Making Sunday Special
In Chapter 21, you learned about the Lord's Day. Here are some more thoughts about this day—the Sabbath for Jews and Sunday for Christians.
"We don't make the Sabbath. The Sabbath makes us." That's what Jewish families have said about this "day of delight" for many centuries now. In fact, of all the great festivals kept by the Jews, the Sabbath was the first.
Sabbath, which means "rest," was even kept by God himself on the seventh day of creation in the Genesis story. So the Sabbath has been a time to celebrate with family, to study the scriptures, and to refocus on God's plan for each person's life.
To protect the holiness and peace of this seventh day, Jewish families have "put a fence around it" by putting aside everyday activities. In many Jewish
This first meal of the Sabbath is celebrated at a beautiful table set with the family's best china on a white tablecloth. The table is spread with special favorite foods. One of them is challah (pronounced
Of course, Christians keep Sunday as the day of rest because it was the day of Jesus' resurrection. We think of Sunday as the eighth day of the week—a time when death is turned upside down and all is brand new, even ourselves! Recently, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to all Catholic Christians called "On Observing and Celebrating the Day of the Lord." In