The phrase "perform a sacrifice" is correct and can be used in written English.
You can use it when describing an act of self-denial, surrender, or other form of giving up something for the benefit of others. For example: "In order to be successful, he was willing to perform a sacrifice and give up his weekend plans."
Thus, Sanskrit active yájati and mediopassive yájate both mean 'he sacrifices,' but the former is said of a priest who performs a sacrifice for the benefit of another, while the latter is said of a layman who hires a priest to perform a sacrifice.
Of a sentence such as "one desirous of heaven should perform a sacrifice," then, Śabara would mainly ask: do you understand the sentence?
The emperors ordered all members of the court to perform a sacrifice to purify the palace.
The poem focuses on two scenes: one in which a lover eternally pursues a beloved without fulfilment, and another of villagers about to perform a sacrifice.
When the flood receded, Manu, the sole human survivor, performed a sacrifice, pouring oblations of butter and sour milk into the waters.
For example, a chief priest would fast and meditate before he performed a sacrifice.
The mural with pyramids depicts a lounging Cleopatra-esque woman, while another features an "exotic priestess" performing a sacrifice and a volcano.
The first occurs when the warrior Arjuna being overcome with compassion against killing his opposing relatives in war, receives counsel (see Bhagavad-Gita) from Krishna about his spiritual duty ("work as though you are performing a sacrifice for the general good").
Before Decius's reign, persecution of the Christians in the empire had been sporadic and local, but about the beginning of January 250 he issued an edict ordering all citizens to perform a religious sacrifice in the presence of commissioners.
People tend to imagine that the Parliament Act requires some kind of ceremony where the Clerks gather under a blasted oak at midnight, to perform a blood sacrifice and invoke the powers of darkness… but actually the process is quite low key and off camera.
In 1209, the Jain scholar Janna wrote Yashodharacharite, the story of a king who intends to perform a ritual sacrifice of two young boys to a local deity, Mariamma.
