Working on Sundays

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Jaypeeto4

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Dear friends, I am agonizing over something.
My company (and I was unemployed for 2-1/2 years and cannot risk this again, as I have no savings, no assets, high bills, elderly parents, etc, and God literally got me this job.
My company requires me to work on many Sundays. When we go online to choose our availability, we have no options (they are blanked out) to refuse working on Sunday, or any hours on Sunday (such as morning hours) OR Saturday, such as late afternoon hours.
Thus, I have been several times unable to attend Saturday evening mass (which satisfies for Sunday morning) OR Sunday morning Mass, and had to attend during the week instead (which I also enjoy, but Sunday mass is the sabbath for us).
I have talked to my priest, and he said if your company makes you work there is nothing you can do about that and that God understands and are not sinning.

But I wonder about this. I work in retail, not in a hospital or a shelter for the homeless.
So I wonder if the church can really, lawfully give us a dispensation to work on Sunday.
The reason I doubt is this new controversy about the church being forced to violate divine law by providing abortifacient contraceptives as part of it’s employee health plans.
The church – rightly-- flat our refuses to obey this law. It would be disobedience to God.
Well, shouldn’t we refuse to work on Sundays, then?
Can the church REALLY give a dispensation from not working on Sunday?
I just want to make sure that this okay that I have from my priest (since I have no choice in the matter) is valid? He is orthodox, not liberal.
I brought up to him about Holy Mary raising cain in her apparitions last century about people working on Sundays, and he said she was RIGHT but that that was because back then the economy was agrarian, nobody really NEEDED to work the farms on Sunday, nor were most forced to, and that people were deliberately and callously desecrating the Christian sabbath.
Well, I think retailers are too (and sports teams and many others).
Am I being overly scrupulous in this matter???
I don’t want to work Sundays, and especially don’t want to miss Sunday Mass.
I can’t afford to quit my job (( if I do, all hell will break loose, which WILL BE a test beyond what I can bear, which God’s word says that God DOESN"T subject us to, as I am U]literally flat broke with no resources and no source of resources possible and WILL NOT be able to pay my bills, buy food, support family. I know. For 2-1/2 years I was in a living hell and was on the verge of suicide and believed it was a sign of reprobation, etc, and I could never endure this situation again, as I am permanently scarred , traumatized and psychologically RUINED by the experience. I literally would not survive unemployment again, not even for a brief time )).
Any advice / comments would be most welcome.
God love you,
Jaypeeto4
 
Can you get to a Saturday vigil Mass?

Talk to your pastor about this. I have run into this problem as well.

God does not want you to toss over your job because of this. This has happened to other faithful Catholics before.

I’m still praying for you.
 
OP, one thing you might want to check out is your diocese’s website for Mass times in other parishes. My husband is only available on weekends and we are in the middle of a huge bathroom reconstruction after an unnoticed water leak literally dissolved the subfloor. I found that out when I put a foot right through the vinyl floor covering and sank in up to my knee! When we stripped away the flooring we found black mold on the floor and the lower parts of the walls–ugh!

This means that almost all of Saturday and Sunday we’re doing home construction. I asked my parish priest about how I could meet my Sunday obligation, and he told me to check out that website for a very early Mass. So I’m now attending 6:45 AM Mass at a local monastery on Sundays. By the time I get back home around 8:15 the sound of the circular saw can be heard.

My pastor told me that if I couldn’t find a Mass I could get to reasonably, it would be okay for me to attend Mass on a specific weekday. He called it an “indult,” or something like that, for the duration of the construction project. You might be able to get a more or less open ended one for those Sundays you have to work if it’s impossible for you to get to Mass.
 
Thanks, folks, for your helpful thoughts above.

I, too, have an “indult” like that from my priest (to attend weekday masses on those times when I can’t get to EITHER a Saturday pm mass OR a Sunday morning mass due to requirement to work.
I just DON’T like working on Sundays (the money is good, it’s not for THAT reason!!!)
because it’s our sabbath and Mary told people last century that Christ was offended by
it.

We need to go back to Blue Laws wherein no retailer could open before noon or 1pm, so that the Christian Majority (yes, and no matter who likes it or not) could attend Church services, and NO liquors other than wine, could be sold on Sundays.
Thanks to the secularists, these good rules were abolished when I was in my early teens.
Also, Observant JEWS should NEVER, EVER be required to work from Sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday, as this is THEIR Holy Shabbat, and forcing them to work on their Shabbat is, for them, a horrible violation of their consciences.
Corporate America, imo, has gone WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too far, and that, with the willful connivance of the lawmakers. This is an abomination. You can be terminated for upholding your religion’s normative holy requirements. If they had tried this last century (19th), there would have been justified RIOTING IN THE STREETS from one coast of this nation to the other, until companies were FORCED to knock it off.
We really are living in the Great Apostasy, for this and many other all-too-obvious reasons.
Our popular devotion of the sweet, merciful JESUS OF THE DIVINE MERCY?
THAT was given to Faustina to give to the world as a final, note: FINAL, opportunity to turn to him for mercy BEFORE he, sweet Jesus, rains down RAW, MERCILESS justice on the society of humankind, and HE said so , himself, to Saint Faustina.
 
you just have to do what you can, there is Saturday evening mass, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening, perhaps try to find out all the mass times in your area for Saturday evening and throughout the day on Sunday,

it would be nice and certainly proper if we were not forced to work on Sunday, but since that’s currently not the case, you just have to do your best to get to mass if you can, and trust what the church tells you in this case, remember that God speaks to us through His church, and by obeying the church you cannot be held accountable, so don’t let that worry you.

also remember that you did not get that job by chance, God gave it to you, but you can very well pray for another job which doesn’t require you to work on Sunday, but either way you must accept it as Gods will, not that you should stop praying for it, but whatever does happen, be at peace because you don’t know what God has planned for you and for what purpose God has placed you where you are…you may not see it now, but later down your life you may see why God directed your life this way and be very thankful for it.

hope this helps, take care.
 
Lots of people - doctors, policemen, even bus and train drivers and guys working in the sewers - find themselves forced sometimes to work in Sundays.

You need this job (I’ve read your previous posts, so I know how much you need it). So don’t give ip just yet.

It might be worthwhile getting together with any co-workers who are also religious and might also want a little time off on Sundays, or Fridays (for Muslims) and Saturdays (for Jews) for that matter, and see if you can’t do a little collective bargaining with management in order to get time off for your respective religious worship. Especially if there’s no particular reason for you to be working on Sundays.

I don’t suppose you’re a member of a union or anything? They can be helpful in such matters.
 
Yep, it would be great if everyone could be off work on Sundays. But remember what Jesus Himself said–if you had a farm animal that fell into a ditch, you’d haul it out, Sunday or not, for example. He did specifically say, “Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.”

I’ve often wondered how parish priests handle the idea of “Sabbath.” After all, Sunday is their busiest work day!
 
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