Working on Sundays... if bored?

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OneSmallFlower

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For the record, I’m not looking for a solid answer here; I have a confessor and I’ll put the question to him next week. But as a matter of interesting moral theology, what do you guys think about the idea of working on Sundays… when you’re bored?

To explain, I’m a university student and my job is basically just editing papers, which as you can imagine isn’t exactly what I’d call stressful labor. I can do it wherever, from my dorm room to a coffee shop, and I can set my own hours, so long as the work gets done.

Where the interesting part comes in is that, by the time it gets to about 5:00 on Sunday afternoon, I’ll start to go stir-crazy from not doing anything productive all day. That’s when the idea of having a task to work at begins to look very appealing.

Thoughts?
 
Pray something mentally tasking.
That’s some “work” right there. Could be the most productive day of the week

If you must work, perhaps do it without expecting pay
 
LOL at working from boredom!
When there are way better things to do, like read, or crochet, or play with your pets, or enjoy a nature walk, or come onto CAF and argue politics with strangers over the Internet, or take a nap, or play an instrument, or write a story or…
 
Boredem is good for your brain.

It’s the exact kind of thing that helps us learn how to recharge and recenter ourselves in God.
 
Ah, here we go; now this is why I asked the question.

With all respect, that seems overly scrupulous to me (and, being of a scrupulous conscience, I can relate). It would seem odd to me that the commandment, which was created with respect to rest and right worship, would apply to a job and not to volunteering, when the work involved is identical.

To clarify, I don’t “have” to work; I’m bored and want to work.
 
That was the suggestion if it is absolutely necessary (it’s not).
If you find you have so much free time, it is better spent in prayer if you think you can’t relax otherwise.
For instance, perhaps a new devotion you do only on Sundays? Etc
 
Ah you see, but I’ve already done all that today… well with the exceptions of playing an instrument or crocheting (the nearest piano is a 15 minute walk away I’ve no idea how to crochet).
 
OneSmallFlower said:
Ah, here we go; now this is why I asked the question.

With all respect, that seems overly scrupulous to me (and, being of a scrupulous conscience, I can relate). It would seem odd to me that the commandment, which was created with respect to rest and right worship, would apply to a job and not to volunteering, when the work involved is identical.

To clarify, I don’t “have” to work; I’m bored and want to work.
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I don’t think that it is scrupulous to want to do something and be worried about it being a sin.

I do think that perhaps your avoidance of boredom is unhealthy for other reasons.
 
With response to the, “Pray more!” suggestions, while I think there’s merit in that, I have two objections:

1.) I’m pretty sure that, in addition to going to daily Mass and spending 15 minutes in the adoration chapel, my Advent devotions have me covered there,

and,

2.) That’s not really a response to the question. The question was not whether one ought to do OTHER things, but rather one MAY work on Sundays if the work is not strenuous and they actually enjoy it.
 
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Intellectual work, like schoolwork, is not the kind of servile labor that we are to avoid on Sunday.
 
Now see, that was what I was thinking as well.
I try to avoid doing any schoolwork on Sundays (because I really detest doing schoolwork) but editing papers is decently relaxing for me. shrugs
 
Goodness gracious, Huffington Post… I don’t think I’ve seen anyone cite them since high school debate team…

As silly an article as it is, I think it actually has a point (although not the point it thinks it has). Our modern world classifies boredom as “being without my smartphone.” I noticed this symptom myself back in the first year of college so I’ve (slowly) been training myself to be able to enjoy reading longer books and working on creative things.

The trouble is, like I said, by the time it hits 5:00 on Sunday, I’ll have already spent three hours writing my novel and another two reading, and sometimes more watching T.V., depending on how productive I was earlier in the day.

Ahh, but you see? There; I don’t like being unproductive. That might be a problem to be worked on. 🙂

Well, this has all been quite fascinating. Thank you, friends!
 
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OneSmallFlower said:
Goodness gracious, Huffington Post… I don’t think I’ve seen anyone cite them since high school debate team…

As silly an article as it is, I think the article actually as a point (although not the point it think it has). Our modern world classifies boredom as “being without my smartphone.” I noticed this symptom myself back in the first year of college so I’ve (slowly) been training myself to be able to enjoy reading longer books and working on creative things.

The trouble is, like I said, by the time it hits 5:00 on Sunday, I’ll have already spent three hours writing my novel and another two reading, and sometimes more watching T.V., depending on how productive I was earlier in the day.

Ahh, but you see? There; I don’t like being unproductive. That might be a problem to be worked on. 🙂

Well, this has all been quite fascinating. Thank you, friends!
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Again, It’s the best overview but a terrible article overall.

Being disconnected from technology is important, however, some of the overall things like mindfulness are about more than avoiding technology.

The other thing is that perhaps, if grading papers is relaxing, rather than work (assumingly for money) you could find one of the peer-to-peer tutoring sites and help a student who has no money.
 
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