The need to keep the Sabbath holy

[AlanFromWichita]

We still have ten commandments. “Remember to keep holy the rest day” is a simple way to say it today.

I see this as saying that all you need is one day a week, for example, where you are not in bondage to others to work, perform, etc. Come back to Me and I will give you rest. This allows us to have union with God, not just always running around busily.

So obviously if you do contemplative prayer, then every time you enter into such a prayer it becomes a “mini-sabbath.” Over a period of time it goes with you, so as you become more mystically-minded" the rest and the work become united. Then it seems like nothing is really labor; nothing has any meaning but everything does, at the same time. I can imagine the struggle Jesus could have gone through, regarding healing on the sabbath. As a Jew, was He not bound to obey? Once you’re to the point He is, then work and rest as so intimately intertwined, that “regular” people couldn’t “tease out” the reasons why Jesus could do what He did. Because to Him, every day is just as important and He probably has to look on the calendar or be reminded that it’s even the sabbath! It’s like going on a date and looking at your watch every hour – you just don’t think of cutting up your time like that. And I finally realize it wasn’t because He was a disobedient character. Gosh after 40 days in the desert, one day is like the next. It probably didn’t even occur to Him that it WAS a sabbath when his friends were picking grain. That’s why He had to defend Himself against the question, so we would have that recorded in the living Word.

Alan

 

[johnnyjones]

“Ritualistic” was poor word usage on my part. I was trying to convey how the Sabbath became bogged down with acts that were outside the original intent and the association the word Sabbath can have with and it’s non application today. I also should have clarified when I added “(and are)” that this is not all of Judaism.

You are most certainly right about the importance of rituals in the Catholic Church (and Judaism).

 

[Michael_Mayo]

I think just for fun, we could spend this next Sunday abstaining from finding fault in the logic or statements of others. Total surrender being the only way to go. Turn the logical other cheek. CAF is good practice grounds: they can’t physically slap you over the Internet, and there is always someone we can disagree with, to test and purify our own answers. Maybe now would be a fun time to practice?

Hint: the code phrase, “you may be right,” can be substituted in for any other possible response, whether positive or negative.

Note what you didn’t say: if you MAY be right, then maybe you’re wrong. Bwahaha.

Alan

You are *most likely *right.

 

[Acolyte]

Wow, folks. As I’ve noted in another related forum…

		 			I think it would be beneficial first to consult your local parish  priest.  As others have already suggested, another option would be to consider the encyclical letter  written by Pope John Paul II, [*Dies Domini* (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini_en.html).  Finally, I would encourage you to listen to a couple of homilies given by Catholic priests on the matter:

• The 2nd and 3rd Commandments; Our Lady of La Sallette
• Keeping Sunday Holy

Keep in mind as well that what may be seen as keeping the Lord’s day holy to a suburbanite may mean something completely different to an agrarian or so I have learned ever since moving from the city to the country this past year. This becomes an even more important topic to the agrarian as I have also learned where manual labor is certainly more common.

I once asked a local friend who had lived his entire life as an agrarian how his family kept the Lord’s day. Apart from going to Mass, it seemed simply just another day of work on the farm for him. He asked, “How else would you spend the day?” I was rather disappointed in this response. I pray that I can lead my family in keeping the Lord’s day much better than this poor example.