3. OBSERVE THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY.
The celebration of Sunday preserves the moral precepts naturally inscribed in the human heart, which commands the external worship of God as a sign of a common boon that concerns all. The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and the Lord’s Eucharist is the center of the Church’s life.
Those who knowingly and voluntarily do not fulfill this duty are committing a mortal sin! Parents are to evangelize their children and involve them in the life of the Church from earliest childhood.
- Is the Sunday of the Lord a day of meeting God for me?
- Am I striving to devote more time to faith, religion, and prayer?
- Do I desecrate Sundays and commanded holidays with shopping, entertainment, work that I can do on another day of the week?
- Am I disturbing the feast day? (Noisy work, loud music). Don’t I arouse indignation to other people?
- I seriously sin if I without serious reason do not participate in St. Mass, or I will arrive late (Holy Mass on the eve of the commanded holiday, or Sunday, is valid).
- I also seriously sin if I sleep during Mass or standing outside the church and not watching the course of Mass.
- I will commit ordinary sins if I come late (to the Gospel), if during Mass distracted, I think about other things, while watching the Mass.
- St. Mass on TV or radio does not replace participation in the celebration of St. Mass in the church. It is intended for people who, for objective reasons, cannot personally participate in the celebration of St. Mass (egg, bedridden, ill). They should be properly involved in the course of the Mass (pray, kneel, if possible, answer the priest, spiritual communion). Do not talk, comment, eat or drink, etc.
- Don’t I force co-workers, employees, my own children, to work on a feast day? (Except when not necessary – egg performing a medical service, work requiring continuous operation).
- Do I remember visiting the sick, the elderly, the relatives, the lonely, people marked by some misfortune?
