Keeping Holy The Lord's Day

Could you not watch one hour with me?

This scripture passage is usually used when a parish is trying to promote Eucharistic adoration. But not long ago, I was at a funeral luncheon and I heard a group of people speaking about where one could go for the "shortest Mass." One man in particular was enthused that he recently found a church where he could be out in less than 45 minutes on Sunday.This mentality brought to my mind this scripture passage. Is not Our Lord asking people today if they cannot spend one hour on a Sunday with him? It's sad to see people leaving immediately after communion. Recently, the website Spirit Daily had a very good article on Padre Pio's

lesson on one's comportment at mass. Here is the link for the article
http://www.spiritdaily.net/index923.htm

Here is what the Holy Father says about the Lord's Day. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit inspire in our hearts a true devotion and love for the mass.


THE LORD'S DAY
Pope Benedict XVI, Shepherd of Truth

Notable quotations from Pope Benedict XVI and official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church

"FERTILE FOUNDATION"
Sunday remains the fertile foundation and ... the fundamental nucleus of the liturgical year which originated in Christ's Resurrection, thanks to which the features of eternity were impressed on time. Thus, Sunday is ... a fragment of time imbued with eternity, for its dawn saw the Crucified and Risen Christ enter victorious into eternal life.

"JOYFUL EXPECTATION"
For the first Christians, participation in the Sunday celebrations was the natural expression of their belonging to Christ, of communion with His Mystical Body, in the joyful expectation of His glorious return.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT SUNDAY EUCHARIST
This belonging was expressed heroically in what happened to the martyrs of Abitene, who faced death exclaiming,...without gathering together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist, we cannot live.

EVEN MORE NECESSARY
How much more necessary it is today to reaffirm the sacredness of the Lord's Day and the need to take part in Sunday Mass!

"AN INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE"
The cultural context in which we live, often marked by religious indifference and secularism that blot out the horizon of the transcendent, must not let us forget that the People of God, born from "Christ's Passover, Sunday", should return to it as to an inexhaustible source, in order to understand better and better the features of their own identity and the reasons for their existence.

"SUNDAY IS THE DAY"
Sunday is the day on which the Risen Lord makes Himself present among His followers, invites them to His Banquet and shares Himself with them so that they too, united and configured to Him, may worship God properly.

SUNDAY AND SANCTIFICATION
...At every Sunday Eucharistic celebration, the sanctification of the Christian people takes place as it will take place until the Sunday that never sets, the day of the definitive encounter of God with His creatures.

AUTHENTIC GROWTH
May the "Day of the Lord" ... regain all its importance and be perceived and lived to the full in the celebration of the Eucharist, from which the Christian community grows authentically and on which it depends....

(Source: Letter to Cardinal Arinze of the Congregation of Divine Worship, dated 11/27/06)

Used with permission from Presentation Ministries

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, OCDS