liturgy

thumb|Divine Liturgy as celebrated (along with the [[Eucharist) under the Byzantine Rite in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]] Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembrance, supplication, or repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with God or the divine.

Technically speaking, liturgy forms a subset of ritual. The word liturgy, sometimes equated in English as "service", refers to a formal ritual enacted by those who understand themselves to be participating in an action with the divine.thumb|Benedictine Monks praying the Liturgy of the Hours