Sunday should be a day for worship, rest and time with family and friends, said Monsignor Miquel Delgado Galindo, under secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
“The Church teaches us to set aside this day, the first day of the week on which we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for divine worship and for human rest,” the monsignor recently told EWTN News.
“On Sundays Catholics should participate in the Holy Mass, the unbloody renewal of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross” and “the greatest expression of worship and adoration that man can offer to the Lord our God,” he said.
Sundays should also be a day “devoted to rest with family and friends,” he added.
Msgr. Galindo underscored the importance of Blessed John Paul II’s 1998 Apostolic Letter, “Dies Domini,” which exhorts the bishops, the clergy and the lay faithful to keep Sunday holy and to treat it as the Lord’s day.
“We need to realize that we need more time with family and friends. It is hard to give them time during the week because of our professional and social commitments,” he noted.
Sunday rest is “a human necessity,” he continued.
“Man cannot always be working, just as a bow cannot be constantly pulled back, because at some point it will break.”
Catholics should not see rest as “doing nothing,” but rather as time in which they devote themselves to activities that require less physical or intellectual effort such as going on a family outing, reading a good book, playing sports or watching a worthwhile film.
“This makes it possible to return to our routine work with renewed energy. We need Sundays from a religious and a human point of view,” Msgr. Galindo said.
Sunday, the Lord’s Day
The letter “Dies Domini” explains that the Lord’s Day—the term used to refer to Sundays since apostolic times—has always had a privileged place in the history of the Church because of its close relationship to the very nucleus of the Christian mystery.
Sundays remind us, in the weekly succession of time, of the day of Christ’s resurrection. Therefore, it is the Easter of each week, when we celebrate the victory of Christ over sin and death, the fulfillment of the first creation in Him.
Source: EWTN News
How Can We See Stars That Are Billions Of Light Years Away?
Creation and Evolution: Is Compromise Possible?
The Rise of Evolutionary Thinking
Geocentricity: It's Time to Face the Facts
Earth's History: Conflicting Paradigms
Lamarck Proposes Natural Selection
Age Of The Earth Is Carbon-Dating Accurate?
Flood Chronology
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
Persecution in the First Centuries
An Era of Spiritual Darkness The Waldenses
John Wycliffe Huss and Jerome
Luther's Separation From Rome
Luther Before the Diet The Swiss Reformer
Progress of Reform in Germany
Protest of the Princes The French Reformation
The Netherlands and Scandinavia
Later English Reformers
The Bible and the French Revolution
The Pilgrim Fathers Heralds of the Morning
An American Reformer Light Through Darkness
A Great Religious Awakening A Warning Rejected
Prophecies Fulfilled What is the Sanctuary?
In the Holy of Holies God's Law Immutable
A Work of Reform Modern Revivals
Facing Life's Record The Origin of Evil
Enmity Between Man and Satan
Agency of Evil Spirits Snares of Satan
The First Great Deception
Can Our Dead Speak to Us?
Liberty of Conscience Threatened
The Impending Conflict
The Scriptures a Safeguard The Final Warning
The Time of Trouble God's People Delivered
Desolation of the Earth The Controversy Ended
Is Revelation a Sealed Book?
Revelation 1 Commentary
Revelation 1: Jesus, The Heart of Revelation
Revelation 2 Commentary
Revelation 2-3: Letters to Seven Churches
Revelation 3 Commentary
The Lamb and the Sealed Book
Revelation 4 Commentary
Revelation 5 Commentary
Revelation 6 Commentary
Revelation 7 Commentary
Revelation 8 Commentary
Revelation 9 Commentary
Revelation 10 Commentary
Revelation 11 Commentary
Revelation 12 Commentary
Revelation 13 Commentary
Revelation 14 Commentary
Revelation 15 Commentary
Revelation 16 Commentary
Revelation 17 Commentary
Revelation 18 Commentary
Revelation 19 Commentary
Revelation 20 Commentary
Revelation 21 Commentary
Revelation 22 Commentary
Base