The Importance of keeping Sundays holy.

Jesus and the Apostles at the First Mass

Sunday is always around the corner of every week and what do we do to really keep it holy as God commanded us?

Keeping the Lord's Day holy means, above all, going to Mass in order to fulfill our "Sunday duty" by participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

In the commercial world many of us have to work on Sundays, on shifts at hotels or hospitals, or have our shops open at malls because that’s the time more consumers patronize the malls. Indeed we all need to work to earn a living but is it worth while to disobey God’s commandment?

Many have forgotten that it is a mortal sin to break this commandment or have become presumptuous that their sins will be forgiven. Don’t forget that God is also just.

Yes, some will say..”to survive in this world, this commercial world, we have to follow suit, otherwise how do we earn a living?” “There is inflation to always consider.”; “Oh I have no choice!” “It’s compulsory!” Etc..

May the following be helpful to remind us of the importance of keeping Sunday holy and not incur punishment from God.

(Taken from Chapter 58 of The Young Man’s Guide by Fr. Lasance.)

WORK and the SUNDAY Rest.

• Under the old dispensation God laid a very special stress on the observance of the Sabbath; while Israel was in the desert, He ordained by the mouth of Moses that any one who violated this commandment should incur the penalty of death. We, who live under the new dispensation, have to keep the Sunday holy. In the first place we must abstain from servile work on the Lord’s Day.

• The Sunday rest is, however, no arbitrary requirement for the working man, but a command of nature. A human being is not capable of incessant exertion, like a mere inanimate machine, and even a machine wears out if constantly used. Scientists and even medical men who are destitute of religious beliefs, and unchristian governments, have publicly proclaimed their conviction that one day of rest in the week is a necessity; they have unanimously asserted how highly important it is that Sunday should be generally observed as a day of rest.

• And there is moreover, something beautiful and elevating in the Sunday rest and the Sunday celebration. As soon as a Christian awakes on the Lord’s Day, the truly Christian workman feels that he has been transported into a different atmosphere. The cheerful peal of the church bells sounds pleasantly in his ear. He puts on his Sunday’s best suit instead of his shabby work clothes, and goes to church with a joyful heart, in order to be there to unite with all his fellow Christians in the worship of God, his supreme Lord and Master. Great and small, high and low, rich and poor, are on the same footing in the house of God, and the meanest workman is conscious that within those walls his dignity as a Christian outweighs marble palaces, high offices of state, kingly titles, and imperial diadems, making them all to appear as mere tinsel.

  
  

• Yet does many a man imagine in his blindness and thirst for gain that Sunday labor is of advantage to him, and increases his share of money. How short sighted! If you my friend, could reckon up the number of those - if indeed any such could be found - who have become rich through working on Sunday, and also those who, in spite of working on Sunday. Or , to speak more correctly because they worked on Sunday, have come to beggary; then would the mere consideration of worldly advantage restrain you from desecrating the day of the Lord. Everything depends on the blessing of God; the curse of God, on the contrary, brings to nought the fairest hopes and the wisest calculations. Can not God send down, in the space of one brief hour, lightning and hail, sickness and death? Does His hand not know how to strike the guilty?

  
  

• A certain judge in his youth had belonged to a society composed of young men who habitually desecrated Sunday, either by work, or excesses of different descriptions. Later in life, however, he had been converted and had amended his ways. He was on one occasion, called so to pass sentence of death upon a criminal who had been a member of the same society. The judge trembled to think of the danger he had incurred, and asked the unfortunate man before him what had become of his associates of former days. “Your Honor,” replied the criminal, “except yourself and me, there is no one left alive; all the others have perished on the gallows or met some form of violent death.”

  
  

• That is but one instance out of very many which prove that, as he formerly did under the old dispensation, God heavily punishes those who violate the Sabbath. Be very careful my friend, not to desecrate Sunday, either by work, or by indulgence in sinful pleasures. Live in accordance with your faith; be true and loyal Catholic; then will you live a happy life, and die a peaceful death.

SUNDAY

This day the glorious Trinity

Creations’s work began;

This day the world’s Creator rose,

Overcoming death for man.

So, while on this His Holy day,

At this most sacred hour

Our psalms amid the stillness rise,

May he His blessings shower.

Father of lights! keep us this day

From sinful passions free;

Grant us, in every word, and deed,

And thought, to honour Thee.

Assist us, Purity divine,

Within our hearts to quell

Those evil fires which, cherished here,

Augment the flames of hell.

Saviour, of Thy sweet clemency.

Wash Thou our sins away;

Grant us Thy peace - grant us with Thee

Thine own eternal day.

-Lyra Catholica

(The current situation with Covid-19 and the lockdown situations, many are deprived of Mass so what can we do besides “attending / watching” live stream of Masses?

We could sanctify our Sundays by praying the Rosary and include reading of the scriptures of the day, preferably with one’s family gathered together; refer to the book: The Church’s Year by Rev. Lenard Goffine for explanations to the readings of the day; and include a spiritual communion prayer. Of course you can say other preferred prayers on your own.

Avoid unnecessary servile work.)