Adoration

This striking of the earth with the forehead, usually a fixed number of times, was a form of adoration sometimes paid to Eastern potentates.

)[4] The Christian faith has historically taught that believers are to "adore one and the same Christ, the Son of God and of man, consisting of and in two inseparable and undivided natures".

Within the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on this: "Only in adoration can profound and true acceptance develop.

[6] In a similar vein Pope Francis wrote: "The perpetual adoration of the Eucharist [is] growing at every level of ecclesial life.

'"[8] In the United Kingdom, the ceremony of kissing the sovereign's hand, and some other acts which are performed while kneeling, may be described as forms of adoration.