Can I do this on Sundays?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bethanysamuel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bethanysamuel

Guest
Hi, I suffer from a bad back and didnt get all my housework done yesterday. I have a little bit I’d like to do today so that the house is nice and tidy for when we get back from Mass. But is that a sin? Would God mind me doing a quick hoover and changing the bed, (I spend a lot of time in bed due to back pain) and I like having a fresh bed for Sundays. I try to do as much as possible on a Saturday but this week it just didnt happen. I’d like the living room to be tidy for prayer time aswell. The kitchen’s done+the bathrooms are fine. What do you think?
 
You want to go to Mass on Sunday. 👍👍

Possibly , part of the reason you want to tidy a bit is so that there’s less to do when you return from Mass (if I understood correctly) ? Having it tidy for prayer , means less work/more prayer when you get back doesn’t it ?

Have a blessed day !

🙂
 
What matters more to you, a clean house or obeying God’s commandments?

BTW, “cleanliness is next to godliness” is nowhere in the Bible.

Relax. 🙂
 
You can clean house on Sunday.

You can also bake, cook, work in the yard, and shovel snow. You can go grocery shopping, run to the hardware store, and do homework. You can paint, work on bookwork, and do laundry.

Nothing says we are to just sit on our butts doing absolutely nothing all day.
 
Butt-sitters unite!

By the way, our priest works on Sundays.
Ha, ha! (as I sit here on my butt surfing CAF…)

Good point about the priest.

I really have to start laundry…and vacuum the dog hair…and clean the litter boxes…I should probably de-ice my driveway, too. I have to organize my bedroom…clean up the mess my son left as he headed back to college…

Gotta get busy soon!
 
Sunday yes should be a day of rest etc.

But if one “tidies” up a little (not talking heavy duty cleaning etc…though remember that sometimes “necessity” might intervene too and one has to do something one ordinarily would not do) …such can I would think be fine. (in this case your doing a little tidying even in order to make your Sunday more restful and prayerful etc)

Catechism:

A day of grace and rest from work

2184 Just as God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done,"121 human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord’s Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives.122

2185 On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.123 Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health.
Code:
The charity of truth seeks holy leisure- the necessity of charity accepts just work.124
2186 Those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and the same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works and humble service of the sick, the infirm, and the elderly. Christians will also sanctify Sunday by devoting time and care to their families and relatives, often difficult to do on other days of the week. Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.

2187 Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day. Traditional activities (sport, restaurants, etc.), and social necessities (public services, etc.), require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. With temperance and charity the faithful will see to it that they avoid the excesses and violence sometimes associated with popular leisure activities. In spite of economic constraints, public authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship. Employers have a similar obligation toward their employees.

Read the whole here: scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a3.htm#II

2042 The first precept (“You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor”) requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the Mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.
 
Canon Law:

2192 “Sunday . . . is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church” (CIC, can. 1246 § 1). “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass” (CIC, can. 1247).

2193 “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound . . . to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body” (CIC, can. 1247).
 
Pope Benedict XVI:

The meaning of rest and of work

“74. Finally, it is particularly urgent nowadays to remember that the day of the Lord is also a day of rest from work. It is greatly to be hoped that this fact will also be recognized by civil society, so that individuals can be permitted to refrain from work without being penalized. Christians, not without reference to the meaning of the Sabbath in the Jewish tradition, have seen in the Lord’s Day a day of rest from their daily exertions. This is highly significant, for it relativizes work and directs it to the person: work is for man and not man for work. It is easy to see how this actually protects men and women, emancipating them from a possible form of enslavement. As I have had occasion to say, “work is of fundamental importance to the fulfilment of the human being and to the development of society. Thus, it must always be organized and carried out with full respect for human dignity and must always serve the common good. At the same time, it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved by work or to idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life.” (209) It is on the day consecrated to God that men and women come to understand the meaning of their lives and also of their work. (210)”

More there to read on the Lords Day: vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis_en.html#The_eucharistic_form_of_the_christian_life
 
I see no reason why you can’t do a bit of tidying provided you’re available to your family if they need you and so long as you make time for the Lord in Mass (assuming you didn’t go to Saturday Vigil Mass).

What matters is that you don’t a: over do it, or b: feel obliged to do it. Assuming it’s voluntary activity you’re undertaking there’s no real issue.

I don’t think anyone thinks that we have to go as far as some ultra-orthodox Jewish people do, who won’t even cook or turn on a lightswitch during the Sabbath or even activate a pedestrian street crossing control. Light housework is fine.
 
1st load of laundry is washing now. Bedroom is tidied up. Must vacuum dog hair out of living room before laundry is dried so I can fold laundry in there.

Gotta start organizing tomorrow’s teaching stuff…
 
Hi, I suffer from a bad back and didnt get all my housework done yesterday. I have a little bit I’d like to do today so that the house is nice and tidy for when we get back from Mass. But is that a sin? Would God mind me doing a quick hoover and changing the bed, (I spend a lot of time in bed due to back pain) and I like having a fresh bed for Sundays. I try to do as much as possible on a Saturday but this week it just didnt happen. I’d like the living room to be tidy for prayer time aswell. The kitchen’s done+the bathrooms are fine. What do you think?
My husband’s home for the weekend; tomorrow he heads back out on the road for another month. After Mass this morning I did his laundry, will iron it when it’s dry, and some time this afternoon we’ll pack it all up and move it out to his truck. Right now he’s over at his parent’s house helping his elderly father hose out the gutters and clean their solar panels.

So I think that if you’re a sinner then I’m a bigger sinner, and my husband’s perhaps the biggest sinner of us all.

Luna
 
My husband’s home for the weekend; tomorrow he heads back out on the road for another month. After Mass this morning I did his laundry, will iron it when it’s dry, and some time this afternoon we’ll pack it all up and move it out to his truck. Right now he’s over at his parent’s house helping his elderly father hose out the gutters and clean their solar panels.

So I think that if you’re a sinner then I’m a bigger sinner, and my husband’s perhaps the biggest sinner of us all.

Luna
You do what you have to do!👍
 
Today is a great day (seeing how it is all about the Lords day) to read the posts I posted above (#8 9 & 10) from the Catechism and Pope Benedict XVI. One may also if one has more time read the larger document DIES DOMINI from Pope (Bl) John Paul II on the subject.
*
Without the Lords Day it is not possible to live!*

Let us live it with joy!
 
My husband’s home for the weekend; tomorrow he heads back out on the road for another month. After Mass this morning I did his laundry, will iron it when it’s dry, and some time this afternoon we’ll pack it all up and move it out to his truck. Right now he’s over at his parent’s house helping his elderly father hose out the gutters and clean their solar panels.

So I think that if you’re a sinner then I’m a bigger sinner, and my husband’s perhaps the biggest sinner of us all.

Luna
What your husband is doing is critical of keeping the economy of this great Country in motion. Thank you to him for doing so and thank you for the sacrifice of having your husband gone for such a long period of time and i’m sending prayers for your husband’s safe travels.
 
Hi, I suffer from a bad back and didnt get all my housework done yesterday. I have a little bit I’d like to do today so that the house is nice and tidy for when we get back from Mass. But is that a sin? Would God mind me doing a quick hoover and changing the bed, (I spend a lot of time in bed due to back pain) and I like having a fresh bed for Sundays. I try to do as much as possible on a Saturday but this week it just didnt happen. I’d like the living room to be tidy for prayer time aswell. The kitchen’s done+the bathrooms are fine. What do you think?
I’m sure i’m not the only one who has wonderful memories of our Grandmother’s cooking. My Grandma was a devout Catholic and I can remember the Sunday roast beef dinners she would make. I can still smell the wonderful aroma of the roast beef cooking in the oven when we would return from Mass.

Would you consider it to be sinful for my Grandma making such a wonderful feast on the Lords Day?
 
=bethanysamuel;8857360]Hi, I suffer from a bad back and didnt get all my housework done yesterday. I have a little bit I’d like to do today so that the house is nice and tidy for when we get back from Mass. But is that a sin? Would God mind me doing a quick hoover and changing the bed, (I spend a lot of time in bed due to back pain) and I like having a fresh bed for Sundays. I try to do as much as possible on a Saturday but this week it just didnt happen. I’d like the living room to be tidy for prayer time aswell. The kitchen’s done+the bathrooms are fine. What do you think?
No problem: the proabition is from “UNNECESSARY Labor”; your circumstances would permit this. You MAY wish to offer it up for the “poor Souls”?

Certainly this could be done another day, but this need was permitted by God, so God will accept that as valid.🙂

God Bless you,

Pat
 
Thank you for all the replies. Well I made my bed, hoovered up+then went to Mass. I sang in the choir and came home+cooked a lovely roast, listened to hymns, read the Parish newsletter and now we’re gonna end the day with prayers. I love Sundays. Especially singing. The Sabbath really is a gift to be respected and enjoyed. Hope you all have a good week.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top