“Celebrate” Sub-Pages:

Quotes – Praying It – Basking In It – Digging Deeper – Making It Real

Family Traditions

Keep Holy the Lord’s Day

237. On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims “man’s eternal rest in God”.[168] In this way, Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity. Rather, it is another way of working, which forms part of our very essence. It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation which make us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else. The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, “so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Ex 23:12). Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor. – Pope Francis, Laudato Si

Rest

Joy in Family Life

Eat (Around the Table When Possible!)

My 11-year-old-son recently pointed out that we have three meals each year where the food is the thing, that is where the food itself seems to dictate the celebration: St. Patrick’s Day, Holy Thursday and Thanksgiving.

In any case, food is an important part of most celebrations.

I rather like the Penzey’s Spice slogan: “Heal the world. Cook dinner tonight.”

Play!

*The quote from Pope Francis at the top of the page is from his General Audience of August 12, 2015