Make Sunday The Lord's Day

Last Sunday we spent some time focusing on why Sunday should be different. It can't just be another day of the week. We Catholics know this. But sometimes what we do on Sunday isn't consistent with that knowledge. We're not always keeping holy the Lord's Day.

After posting this last week, it seemed that more was needed. So we'll be posting more on helping us keep making Sunday the Lord's Day starting...right now.

One simple way to keep Sunday the Lord's Day could be spending some time reading good spiritual works. Maybe you've already got the habit of doing this every day. If not, Sunday provides the time to get the habit going. 

If it's truly good spiritual writing/advice, you'll inevitably find the Cross plays the central role in our spiritual life. There's no way around the Cross. Good spiritual advice reminds us of this and helps us to accept, even embrace the Cross.

Today we've got something to give you a jump start with all this. It's from Blessed Henry Suso, a Dominican priest. He lived from 1295 to 1366. Despite the gap of, oh, 7 centuries or so, his words of wisdom remains quite fresh. His theme here is how the Cross is God's gift to His friends. He places His words in God's mouth:

“Divine Wisdom: Listen to the reason why I try my servants in so many ways; and what I am about to tell you, impress deeply on your heart. I dwell in a soul as in a paradise of delights, and so I cannot permit her to find any joy apart from me. And, since I wish to possess her in chastity and purity, I encompass her with thorns and enclose her in adversity, so that she cannot escape from my hands. I sow her path with sorrow and anguish, so that she cannot rest in base and created things, and so that she may place all her happiness in the depths of my divinity. The reward that I give such souls for the least suffering that they bear is so great that were the hearts of all worldlings united into one they would be overwhelmed by it. The way of the Cross is not new, it has always been. I have willed that rare and sublime things should be difficult of attainment, and that virtue should demand weariness and sweat. If this way is displeasing to the soul, if she wishes to abandon it, to estrange herself from Me, let her go! I have created her free and I will not force her. Only too true is the word of the Gospels: ‘Many are called but few are chosen.’ … The Cross possesses such power and strength that, whether they will or no, it attracts, draws, and ravishes those who carry it. How many there are who would have been damned if I had not crucified them. It is a greater thing to preserve patience in adversity than to raise the dead to life. Patience is a living sacrifice, breathing a delicious perfume in the presence of My Divine Majesty. It is a sacrifice so necessary to the glory of the soul, that I would draw crosses and trials from nothingness rather than deprive my dearest friends of them. It is true that the way of the Cross appears narrow and wearisome, but it leads those who follow it to the gates of heaven, to the glory of the saints, to the triumph of the martyrs; and then the sufferers in the joy of their victory will sing to the Lord a new canticle in which the angels themselves cannot join, for they have never carried the Cross.”

While there are many other ways to keep Sunday holy, spiritual reading will direct our thoughts to God - which is where they should be in some special way every Sunday, if not every day. In those precious minutes when we feed our minds and hearts to be with the thoughts and words of great spiritual directors and saints, we'll steadily find our way to Heaven - the sole objective of our lives on this earth. 

Good spiritual writing sticks to the ribs. It nourishes us, boosting the health of our soul, building a firm foundation for our Interior Life. 

God made Sunday holy. It's not called the Lord's Day for nothing. But the world, the flesh, and the devil will do all they can to distract and distance us from properly observing the Lord's day. We don't want to allow this. We need to make Sunday the Lord's Day.

Happy Sunday!