin text, the word at that point of the Creed is adoratur, and obviously a direct correlation. The word “adore” has French, a language based in Latin, roots.

adore (v.)

late 14c., aouren, "to worship, pay divine honors to, bow down before," from Old French aorer "to adore, worship, praise" (10c., later adorer), from Latin adorare "speak to formally, beseech, entreat, ask in prayer," in Late Latin "to worship," literally "to call to," from ad "to" (see ad-) + ōrare "speak formally, pray" (see orator). Meaning "to honor very highly" is attested from 1590s; weakened sense of "to be very fond of" emerged by 1880s.

 

The word “worship,” on the other hand, is rooted in English from the Middle Ages.

worship (n.)

Old English worðscip, wurðscip (Anglian), weorðscipe (West Saxon) "condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, renown," from weorð "worthy" (see worth) + -scipe (see -ship). Sense of "reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being" is first recorded c. 1300. The original sense is preserved in the title worshipful "honorable" (c. 1300).

 

Interestingly enough, this definition actually more closely matches the word “venerate,” also of Latin origin.

veneration (n.)

early 15c., from Old French veneracion, from Latin venerationem (nominative veneratio) "reverence, profoundest respect," noun of action from past participle stem of venerari "to worship, revere," from venus (genitive veneris) "beauty, love, desire" (from PIE root *wen- (1) "to desire, strive for").

 

So, each of the three words have shades of different meaning with adore being the strongest in religious terms.

But, the truth is, we Catholics DO NOT adore the Blessed Mother. To do that, knees and heads bow. We do not genuflect before Mary – the act of bending one’s right knee to the floor while facing the Tabernacle, and making the Sign of the Cross. We genuflect to the Second Person of the Trinity, and when attending exposition of the Blessed Sacrament – Eucharistic ADORATION – the genuflection is to go on both knees and bow reverently to the floor. As much as Mary, the Blessed Mother, is honored and loved, she does not receive that action as part of prayer.

And so, strictly due to language deterioration, this wedge of a belief barrier is somewhat unmovable. The number of protestants who simply can’t get past that place that the Blessed Mother has in the Faith – a place that even the original people protesting and revolting did not deny – is really somewhat a matter of word choice.