I need help deciding if this shopping is neccessary today (a Sunday)

[wworld]

Well, our family volunteered to bring some things to a party tomorrow (Monday). I think we forgot yesterday (I did). We need these items ideally before 4:15 PM (although somewhere before 5:30 could work, too) tommorrow. I’ll just be arriving at my bustop then -clearly unable to purchase the items then. My parents could try to get the items while I’m in school, but my father would be working and my mother would probably also be working. Unless they take time out of their work to get these items, they won’t be able to purchase them (I think)… and, I can’t drive… so I can’t get the items.

Is it okay to go to Target and get these items today?
And my father wants to buy a new camera, and it would probably be redundant to buy the items for the party today and then by a camera tomorrow or next week. Is that okay?
What about if we purchase some other groceries (one thing or so)?

I think it’s just the term “necessary” that confuses me because most times you can actually push when you get this necessary neccesity to a different day. I mean, sure, it’d be harder to figure everything out, but we wouldn’t be working today… so, yea…

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: added a sentence
EDIT 2: added another sentence
EdIT 3: added EDIT 2.

 

[EmeraldWings]

This is kind of late, you probably needed an answer earlier, but this is a tough thing to answer,
if it were me in that situation, i would say “absolutely not, i’ll figure something out for tomorrow”, but to be honest, i’m not sure whether those circumstances fall under “necessary” or not either,
so i think it’s best to ask your priest, or just do what the church says and “when in doubt, don’t do it”
but in my opinion, that does not sound necessary, there is no health reasons involved, it doesn’t sound like anyone will die if it’s put off till tomorrow, and even if it sounds difficult to accomplish tomorrow, if you pray on it, then God can make it happen

not 100% sure, but i hope this helps, take care.

 

[puzzleannie]

It is not a sin to shop on Sunday.
not necessarily prudent, but of that is how you relax, so be it.
I don’t like it simply because that is how we were brought up, but that is as much cultural as it is religious. You make these kinds of judgement on a prudential basis. If you need to get something tonight, go to the store. You don’t have to ask permission of strangers on the internet.

 

[mom2em]

It is not a sin to shop on Sunday.
not necessarily prudent, but of that is how you relax, so be it.
I don’t like it simply because that is how we were brought up, but that is as much cultural as it is religious. You make these kinds of judgement on a prudential basis. If you need to get something tonight, go to the store. You don’t have to ask permission of strangers on the internet.

:hug1:

I don’t want to say much but, thank you!

 

[EmeraldWings]

It is not a sin to shop on Sunday.
not necessarily prudent, but of that is how you relax, so be it.
I don’t like it simply because that is how we were brought up, but that is as much cultural as it is religious. You make these kinds of judgement on a prudential basis. If you need to get something tonight, go to the store. You don’t have to ask permission of strangers on the internet.

the church has always taught doing business on Sunday is a sin -

*Can. 1247 On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.

Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body.* - canon law

“affairs” by definition are business related things.

*"453. How does one keep Sunday holy?

Christians keep Sunday and other days of obligation holy by participating in the Eucharist of the Lord and by refraining from those activities which impede the worship of God and disturb the joy proper to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body. Activities are allowed on the Sabbath which are bound up with family needs or with important social service, provided that they do not lead to habits prejudicial to the holiness of Sunday, to family life and to health. "* - CCC

shopping on sunday is not resting the body of servile labor, it is not keeping the day holy, and it is not refraining from affairs.

this might be vague for some people because it’s hard to find a church teaching that actually says straight up that “shopping on Sunday is a sin”, you’ll usually find things that refer to it as “business” or “affairs” or “marketing” or similar words, but the church has always taught that unnecessary “business” on Sundays is a sin, and my priests have always been clear on it, they have had the proper education and training in matters of sin so they would know, and i’ve asked about it on several occasions, and the answer is “It’s not keeping the day holy”, God said to keep holy the Sabbath, and shopping goes against that, because it’s work, business, and it’s not holy in any way, nor does it give glory to God, and while some may enjoy shopping, that’s no excuse, there’s alot of things that are enjoyable that are sinful, this is no exception,

it use to be very clear that shopping on Sunday was a sin and was not keeping the day holy, because nothing was open on Sunday, besides necessary things, it was considered profaning Gods day, but now that that has changed everyone’s not so sure,
but the answer is, take the church’s teachings on the matter, seek answers from your priest or a priest you know is well educated, find the truth, don’t just assume the truth or make up your own facts based on your own opinion and ideas, if you’re going to make a claim, give some reference to that claim, but i know the church has never said shopping on Sunday is ok…
and i know some say “well it’s ok cause i enjoy it and that makes it recreation”…well, there’s one big difference here, it’s still doing business, there are maaany other forms of recreation that do not require business on your end or someone elses.
Sunday is not just about relaxation, it’s about spiritual works, the recreation part of the day is just a small part of the day, and it is for renewing your body and spirit.
and i dunno about anyone else, but for me, after shopping for awhile i come home and i’m wiped out,

anyways, for more info, here’s a sermon on how to keep Sunday holy - audiosancto.org/sermon/20070729-Keeping-Sunday-Holy.html

ok, hope this helps, take care.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I’m not sure this kind of lesson is helpful to a school-age child. Yes, it is best to organize your life so that you don’t shop on Sundays, and it sounds like this family tries to do that. Since this is something of an ‘emergency’, they are not necessarily flaunting those directives. No one is suggesting they go shopping instead of to Mass.

 

[puzzleannie]

the church has always taught doing business on Sunday is a sin -

Can. 1247 On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.

*Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and affairs *which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body. - canon law

“affairs” by definition are business related things.

".

the passage you cite does not say it is a sin to shop on Sunday
unless you are a man shopping is not servile work
if you have already been to Mass running to the store is not going to detract from worship
Please don’t make up sins, we have enough already.

 

[EmeraldWings]

the passage you cite does not say it is a sin to shop on Sunday
unless you are a man shopping is not servile work
if you have already been to Mass running to the store is not going to detract from worship
Please don’t make up sins, we have enough already.

I assure you i would not make these things up, if i did not believe it as truth i would never say it,
the passage i gave doesn’t say the exact words “it’s a sin” but it gives command that we are to *abstain *from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, (and) the joy proper to the Lord’s day, (and) the suitable relaxation of mind and body.
in this case, you need to understand what “suitable relaxation” is, and what “keeping holy the Sabbath” is, which the church tells us -
*"453. How does one keep Sunday holy?

2177-2185
2192-2193

Christians keep Sunday and other days of obligation holy by participating in the Eucharist of the Lord and by refraining from those activities which impede the worship of God and disturb the joy proper to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body. Activities are allowed on the Sabbath which are bound up with family needs or with important social service, provided that they do not lead to habits prejudicial to the holiness of Sunday, to family life and to health.

1. Why is the civil recognition of Sunday as a feast day important?

2186-2188
2194-2195

It is important so that all might be given the real possibility of enjoying sufficient rest and leisure to take care of their religious, familial, cultural and social lives. It is important also to have an opportune time for meditation, for reflection, for silence, for study, and a time to dedicate to good works, particularly for the sick and for the elderly."*

there are also commentaries on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which do go into greater detail, unfortunately i don’t own one myself, though i’m looking into getting one, but the one my priest told me about he assures me makes it much clearer and does mention business affairs as sinful on Sunday,
the reason it’s a sin is for one, because it’s not suitable relaxation, and two, it’s occupying yourself with worldly and material affairs, which is the main thing we’re told to abstain from on Sunday, both servile labor and business are forbidden because they are worldly occupations, or in other words, seeking the things of this world rather than the things of God, and in order for you to shop means someone has to work, and even if stores wouldn’t close on Sunday just because Catholics do not shop on Sunday, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to do it anyways, we should refuse to support servile work on Sunday, we should set ourselves apart from the world, people should be able to see that on Sundays Catholics give themselves to the things of God and not the things of the world.

the third commandment obviously does not only oblige us to go to mass on Sunday, since we had the third commandment before we even had the mass, but instead the third commandment tells us to keep the whole day holy in both what we do and what we refrain from doing, and to find out how to really keep the day holy, just listen to that sermon i listed in my last post…

 

[caoindealbhan]

We aren’t orthodox Jews. We can drive cars on the Sabbath and use electricity. Not only can you shop on Sunday, but go ahead and mow the lawn and clean the whole darn house!

 

[Soldier_Of_God]

Here is a quote from canon law…

On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass. Moreover they are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body.

So, if what you do hinders worship of God by you or others, you shouldn’t be doing it. Also, you should be relaxing mind and body.

 

[PaulinVA]

I assure you i would not make these things up, if i did not believe it as truth i would never say it,
the passage i gave doesn’t say the exact words “it’s a sin” but it gives command that we are to *abstain *from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, (and) the joy proper to the Lord’s day, (and) the suitable relaxation of mind and body.
in this case, you need to understand what “suitable relaxation” is, and what “keeping holy the Sabbath” is, which the church tells us -
.

If we can just get these party supplies, we can all stop worrying about it and relax for the rest of the day giving God the proper glory. I can’t tell you how joyful I would be if I could relax on the Lord’s day and not have this hanging over me.

 

[Soldier_Of_God]

If we can just get these party supplies, we can all stop worrying about it and relax for the rest of the day giving God the proper glory. I can’t tell you how joyful I would be if I could relax on the Lord’s day and not have this hanging over me.

If you fulfill your Mass obligation, I would suggest that running out to get food or supplies isn’t an issue. It’s working/transacting like it’s any other day or engaging in onerous tasks that would make it an issue.

 

[EmeraldWings]

If we can just get these party supplies, we can all stop worrying about it and relax for the rest of the day giving God the proper glory. I can’t tell you how joyful I would be if I could relax on the Lord’s day and not have this hanging over me.

As Catholics, we should have more joy in knowing that we gave our day completely to God and followed His commandments…i understand the stress that can be involved in certain issues hanging over our heads, but we should also have enough trust in Jesus to take care of our needs, and not be dismayed when things don’t go the way we planned, it’s better to avoid shopping on Sunday for the sake of keeping Gods commandments than to risk offending him just so a little party goes well, and is such a little thing really worth risking our souls over?

I did look into this further though, and i did find the answer after just a little bit of digging(was not very difficult), from two sources, first, the book “My Catholic Faith” by Bishop Louis Morrow, which says - “Employers who force their employees to do unnecessary servile work on Sunday are responsible for the violation of the third commandment. The trial of lawsuits and public buying and selling are also forbidden.”

and then from the Catholic Dictionary - “Servile work - Originally the work done by serfs from which they were freed on Sundays and holy days in order to worship God. Until recently, servile work, forbidden on Sundays, was work that was chiefly physical. At present servile work is heavy manual labor, or such work as in a given society people commonly associate with strenuous effort and do not engage in when they have the freedom to avoid it. Implicit in the Church’s prohibition of servile work on Sundays is fidelity to the divine commandment to keep holy the Sabbath. This means avoiding activities that would hinder renewal of soul and body, i.e., needless work or business, unnecessary shopping or housekeeping.”

those are both from church approved books, one of which was written by a bishop, and although church approval does not mean infallible, it does however have great credibility, and the church approval marking still means there were no errors found,

so, i hope this helps, take care.