"Sunday, the "Lord's Day," is the principal day for the celebration of the Eucharist because it is the day of the Resurrection. It is the pre-eminent day of the liturgical assembly, the day of the Christian family, and the day of joy and rest from work. Sunday is the 'foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year." ~CCC, no. 1193, citing SC no. 106
"The Biblical Sabbath is not primarily a day of rules and prohibitions...the Sabbath was given to us as a gift, not as a penalty. The people to whom it was first given had grown up as slaves in Egypt. God said to them 'When you were slaves, someone else owned your time. You could do only what they told you to do. Now that you're free, you can use your time for your own purposes.' That is why, to this day, 3000 years after the event, a Jewish family welcoming the Sabbath, refers to it as 'a reminder of our liberation from Egyptian slavery.' Animals are controlled by time...Human beings, and only human beings control time...If during the week, a man or woman is bound to a schedule, if our lives are ruled by the clock so that we are not free to do what we want, when we want to, the Sabbath, whether observed on Saturday, Sunday, or even on a weekday for those who have to work weekends, is a day to replenish our souls by being free to do those things that identify us as human. It is a time for family, for reading, and, of course, for worship, another uniquely human activity." ~Rabbi Harold Kushner, The Lord is My Shepherd.
For most of my life, Sunday has been the day I go to Mass and then go back to my normal life. In the culture we live in it is rarely practical and occasionally not even possible to take Sunday as a "day of rest." However, after living several years during which I never stopped running...very nearly to the point of collapse, I was listening to an audio book - The Lord is My Shepherd read by the author, Rabbi Harold Kushner. I was out for a walk when I heard the part I quoted above (it's much longer but I couldn't quote the whole thing here...the rest of the book is definitely something I'll cover in another post; there was a lot of great stuff in it). I could even tell you exactly what street I was on as the ideas sunk in. The bit about the need for time for God to replenish our souls spoke to me so completely that I knew I had to try harder to find time for daily quiet prayer and to do more than just make sure I could check off my "obligation" of a Sunday Mass.
As I stated above, this is not always practical or possible, but at the very least, I try to take more time on Sunday (if I can't take the whole day) for extra prayer, Bible study, reading and other refreshing pursuits. I am still a person who likes lists, however, so here is my list of things to try to accomplish on a Sunday:
- Read an extra chapter from whatever Book of the Bible I'm working on. Normally I read one section of a chapter each morning and evening...Sundays I do that and then also another full chapter.
- Read (or listen to) a chapter from another book on the topic of faith. Examples are The Lord is My Shepherd and Theology of the Body for Beginners.
- Spend at least 30 minutes in service to my parents...this can be helping with whatever they are trying to accomplish that day, a couple of extra loads of laundry, or whatever I think might be useful.
- Write in my prayer journal.
- Spend some time quilting, reading, and catching up on the blogs I've gotten behind on.
Thank you for sharing this refreshing post! :)
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