Sunday is the day of the Lord's Resurrection, the first day of the week and the weekly Easter of the Church. The third commandment, 'Remember to keep holy the sabbath day,' is fulfilled for Christians on Sunday, and canon 1247 gives it two parts: to take part in Mass, and to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship of God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, or the due relaxation of mind and body. Pope St. John Paul II's letter Dies Domini describes Sunday as the day of the Lord, of Christ, of the Church, of man and of days. This guide turns that into a week-by-week practice.

What you need

• A fixed Sunday Mass time your household actually keeps
• A plan made on Saturday for whatever work can be finished or set aside
• A meal, a table and the people who belong at it
• Some way of ending the day in prayer: the Rosary, Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, or a family blessing

When to pray it

Every Sunday, from the Saturday evening vigil (which already belongs to Sunday) to Sunday night. Holy days of obligation are kept in the same way.

Steps

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   Step 1: Understand the obligation and its meaning

   Canon 1247: on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass, and to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship of God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, or the due relaxation of mind and body. The Catechism (2181) says deliberately missing Sunday Mass without a serious reason (such as illness or the care of infants) or a dispensation is a grave sin. But the obligation is the minimum, not the meaning. Dies Domini insists that Sunday is not first a rule but a gift: the day on which Christ rose, on which the Church gathers, and on which the human person is set free from the tyranny of work to worship, rest and love.

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   Step 2: Plan Mass first

   Decide on Saturday, at the latest, which Mass the household will attend, and arrange everything else around it rather than the reverse. Canon 1248 §1 says the obligation is satisfied by taking part in a Mass celebrated in a Catholic rite either on the day itself or on the evening of the preceding day, anywhere, so travel is no excuse; look up the Mass times where you will be. Arrive early, take part fully (see the guide on participating in Mass), and receive Communion if you are properly disposed. If you are genuinely unable to attend, canon 1248 §2 recommends a Liturgy of the Word if one is held, or prayer at home, alone or as a family; make an Act of Spiritual Communion▾.

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   Step 3: Rest from unnecessary work

   Sunday rest is not idleness; it is freedom for what matters. Do not do on Sunday the work that can be done on Saturday or Monday: the laundry, the shopping, the emails. Dies Domini calls this the sanctification of the day and a prophetic witness in a society that never stops. Where the household has children, protect their Sunday from homework marathons and organized sport that crowd out Mass and the family. Where you must work, keep whatever part of the day you can, and take the rest the Lord's Day would have given you at another time.

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   Step 4: Share a meal and be a family

   The Sunday table is the natural echo of the Eucharistic table. Make one meal of the day a real meal: cooked with some care, eaten together without screens, begun with Grace Before Meals▾ and ended with Grace After Meals▾. Invite someone who would otherwise eat alone. Dies Domini calls Sunday the day of man, a day for the family, for friendship, for creation, for culture; a walk, a visit to grandparents, an afternoon at home together are all ways of keeping it. Talk about the readings from Mass; ask the children what they heard.

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   Step 5: Do a work of charity

   From the beginning, Sunday was the day on which the Church collected for the poor (1 Corinthians 16:2), and Dies Domini says the Lord's Day should be a day of solidarity: a visit to the sick or the lonely, a phone call to someone grieving, a share of the week's earnings given to the parish or to the poor, a kindness to a neighbor. Choose one thing. The rest of Sunday is for receiving; this is for giving, and it keeps the day from turning inward.

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   Step 6: End the day with Vespers or the Rosary

   Close Sunday as you began it, with prayer. Many parishes celebrate Sunday Vespers (Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours), which the Council and Dies Domini both commend to the faithful; if yours does not, pray Evening Prayer at home, with its psalms and the Magnificat▾. Or gather the family for the Rosary, or a single decade with the children and a blessing at bedtime. On great feasts the Te Deum▾ is the Church's song of thanksgiving. However you do it, let the last word of the Lord's Day be his, so that the week that follows begins from rest and not from hurry.

Tips

• The vigil Mass on Saturday evening satisfies the obligation (canon 1248 §1), but Dies Domini is clear that it is Sunday itself, not merely a Mass, that the Church wants kept holy.
• The Church does not condemn all Sunday work: those who must work (in health care, public safety, hospitality) are asked to keep the day as best they can and to find rest at another time; employers are asked not to demand what is unnecessary.
• Family obligations or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation on a given Sunday, but do not become a habit of excuse.
• If Sunday has collapsed into errands and screens, restore one thing at a time: Mass first, then the meal, then the rest.

Related devotions

• Liturgy of the Hours
• The Holy Rosary