Working on Sunday

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itsjustdave1988:
kamz,

I’m in the military and at times have to work on Sunday as well. However, I’m glad my parish offers a Saturday evening Mass which fulfills my Sunday obligation.
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That is so great, I’m glad you have that option.
I’m Catholic and hubby is Lutheran so he doesn’t have that option but his church does have Wednesday evening services in the summer.
 
We too have daily Mass in C. Springs. However, daily Mass does not fulfill the canonical obligation of attending Mass on Sunday, whereas liturgically speaking, Sunday begins at Vespers on Saturday.
 
What defines working on Sunday being neccessary? I am a nurse and am fortuante right now to have every weekend off. This has not been the case for most of my 20 years as a nurse. So I know that I have to work on some Sundays to be a nurse. I used to work 12 hour shifts that ran from 6:30 am to 7pm or later Saturday and Sunday. That meant on the weekends that I had to work I also couldn’t go to the Saturday evening Mass. There are several fields that require you to work on Sundays. Military, Police, Fire and Medicine. And this includes all of those people neccessary to keeping those places running such as the housekeeping, laundry and kitchen staff. As a nurse I would be lost with out the least skilled and paid of my co-workers. It takes all of us working together to take care of the people that need us. Had to stick my plug in becuase the other people who keep a nursing home or hospital running don’t get enough credit from the rest of us sometimes. But there are other people who working on Sunday isn’t a sin either. What about the tow truck driver that helps when you are broke down. Or the store clerk, factory worker, maid, bus driver, I can go on and on, that don’t have a choice about whether they work or not. They have families to take care of and sometimes can’t afford to pick and choose a job based on whether they have to work on Sunday or not. So even in fields that most people would consider not neccessary to be there on Sundays, I don’t feel it is a sin to work.They truely are unable to work even if it keeps them from Mass on Sunday. God should have center place on Sunday even if you have to work. When I did work on Sunday, I still had my focus on God. Many people don’t work on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean they spend the day honoring God either. And yes if you really do have a choice not to work on Sunday you shouldn’t. I cook and clean up from supper on Sunday, but unless it is unavoidable I don’t do any other housework. i spend the day in prayer, church or with my family.It maybe that only a couple of hours of the day are spent between Church and prayers, but God is there the whole time, so in a sense I spend the whole day praying.
Debbie
 
I work in the Church office on Sunday…hmmm…aren’t I in a dilly of a pickle.:whacky:
 
If its a sin then all the NFL players are in big big trouble with God.:bigyikes:
 
The fact that there are so many opinions and so much discussion of this question, it is pretty clear to me that this issue isn’t settled. If our blessed Church wanted to make “working” on Sunday a mortal sin (and also to define “work” carefully), it would teach explicitly it’s a mortal sin and we would not be having this discussion. That being said, the Church *does * appear to teach (in the CCC and Code of Canon Law) that we should try to avoid work and instead dedicate the day to our Lord (and also rest our minds and bodies), which to me seems very common sensical. Compare this issue with, say, contraception. The teaching on the latter is crystal clear. If it were a grave sin to “work” on Sunday, we would know with certainty.
 
What is work? What is the intent of the prohibition of work on the Sabbath? Family A does not work on Sunday, whoever is up by 10 goes to Mass, but nobody forces recalcitrant or sleepy teenagers to comply. A fast food run after Mass, with stops at Walmart and the grocery store get them set for a restful sabbath at home. Dad is watching football on the couch, sister is at the Mall with her friends, brother is in his room playing computer games, mom is making a creative memories scrapbook on the kitchen table. Supper will be pizza or leftovers, everybody snacking when they feel like it. The whole day passes and family members never say more than 10 words to each other. Monday morning mom and dad rush off to work in their offices, and kids to school, sports, clubs and after school activities to fill up another week until the next sabbath.

Family B also works hard all week, mom taking care of house, food, shopping, cleaning, new baby, chauffering, brownie meetings etc.etc. Dad works in a factory, or the post office, or some job that keeps him on his feet all day. Kids are at school etc. On Sunday they get up early to get ready for Mass. Over cereal and toast, they listen to Dad read the gospel. They get there a little early to find seats where the little kids can see. They discuss the readings and sermon in the car. They don’t stop to eat or shop, because they don’t want to force other people to work on Sunday. At home everybody helps with dinner, Dad barbeques, girls set the table, boys pick up the family room and bathrooms, mom feeds the baby. After dinner baby naps in the playpen while everybody else spends an hour outside together weeding, cutting grass, raking leaves. Working together the yard is clean and cars washed in less than an hour. TV is forbidden on Sunday so either they go for a drive, nature walk in a park, riding bikes, or just play ball out back. In bad weather, they play board games, with special rules for the little kids. Supper is sandwiches, everybody helps get clothes, books etc ready for Monday. Rosary together, Dad reads aloud from a story book or poetry, then to bed.

Who worked? who kept the sabbath?
 
I am not sure how to answer this question. I am a retail employee. The busiest day of the wk is Saturday followed by Sunday. People who work in my company must have availabilty to work any day of the wk. Sometimes I am able to attend Mass on Sat, sometimes Sundays. Sometimes I have to go on Sunday nights.
It is easy for some people to say quit your job and find a M-F 9-5 job. If it was that easy I would have done it years ago. most of those jobs are “desk jobs” and frankly I would go out of my mind in a desk job. I like working with people.I like helping people, problem solving and the social interaction I experience in retail (well, MOST of the time!). I like everything about my job except working Sundays and holidays. The only days my company are closed are Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. We are open all other holidays including Easter Sunday. I put in my request to have it off and hope for the best. I wish stores were not open on Sundays… 😦 :mad:
 
I have a M-F job, but my husband is a prison guard, and prisoners don’t get Sundays off! He gets Sundays twice every six weeks.

Because of our differing schedules, I attend Mass twice on Sundays – the first time to sing with the choir, and the second to attend with my husband and son as a family.

'thann
 
I did post on this before also.

A priest once reminded me when Christ said God made the sabbath for man not man for the sabbath.
We are required to rest on the sabbath. But for years my husband had no choice but to work.
If Hospitals, Police Departments etc. were all closed on Sunday’s then we would have a disaster on our hands every Sunday.:bigyikes:
 
When I was young and being homeschooled my mother was reluctant to give us extra days off since on school days we often didn’t do school. One holiday, Vetrens’s day I think she told us to write why we deserved the day off.

“I deserve the day off becasue a buch of guys faught and died so I could live in a free country and enjoy my freedom with a day off”

As I look at this ten years later I realize that its profound and applies well to the Sabbath idea

I DESERVE the day off because JESUS died so I could live free of SIN and enjoy my freedom from sin by spending the day with HIM.

Of course I beleive in the medical worker/defense workers are not sinning by working
 
I don’t think working on Sunday is a sin. I am a college student and have to work at least seven hours every Sunday as part of a contract for room and board with the (Catholic) dorm I am living in. I think a lot of it depends on attitude. I try to spend those seven hours praying to God and offering up my work as a sacrifice to Him. I try to serve others the way God wants me to serve, and I think when I use my work as an opportunity to grow in holiness and offer it to God, it actually makes my Sundays more spiritually productive than if I were to rest.
 
my father -in-law used to say the third commandment is the only commandment that God said REMEMBER. In La Salette our lady said the faith was lost because of Sunday work. She said the potatoes would rot in the barns and the wheat and the grapes would all be gone before christmas, because of working on sunday and using the Lord’s name in vain. I felt so sorry to read that girls reply that said she works in a shop on sunday and she wished stores didn’t open on sunday. It is not a day of rest and recuperation or even recollection to be a shopworker. If people refused to shop on sundays and if they refused to work on sundays in shops there wouldn’t be the necessity it wouldn’t pay to keep them open.Obviously service workers such as prison guards drs. and nurses. must serve. some service stations would need to be open but would every one need to open could not some close and do a rota.the sunday newspapers could still be sold in the self serve facilitys. we all excuse ourselves so easily what we do is not excessive.
 
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sullivansoul:
I work in the Church office on Sunday…hmmm…aren’t I in a dilly of a pickle.:whacky:
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As do i, sullivansoul. funny, we share so much in common…do i know you???
 
Observing the Lord’s day is a ritual that must be observed inside and outside of church. Ever since the attacks on Sunday started in the U.K. (about 15 years ago) I have resolved to make more of an issue of it. I never shop on a Sunday, ever. If I run out of something, I do without. It that too much to ask? I never work Sundays, even though I have been asked to, and the financial rewards are tempting. I don’t starve through lack of funds. For those who work, is it possible to ask your employer for an hour off to attend Holy Mass? Have you asked? Why not? The problem is that unless we consciously make the Lord’s day special, it will just blend with all the other day’s of the week into a frantic, consumerist blur. There is a pious legend here in the U.K. that Britian was preserved from Nazi invasion because of it’s observance of the Lord’s day. WORKING ON SUNDAY OFFENDS GOD.
 
I work every other Sunday, but I never volunteer to work extra on Sunday. About a dozen times a year I am unable to find any Mass that I can attend because of my work schedule. The church allows for an exemption from Sunday Mass obligation in this situation.
 
i think it is only a sin when you put work before God.

Like for example, some related to me says this,

Momm2four: are you gonna ride with me to mass today.

Person: No, not today I need to do other things. I’m behind in my chores

that when it is a sin. working on sundays is some inevitable. I had to manage a ice shop and I had to work on sundays. it was my respondsibility, but I made sure that I didn’t put work before God.
 
Jesus told us that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

I think as soon as you become a slave to rules on what you can/cannot do on the sabbath you give up your freedom. I’m convinced that God instituted the sabbath to allow people to have a day of rest, not to force them to refrain from specific activities on a particular day. Therefore I voted for option #3.

Alan
 
I do work a lot every Sunday, as I said before, but I always make sure to get to Mass. I offer my work up to God as a sacrifice and then go to celebrate the much more perfect Sacrifice of the Mass. I don’t believe my work offends God if I do it in a loving way, make Him the center of it, and ensure that I make time for Mass.
 
Grace and Glory:
I do work a lot every Sunday, as I said before, but I always make sure to get to Mass.
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Oh, yeah. I pick the hymns and play the organ, so for me going to Mass on Saturday and Sunday is part-time work anyway.

Alan
 
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