{"id":19547,"date":"2014-01-20T08:26:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T15:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=19547"},"modified":"2014-01-20T16:27:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T23:27:02","slug":"who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Sundayrest\"<\/p>\n

I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it.<\/p>\n

I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring the real demands of one of the Commandments.<\/p>\n

It turns out that Sabbath-keeping is not for sissies.<\/p>\n

The Catechism says that we not only should cease from our own labors on Sunday, but that we should also not do things that require other people to labor.<\/p>\n

Yikes.<\/p>\n

Does that mean no movies, no eating out, no fun\u00a0<\/em>on Sundays?<\/p>\n

I decided, at least for yesterday, that it does.<\/p>\n

What that meant for me is that I was stuck all day in the house with a football play-off thing. My men watch football all day throughout the weekend. They flip from one game to another during commercials, and as soon as a game ends, they dial up another one somewhere else. They can literally watch football for the entire weekend.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always regarded this as an opportunity. It makes a great time to go out with my girlfriends. Movies. The occasional play. Shopping. Swizzling in fern bars and eating in nice restaurants.<\/p>\n

It is so good.<\/p>\n

I come home to happy, football-sated men. Everybody has a grin on their face and nobody is bored out of their gourd \u2014 which is what I was for much of yesterday.<\/p>\n

I entered this sabbath-keeping thing all unprepared. I only decided to do it about an hour or so before mass on Saturday. I didn\u2019t even get around to re-reading the Catechism to see what Sabbath keeping means until I got home from church. Then I wondered what kind of weekly purgatory I had signed up for.<\/p>\n

No shopping? No eating out? No fern bars?<\/p>\n

Say you don\u2019t mean it Lord. Puleeez say you don\u2019t mean it.<\/p>\n

I ended up wandering around the house listening to the yelps and yips from the men while the football droned on in the background. I didn\u2019t work. Not on anything. I didn\u2019t write a word on my book. I didn\u2019t even look at Public Catholic. And I kept my greasy little fingers off the legislation and the lists of things I need to do for the office. I didn\u2019t even call up other legislators and talk shop.<\/p>\n

What I did instead was play the piano, because I decided piano playing, which I do with total incompetence and certainly<\/em> not for money, is not work. I also read a book about atheism that inspired ideas about a future blog post, and spent hours on the iPad reading blogs by writers talking about writing. I followed that by browsing the internet, looking at the software (which I don\u2019t need) that these writers talked about in their blog posts. Then, to top it off, I noodled with ideas for political activity on an issue I\u2019m concerned about.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t do any work. But I never stopped thinking about it.<\/p>\n

The odd part is that I was sorry when Sunday was over. After I got past the listening-to-football-is-punishment phase, I kind of got into this no-work thing. I think that if I had several of these Sabbath days in a row, I might actually figure out how to do this deal.<\/p>\n

One day is just not long enough for me to turn off that work stuff. It swirls in my brain, no matter whether I do it or not. To be honest, even going out with my girlfriends and gossiping down the town doesn\u2019t really divert me. I need at least three days of no work, back to back, to stop work from owning me.<\/p>\n

I wonder if I\u2019m being too severe with this Sabbath stuff. After all, I\u2019ve had plenty of good times with priests in restaurants on Sundays. Every priest I know eats out on Sundays. Does that mean that we\u2019re all breaking the Sabbath together? Or does it mean that I\u2019m misunderstanding the requirements?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to keep plugging on with this Sabbath-honoring thing. As I said in my prayers before sleep last night, I know I didn\u2019t do it too well yesterday. I\u2019m just hoping that somebody who understands it better can give me guidance.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I am a bit gobsmacked. The toughest commandment, at least for me, may very well be \u201ctake a day off.\u201d Who would have guessed that?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring the real demands of one of the Commandments. It turns out that Sabbath-keeping is not for sissies. The Catechism says that we not only should cease […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[726,1,5037],"tags":[5953,5948,615,5950,5951,5952],"class_list":["post-19547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-following-christ","category-uncategorized","category-worship-2","tag-honoring-the-sabbath","tag-keeping-the-sabbath","tag-priests","tag-sunday-rest","tag-the-10-commendments","tag-the-catechism"],"yoast_head":"\nWho Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-20T15:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-20T23:27:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/files\/2014\/01\/sundayrest.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/\",\"name\":\"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-20T15:26:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-20T23:27:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?","description":"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?","og_description":"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2014-01-20T15:26:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-20T23:27:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/files\/2014\/01\/sundayrest.jpg"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/","name":"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-20T15:26:52+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-20T23:27:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"I have completed my first Sabbath-honoring Sunday, and I have to admit that I think I needed it. I did it because I decided that I was blithely ignoring","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/who-knew-the-toughest-commandment-is-take-a-day-off\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Knew the Toughest Commandment is Take a Day Off?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19547"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19561,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19547\/revisions\/19561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}