in Theology, the act of adoring God, and especially of addressing him in prayer for his assistance and protection. See the articles ADORATION and PRAYER.

The difference between the invocation of God and of the saints, as practised by the Papists, is thus explained in the catechism of the council of Trent. "We beg of God (says the catechism), to give us good things, and to deliver us from evil; but we pray to the saints, to intercede with God and obtain those things which we stand in need of. Hence we use different forms in praying to God and to the saints: to the former we say, hear..." Invocation hear us, have mercy on us; to the latter we only say, pray for us." The council of Trent expressly teaches, that the saints who reign with Jesus Christ offer up their prayers to God for men; and condemn those who maintain the contrary doctrine. The Protestants reject and censure this practice as contrary to Scripture, deny the truth of the fact, and think it highly unreasonable to suppose that a limited finite being should be in a manner omnipresent, and at one and the same time hear and attend to the prayers that are offered to him in England, China, and Peru; and from thence infer, that if the saints cannot hear their requests, it is inconsistent with common sense to address any kind of prayer to them.

in Poetry, an address at the beginning of a poem, wherein the poet calls for the assistance of some divinity, particularly of his muse, or the deity of poetry.