Catholic Activity: Working on Sundays

What if Sunday is the only day the family can be together to devote themselves to various tasks?

DIRECTIONS

One of the effects of the war effort was to accustom people who worked odd shifts in factories to doing a full day's work on Sunday, either in the shop or catching up on the laundry and housecleaning at home. This has carried over into postwar years, so that now we find people saving work for Sundays. Nevertheless, if it is not absolutely necessary to work on Sunday, then it is a violation of the Third Commandment to do so. But what about the family (ours, for instance) for whom Sunday is the only day the father has free? If we are to have a garden, the largest part of the gardening must be done on Sundays. We know families who can work only on Sundays on the houses they are building. This kind of work, dedicated to a richer family life, with a direct relation to our service of God, seems to me an important means of sanctifying Sunday, if it is necessary to do it on Sunday. But we must not let our children become confused. If we must garden or build on Sunday, we can make a special act of dedication, asking God to bless our work, understanding that if it could be done otherwise, it would be.

Activity Source: We and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland, Image Books, 1961