The Power of Sunday The Reordering and Healing Qualities of the Lords Day Spring Formation Day for Parish Leaders May 9 2019 I Problem Acedia Acedia sloth is a sin against the Sabbath against the souls resting in God ID: 767919
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The Power of Sunday The Reordering and Healing Qualities of the Lord’s Day Spring Formation Day for Parish Leaders May 9, 2019
I. Problem: Acedia Acedia (sloth) is a sin against the Sabbath, against “the ‘soul’s resting in God.” St. Thomas Aquinas
Sabbath Breaker
Weekend Getaway “Your body checks in and your mind checks out.”
Dies Domini (Lord’s Day) “[W]hen Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes merely part of a ‘weekend’, it can happen that people stay locked within a horizon so limited that they can no longer see ‘the heavens’. Hence, though ready to celebrate, they are really incapable of doing so.” St. John Paul II, Dies Domini
Other Entertainment/Amusement Play/Sports/Nature Music/Art/Theater Education Family/Friends Contemplation Worship Sunday
The Thesis If we don’t get Sunday right we won’t get Monday right. If we don’t get Rest right we won’t get Work right. If we don’t get Receiving right we will not get Giving right. If we don’t get Contemplative life right, we will never get the Active life right; If we don’t get Culture Right, we will not get our Economy and Politics right. If we don’t get the Worship right we won’t get Life right.
II. Habits of The Lord’s Day “ Sharing in the Eucharist is the heart of Sunday, but the duty to keep Sunday holy cannot be reduced to this. In fact, the Lord’s Day is lived well if it is marked from beginning to end by grateful and active remembrance of God’s saving power.”St. John Paul II, Dies DominiThree Habits of Remembrance/Receptivity Personal: Habit of Rest (Silence/Stillness) Communal: Habit of Celebration (Worship) Social: Habit of Charity (Peripheries)
Habit of RestSilence/Stillness Silence : “Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity , unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture--and ourselves” (Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture). Stillness: “We must earnestly desire stillness and be willing to give something for it; then it will be ours. Once we have experienced it, we will be astounded that we were able to live without it” (Romano Guardini, Meditations Before Mass)
Habit of CelebrationSacramental Imagination “For Christians, Sunday is ‘the fundamental feastday ’, established not only to mark the succession of time but to reveal time’s deeper meaning.” St. John Paul II
Habit of Fraternal CharityThe Peripheries ”From the Sunday Mass there flows a tide of charity destined to spread into the whole life of the faithful, beginning by inspiring the very way in which they live the rest of Sunday. . . . [The faithful] look around to find people who may need their help. It may be that in their neighbourhood or among those they know there are sick people, elderly people, children or immigrants who precisely on Sundays feel more keenly their isolation, needs and suffering. . . [These] few hours in voluntary work and acts of solidarity . . . would certainly be ways of bringing into people’s lives the love of Christ received at the Eucharistic table.” St. John Paul II, Dies Domini
III. Lord’s Day Practices A Way of Life Preparation Tech Fast Sabbath Prayer Sabbath WalkMassFeast/BrunchGamesCharity: Volunteer/Visits/etc.
Fruits of the Lord’s DaySaves MarriagesStrengthens Parent/Child Relationships Strengthens your Faith and Your True Identity Blesses One’s Week with Graces
Parish Implications Sacramental Preparation Marriage Baptism Others RCIA PreachingProgrammingProtection
Small GroupHow do we reclaim the Lord’s Day for our parish and families? What creative ways can we and do we live out the commandment “keep holy the Sabbath”?
Conclusion “Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! . . . The rediscovery of this day [Sunday] is a grace which we must implore, not only so that we may live the demands of faith to the full, but also so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings. Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained , so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human” ( Dies Domini).
Key ReadingsPope John Paul II, Dies Domini, esp. Chapt 1 Romano Guardini, Meditations Before MassJosef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of CultureAbraham Heschel, The SabbathRatzinger, In the Beginning…: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Vocation of the Business Leader Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as ResistanceMark Buchanan, The Rest of GodChick-fil-A: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jared+chick-fil-a+video+&view=detail&mid=20F99F38949D1ECF93A020F99F38949D1ECF93A0&FORM=VIRE