Is it a Sin to cut grass on Sunday?

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dizzy_dave:
I also was under the assumption doing unecessary work on Sunday was a mortal sin, .
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That’s what I thought also. Except that the unnecessary work had to be more than one or two hours for it to be seriously wrong. But maybe this is one of those rules that has changed after Vatican II.
 
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dizzy_dave:
I usually cut my grass on Friday nights (almost always - weather permitting), it rained this Friday, it’s raining now (Saturday) and looks like it will rain throughout the day. I did not cut my grass last Friday because something came up so it is really high, I NEVER cut grass on Sunday but I may have to. I won’t be home in the evenings during the week, if I am I won’t have time to do that, it takes me about two hours, I also only own a push mower (not self propelled). So would it be a Sin to cut grass on Sunday - just this one time? Thanks and God bless.
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err… no
Just cut your grass dude…

Podo2005
 
True – The Lord’s Day is solely for HIM.

Sometimes when I’m forced, by weather, schedule, sickness or something else to do chore like cut the grass on Sundays, I take the Rosary with me and pray!

I also make sure the MASS is NEVER MISSED.

Hope this helps.
Blessings,
Joanie
 
I try not to BUT when the wife gets really irritated at the grass being too long, I may mow just the front.

IF friday and Saturday are rainy, it is not a good idea to mow on Sunday as the grass will be wet and tough to cut anyway.
 
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dizzy_dave:
I’m sorry everyone thought this was a joke, It is not, I thought one of the commandments was to keep HOLY the Sabbath, which is SUNDAY, I also was under the assumption doing unecessary work on Sunday was a mortal sin, it usually takes two hours for me to do this yard work, I’m sorry everyone thinks this is a joke, I asked because I don’t want to go to Hell, I’m trying to follow God’s commandments.
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Relax Dave my dear. If YOU feel YOU should not cut your grass…don’t. I can sense your frustration in that you think we are joking, and you’d be right, most of us are. It is an attempt, albeit not perhaps a good one, to try and inject a little humor in what appears to be a situation where some is necessary. If unnecessary work were a mortal sin, there’d be lots of us needing confession right now. Speaking of mortal sin, have you spoken to a priest about your dilema? You know, he’d be the one to ask. But really, I don’t think you’ll go to hell if you cut your grass on Sunday. Think of it as communing with God THRU nature. Oftentimes when I have things to do on Sunday, I pray while I do them. You should hear me when I am doing the laundry. Or maybe you shouldn’t.
Code: 
            In any case, I think you need to relax. God isn't up there with a marker and notebook checking off when you do the grass on Sunday.Honest...He isn't. He's got more important things to look out for.

                    ~ Kathy ~   :wave:
 
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Katie1723:
God isn’t up there with a marker and notebook checking off when you do the grass on Sunday.Honest…He isn’t.
~ Kathy ~ 👋
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No; that would be Santa Claus up there in the North Pole LOL! 🙂
 
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dizzy_dave:
I’m sorry everyone thought this was a joke, It is not, I thought one of the commandments was to keep HOLY the Sabbath, which is SUNDAY, I also was under the assumption doing unecessary work on Sunday was a mortal sin, it usually takes two hours for me to do this yard work, I’m sorry everyone thinks this is a joke, I asked because I don’t want to go to Hell, I’m trying to follow God’s commandments.
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Hi dizzy_dave,

Not everyone thinks it’s a joke…I certainly don’t.

When you do your best to live a holy life, you are sort of an anachronism, particularly to those who have accepted much greater sin as the norm, such as adultery, fornication, ABC, shacking-up, divorce, remarriage and so on. Those who have become ‘de-sensitized’ and accepting of those behaviors will joke about your ‘picky’ little infractions, because to them, you’re just being scrupulous, or they are at least, a little guilty about their own behavior, and want others to sink to their level. It’s a ‘safety in numbers’ thing, if everybody’s doing it, it must be OK. Just consider the source.

Just know you’re right, dizzy_dave. There has been no change. If cutting the grass is ‘unnecessary work’, then don’t do it. If you do it anyway, knowing and believing what you do, then celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That’s what it’s there for. If you’re like me (a sinner), you need regular confession, anyway. Don’t worry, there’s never a line. It’s like you’re the only sinner in town.http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon12.gif
 
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cargopilot:
Hi dizzy_dave,

Not everyone thinks it’s a joke…I certainly don’t.

When you do your best to live a holy life, you are sort of an anachronism, particularly to those who have accepted much greater sin as the norm, such as adultery, fornication, ABC, shacking-up, divorce, remarriage and so on. Those who have become ‘de-sensitized’ and accepting of those behaviors will joke about your ‘picky’ little infractions, because to them, you’re just being scrupulous, or they are at least, a little guilty about their own behavior, and want others to sink to their level. It’s a ‘safety in numbers’ thing, if everybody’s doing it, it must be OK. Just consider the source.

Just know you’re right, dizzy_dave. There has been no change. If cutting the grass is ‘unnecessary work’, then don’t do it. If you do it anyway, knowing and believing what you do, then celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That’s what it’s there for. If you’re like me (a sinner), you need regular confession, anyway. Don’t worry, there’s never a line. It’s like you’re the only sinner in town.
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Man/woman overboard! Just because we have made light of a somewhat tongue in cheek question doesn’t mean we’re heathens. Now how uncharitable is that?
 
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Chris7:
Man/woman overboard! Just because we have made light of a somewhat tongue in cheek question doesn’t mean we’re heathens. Now how uncharitable is that?
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Hi Chris7,

I never said anyone’s a ‘heathen’, and I’m not too sure the OP’s question is ‘tongue-in cheek’. I believe the OP is quite serious in his desire to follow God’s commandments. I simply wanted to show dizzy_dave some support, as the prevailing response has been one of ‘It doesn’t matter, just mow the lawn.’ Well, to some, it does matter.

I was pointing out that a level of sinfulness is determined by one’s prespective. If you are cool with adultery, fornication, ABC, co-habitating, etc., etc. then considering unnecessary work on Sunday a sin is going to be, well, laughable. A joke.

I do try my best to be charitable in my posts, so I would welcome your (name removed by moderator)ut on exactly what I said was uncharitible. Also, please explain how I could have said what I said in a more charitable way, without watering-down what I believe to be true?
 
Luke 6;6-11. “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?”

I don’t think mowing the lawn on Sunday is a sin, I do think that in honor of our Lord, who is Lord of the Sabbath, this time would make him happier if you spent it loving your family-being with them. If your schedule is so hectic that you cannot do routine chores on days other than Sunday, then maybe you are spreading yourself too thin-not good for a family man.

God rested on the seventh day, we should too.
 
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cargopilot:
. There has been no change. If cutting the grass is ‘unnecessary work’, then don’t do it. If you do it anyway, knowing and believing what you do, then celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That’s what it’s there for.
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This is what I was taught also. That unnecessary work on Sunday is a mortal sin if it lasts more than two hours. However, like I said, this may have been one of the things that the Church has changed since Vatican II. I have not been able to keep track of all the changes and they seem to be changing the rules all the time.
For another example, I thought that shopping on Sunday was a sin, also. however, at a recent Mass on Sunday, after the Mass we were going to have a picnic. The priest announced that he wanted to know how many people were going to the picnic and what we were all going to bring. He then said that if we needed some more things for the picnic, he was going to have someon stop at the local supermarket to pick up the items that we needed for the picnic. Now I thought that this was supposed to be a sin - to shop on Sundays. But then why was the priest announcing that this was what we were going to do for our picnic? I don’t know, except to guess that the RCC has changed it s rules on this point.
 
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dizzy_dave:
So would it be a Sin to cut grass on Sunday - just this one time?
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Catching this a little late, but since I went to mass Saturday night (watching the kids solo while DW assisted up in the choir loft), I got to spend practiclaly the whole day mowing, only sat out a few hours durign the peak of the heat, as DW otook off withthe kids to spend a few days with her Gma, who is down in the back right now.

Then again, I was having a blast, using the riding mower to knock back the brush on some trails I have running though my land (I’m on 10 acres of mostly trees) and even using the mower to forge a couple of new paths where I hadn’t had any before so I would have an easier tiem finding my deer stands in a couple of months. If I had to push mow, I’d limit it to a couple of hours tops on Sunday - that is real work.
 
I wouldn’t plan Sunday as grass-cutting day in general. Also, be considerate of neighbors who might wish to have a quiet Sunday.

However, I don’t consider it a sin on occasion.
 
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dizzy_dave:
I’m sorry everyone thought this was a joke, It is not, I thought one of the commandments was to keep HOLY the Sabbath, which is SUNDAY, I also was under the assumption doing unecessary work on Sunday was a mortal sin, it usually takes two hours for me to do this yard work, I’m sorry everyone thinks this is a joke, I asked because I don’t want to go to Hell, I’m trying to follow God’s commandments.
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A few of the responses to your question are pretty disturbing. Why anyone would choose to poke fun at or denigrate a person with a sincere question like this is beyond me. :mad: While I would agree that it is not sinful to cut your grass in the situation you described, it is very good that you take the Church’s advice to abstain from unnecessary work on Sundays to heart. I have to deal with this quite a bit as a farmer, deciding what is necessary and what isn’t. God Bless you!
 
Dizzy Dave

Growing up I had a neighbor, my best friend, who was not allowed to sweat on Sunday (we had no AC in those days in Michigan), so he could not play out side as a child in the summer. He could not listen to the radio or watch TV. Reading the Bible was fine, not much else… I always did my part to help circumvent his mothers rules as he would come over to my house I would open the patio door during football season so he could hear the game while talking to me. PS My father encouraged this. We were calvinist then.

I now do mow the lawn on Sundays. I pray and think about the homily. Nobody bothers you. There are no commercials. I love working with plants so I spray and deadhead my roses…they need care almost every day. I wash the cars once again I like it. If was something I hated I would not do it, once again who wants to talk to somebody washing a car??
 
I once heard a priest explain it this way: Are you doing work on Sunday because you were too lazy the rest of the week? Did you not plan well earlier in the week?

Clearly you need to mow the grass because it rained earlier in the week, not because you didn’t feel like it. Would your neighbors get annoyed if you left it until next Friday? With all that rain, it would probably look pretty bad by then.

It’s probably an act of charity towards your neighbors to go ahead and cut it on Sunday.
—KCT
 
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