What is Reverence?

[Rain]

What does reverence look like to you? Please pause and consider that a moment before reading on.

Today in Sunday School our teacher talked about how her primary class didn't know what reverence means. Among other things she talked about not running in the halls, not talking in the chapel, children not wandering the aisles. As she talked this song came to mind:

"Reverence Is Love 

Reverence is more than just quietly sitting:
It’s thinking of Father above,
A feeling I get when I think of His blessings.
I’m rev’rent, for rev’rence is love.
When I’m rev’rent, it shows in my words and my deeds.
The pathway to follow is clear.
And when I am rev’rent, I know in my heart
Heav’nly Father and Jesus are near."

I noticed that only one line described actions: "reverence is more than just quietly sitting." The rest are doctrines and/or principles. 

Does the song fit your view of reverence?

I've stated before that I have been reading (for a long time!) Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes." This weekend what I have read there came to mind.  Specifically this: "Collectivist cultures are very different indeed. In a collectivist culture, the most important entity is the community—the family, the tribe or the country—and not the individual".

I went to a refugee baby shower yesterday, but not your typical shower.  There were more than 25 moms there and it is intended to empower these women in many ways.

There were 8-10 round tables in the room, each sitting 6 people comfortablely and 8 a bit squished.  As the refugee women and their mentors and translators wandered in over the course of an hour and a half they sat themselves at the tables.  I noticed that the first 2 tables became full with 6 and 8 before other tables were really sat at.  As time went on more and more women sat at those 2 tables.  By the time everyone was seated one table had 10 people and the other 14 with sort or a second ring of chairs around the inner ring.  There were still empty seats at the other tables.  

Obviously, there were some cultural and language reasons why this 2 tables flowed over, but people here would typically decide to break the groups in half and sit at 2 tables and they would still have that connected language.  But these women just kept going to those tables and were welcomed at them.  

These women were a great example of the collectivist, community culture. 

After the Sunday School lesson, the song and this experience I realized my thinking had been so limited. While I understood that reverence was more than sitting quietly and how you think and feel, but it could look very different than I had always seen  

It could look like Peter running down the church halls to see Jesus for the first time after his resurrection. It could look like children wandering the aisles to feel the love of Jesus who might be sitting nearby.  It could look like a group of women welcoming others into their crowded circle and sharing love. The principles outlined in the song were there, the actions/applications are different than I used to see. They were reverent because they shared the love of Jesus. Enlightening for me.

Edit: after reading another thread I want to make sure this is understood: I'm not trying to say my thoughts of reverence are the correct or only correct ones.  I was truly asking a question because I want to know.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Rain

[The Nehor]

It is mostly a buzzword used by annoyed and cranky people to control others.

[Saint Bonaventure]

For me, reverence has more than a little awe about it. 

[blackstrap]

Defining reverence should take into account the audience one is speaking to. For 6 year olds it will focus on  not running in the halls and not making a racket in the chapel. For mature adults it may focus on not thinking about the football game while partaking of the sacrament.  Controlling one's thoughts is generally more difficult than controlling one's feet. 

[Calm]

For me reverence is more created in me by the environment than me attempting to create the environment, the aspect of awe St B refers to.  It is very easy to experience it in the temple, less often elsewhere.

It is hard for me to experience in our utilitarian chapels, though it may occur with the music and often with the Sacrament. 

What we talk of as reverence in church, I think of more being respectful of the gathering. 

[MustardSeed]

When I attended my sons BYU graduation, we were told not to cheer for our family member graduates as it would “detract from the spirit and compromise the reverence”. 
I’m 100% with Nehor on this one.  

Edited May 1, 2023 by MustardSeed

[blackstrap]

1 hour ago, MustardSeed said:

we were told not to cheer for our family member graduates

BYU grad has about 5000+ students walking . Imagine how long the ceremony would take with all the madding crowd cheering each one. " low , there is matter unorganized " 

[MustardSeed]

Just now, blackstrap said:

BYU grad has about 5000+ students walking . Imagine how long the ceremony would take with all the madding crowd cheering each one. " low , there is matter unorganized " 

Sure.  So request no cheering.  But don’t manipulate us with primary language. 

[blackstrap]

22 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

But don’t manipulate us with primary language. 

I suppose they could have said " No cheering because we are having fried chicken for supper " 😁

[blackstrap]

In case you were wondering , the above was part of an old joke which ends  " when you need an excuse , any excuse will do " 

[Rain]

10 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

When I attended my sons BYU graduation, we were told not to cheer for our family member graduates as it would “detract from the spirit and compromise the reverence”. 
I’m 100% with Nehor on this one.  

 

9 hours ago, blackstrap said:

BYU grad has about 5000+ students walking . Imagine how long the ceremony would take with all the madding crowd cheering each one. " low , there is matter unorganized " 

 

9 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

Sure.  So request no cheering.  But don’t manipulate us with primary language. 

Ugh.  We were asked not to cheer so people could hear their own graduates' names being called.  That didn't work as we couldn't hear my son's name. 

The Spirit idea would drive me batty if I heard it.

[bluebell]

I see reverence as love of God coupled with awe.  So I guess for me it's that not every act of love is an act of reverence, but every act of reverence is also an act of love.  

[bluebell]

12 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

When I attended my sons BYU graduation, we were told not to cheer for our family member graduates as it would “detract from the spirit and compromise the reverence”. 
I’m 100% with Nehor on this one.  

They don't let us cheer at high school graduations here either, though they don't blame it on reverence.  They say it's so that kids who don't have family cheering don't feel bad.  I can see that, but I'd rather everyone cheer for everyone rather than not being able to do it at all!

Not doing it to show 'reverence' seems really dumb.  

[bluebell]

11 hours ago, blackstrap said:

BYU grad has about 5000+ students walking . Imagine how long the ceremony would take with all the madding crowd cheering each one. " low , there is matter unorganized " 

This makes sense as a reason.  They should just say this instead of dragging reverence into it.

[MustardSeed]

I can’t tell you how disturbed I was by the manipulation.  I just thought, my son did this for four years?!  

Edited May 1, 2023 by MustardSeed

[The Nehor]

And some wonder why so many people think God is a killjoy.

Quote

“There is a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was ‘the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it’.“ -C.S. Lewis

 

[mfbukowski]

Respect.

It must be taught, it doesn't come naturally.  I don't think apes are reverent. 

 

[Rain]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

I see reverence as love of God coupled with awe.  So I guess for me it's that not every act of love is an act of reverence, but every act of reverence is also an act of love.  

I agree.  Where I was thinking with these women was the idea of "if ye love me, feed my sheep" or "as I have loved you love one another".  So often I hear refugees talking of their gratitude to God, including from one of the women at one of the 2 tables, so it just seemed to fit in this instance.  I can see why others might not feel the same.

[bluebell]

Just now, Rain said:

I agree.  Where I was thinking with these women was the idea of "if ye love me, feed my sheep" or "as I have loved you love one another".  So often I hear refugees talking of their gratitude to God, including from one of the women at one of the 2 tables, so it just seemed to fit in this instance.  I can see why others might not feel the same.

It's all so interconnected.

[mfbukowski]

18 hours ago, The Nehor said:

It is mostly a buzzword used by annoyed and cranky people to control others.

I resemble that definition.

You need to learn respect, young man!  😡

 

 

😜

[Rain]

7 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

Respect.

It must be taught, it doesn't come naturally.  I don't think apes are reverent. 

 

How do you, personally, teach it?

[LoudmouthMormon]

19 hours ago, The Nehor said:

It is mostly a buzzword used by annoyed and cranky people to control others.

I cannot disagree. Although sometimes they're not cranky, and children absolutely need to be controlled at times.

But reverence does have an equally valid secondary definition.  It's when your inward state matches your outward state. 

[manol]

10 hours ago, bluebell said:

every act of reverence is also an act of love.  

 

8 hours ago, Rain said:

Where I was thinking with these women was the idea of "if ye love me, feed my sheep" or "as I have loved you love one another".

 

8 hours ago, bluebell said:

It's all so interconnected.

I think it really is.

Painting with broad strokes here, it seems to me there is a path which leads towards oneness, and another path which leads towards separation.

Most things in this world lead towards, or support, or affirm, separation.

Imo reverance is when we place or affirm no impediments or barriers – impose no separation - between ourselves and the Divine, nor between ourselves and others, nor between others and the Divine, to the best of our ability in the moment.

Edited May 2, 2023 by manol

[The Nehor]

5 hours ago, mfbukowski said:

I resemble that definition.

You need to learn respect, young man!  😡

 

 

😜

Wait….I’m young? HOORAY!!!

[MiserereNobis]

I visited Auschwitz about 25 years ago. It was an incredibly reverent place for actions -- everyone walked slowly and spoke in hushed whispers. There might have been signs encouraging this reverence, but I don't remember them. The place was overwhelming.

It was also an incredibly reverent place for the feeling of spiritual awe. I'm not going to say it was a surprise, because I really didn't know what to expect or how I was going to feel, but the site of the murder of one million people had been transformed into a place where I felt the presence of God. It's very hard to put into words. People brought flowers and candles and placed them on the remains of the crematoriums. There were hand-written prayers tied with ribbons. Everywhere I looked was the history of horror, but everywhere was also reverence, both internal and external. The sheer amount of hatred and evil that had occurred there over a space of 5 years is almost unimaginable, yet the same location was now like a holy place.

I'm not really trying to make a point or to answer the OP directly, but that experience has stuck with me all these years. It was reverence of a type I really hadn't experienced before or since. I'm sorry I can't describe it better.