Joy is a response

Worship is not just a Sunday morning service - it's our orientation towards God

Sep 01, 2025

I love the sunrise so much that I take a photo of it every day.

I’m also fortunate enough to be at the beach often. And when I am, I wake up while it’s still dark, to be sure I’m walking along the ocean’s edge at the very first light.

And when it happens - when I feel the energy around me change, and the sky starts to wake up - my heart sings.

Literally.

I feel myself respond to the miracle and beauty of another day’s beginning, and I start to sing, usually out loud…

O gracious light, Lord Jesus Christ
to you the Father’s glory shone
immortal, holy, blest is he
and blest are you his only Son.

The song is spontaneous, and it is also a deeply ingrained response to God.

It is worship.

‘Worship’ is one of those things that is both easy to understand and hard to define. Mostly, we think of worship as a Sunday morning service, or any other kind of liturgy - public acts of praise and devotion.

It’s easy to think of ‘prayer’ as private communication with God, and ‘worship’ as public communication with God.

But we sometimes pray together - even during a worship service at church! And we can worship alone - though maybe we don’t recognize the difference between prayer and worship.

Prayer is communication with God.
Worship is orientation towards God.

On the basketball court, we take a shot. This is communication - sending the ball towards the basket.

But first, we have to set our bodies and our vision - we are orienting ourselves to be able to shoot.

Both prayer and worship are actions. But prayer is sending our intention towards God (also receiving it back!).

Worship is how we set ourselves in relationship with God. How we convey our understanding of God’s goodness, holiness, and power.

It’s that sense of awe when we encounter the beauty of creation, or when we feel small standing beside the ocean, or when a baby is born, or when we’re in a glorious cathedral and the sun shines through the stained glass.

When we realize, deep in our souls, that God is God - and we are not.

And when this happens, we are moved to respond.

Early Christians worship centered primarily around baptism and the Eucharist - the primary sacraments of the church, and the places they felt the power of God, the presence of Jesus, and the energy of the Holy Spirit.

From these sacraments, several worship phrases began to be used in communal praise:

Sursum Corda
This brief exchange is used at both baptism and Eucharist:
Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord
We already know this - it’s the Trexo theme song: Hearts up!
It’s the recognition of our orientation towards God.

Gloria
Giving glory to God is a basic act of devotion. It is used throughout Christian prayer, worship, and song:

‘Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit’.
’Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to his people on earth’ (Luke 9:13-14).
’Holy God, holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal one, have mercy upon us’.

This is called the Trisagion, as it is usually said three times.

Phos Hilaron
One of the oldest Christian acts of worship, it is thanksgiving for light:
O gracious light
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven
Lord Jesus Christ, holy and blessed.
Now that we’ve come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light
We sing thy praises, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices.
O Son of God, O giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.

The hymn I sing spontaneously at sunrise is a derivation of the Phos Hilaron.

Strength

Spiritual 'resistance training'

Fr. Cathie Caimano

Jul 21

When I was in seminary, we prayed the ‘Daily Office’ every day - a series of prayers based on the rhythm of monastery life (but skipping the 3am prayers!): Morning Prayer, noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline (bedtime prayers).

Read full story

Join the gym to work out your soul - and sing your praise and devotion to God!

Worship is part of the Trexo Strength exercises, designed to build spiritual muscle.

Worship and prayer are the primary acts of being Christian, which is why Prayer is the first step of the Basic Workout, and worship is the second.

Everything we do as Christians is based on prayer and worship.

Through Trexo, we learn the simplest, oldest forms of these as the foundation of our practice. We will build on them as we grow.

Try these at home!

Learn and use short ancient worship phrases
- Use the Sursum Corda, Gloria, and Phos Hilaron as a regular part of your day.
- Add the Gloria to the end of your Scripture reading or prayers (most people already say it at the end of the Our Father, for instance - ‘for the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory are yours…’).

Begin and end your day with simple acts of reverence.
- Say ‘hearts up!’ - to yourself or out loud - as you rise from bed each day - or when you need a bit of encouragement.
- End your day with the Phos Hilaron (you can begin this way, too - as I do on my sunrise walks).
Use forms of worship as a response to gratitude—or in the midst
of struggle.
- If you feel stressed, anxious, or sad, definitely pray! And - you can consciously think about putting yourself in the arms of God. Any of these worship phrases can be used to help orient ourselves.
- You can also use them if you feel particular joy, excitement, happiness. ‘Glory to God in the highest’ is particularly appropriate here.
Sing your praise
- Singing is praising God with our whole being (more of this when we get to the ‘body’ section of the first workout).
- All of these worship phrases can be sung. Sing to yourself, sing aloud, don’t worry about what you sound like. Make a joyful noise! Worship is one of the very few places left where everyone is invited to sing, unselfconsciously.
- Several easy hymns have been derived from the Phos Hilaron. Sing along and memorize it, so you can have it handy whenever you are moved to worship God!