Letting Sunday Be Sunday to Start the Week Off Right

Sunday isn't just another day of the week. We Catholics know this. Do we live according to our knowledge? How do we "keep holy the Lord's Day"?

OK. It's a challenge. 

First of all, most of the world ignores Sunday as a special day, whether that be a day of rest, the day we go to church, a day to get together with our relatives. Not that long ago, that's how most folks approached Sunday. While some folks still observe Sundays in one or more of these ways, most don't.

Quick example: shopping. Not long ago, you couldn't shop on Sunday. Stores were closed. Maybe not every store. Bakeries were open early. You could buy doughnuts after Sunday Mass. Eating establishments welcomed folks for Sunday breakfast and dinner. The local candy store (yes, that was a type of establishment at one time), would be open. But most big stores shut down on Sunday. People expected to be off from work to be with their families.

Now everything's open. And people spend a chunk of Sunday shopping - for anything and everything.

Then there are the sports programs for children. Parents are expected to truck their kids to soccer, hockey, etc. Many don't get to church at all on such Sundays. How can they? They've got to be with the kids, who have to be with the team. If you don't go along with this arrangement, your children don't get to play organized sports. Not that every sport in every town follows this routine, but many - too many - do.

Then there's professional sports, with the National Football League the best example. Most of their games, from September through February, take place on Sunday. Don't worry football fans. I'm not saying we shouldn't watch football. You can get to Mass on Sunday. You can have breakfast with the family. You can even find some time early to engage in those spiritual activities you couldn't get to during the week. 

But how many folks make time for God before they give themselves over to the NFL?

We could go on, but you get the point.

So maybe a good idea would to post items that will help us to keep Sunday, well, Sunday. Maybe it won't be as it once was. But shouldn't Sunday be something different, something in some way held apart from all the other days of the week? If we keep Sunday in some special way, won't that then, in some special way, help us to progress in our spiritual life, to grow closer to God. After all, we keep the Lord's Day holy; He helps us to be holy. Make sense?

With all that in mind, here's a little something from from The Inner Life of the Soul. When I read this, I got some sense of what it must be like to be holy:

They tell of saints who have known by their spiritual senses the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, though no light revealed the fact ; of saints who have fed upon Him in Communion, and needed no other food ; of saints who saw Him, heard Him, and needed no earthly joys. Can not He take the place of earthly joys for us ? It will need sacrifice, purification, prayer ; for God fills an empty memory and an empty heart. But is it not well worth our while to empty them, if God — no less than God — will fill them?

His gifts will detach us from all earthly pleasures, if we will but allow Him to detach us; and then, "God, loving Himself in man, makes man's love and spirit one thing with Himself." 

Letting Sunday be Sunday may not make us saints in a day. But over time, Sunday after Sunday, we'll be taking little shots of holiness that may help on the road to sainthood - and eternal life in Heaven.

Happy Sunday!