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Sunday Mass or Saturday Mass
Could someone attend Saturday mass instead of Sunday mass? Or Sunday mass is a must attend for all believers. My problem is I find Sunday mass is very crouded and Saturday is more quiter. Is the day of the Lord has to be Sunday?
Comments
If you can go to both you should try to go to church as much as possible.. If you only get Saturday off and there is a Divine Liturgy then you should go on Saturday of course.
I'm not sure if there is a set rule about attending church on the Lord's day, but from what I've been told, as long as you can make it once a week, regardless of the date, then you're fine.
In the Arab world, the weekend is Friday and sometimes Saturday. As a result, most Christians attend Mass and 'Sunday' School on Friday. Sunday masses are held as per tradition, however Churches are usually empty in comparison to the Friday masses.
I'm not sure if there is a set rule about attending church on the Lord's day, but from what I've been told, as long as you can make it once a week, regardless of the date, then you're fine.
In the Arab world.. this is by force. A lot of us here are not in the Arab countries and we do have Saturdays and Sundays off, thank God.
I'm not sure if there is a written rule out there.. but Sunday IS the day of the Lord. This is also indicated in the creation of the world in Genesis that God rested on the seventh day, and the sabbath and all that.
Secondly, yes Sunday is COMPULSORY, if it wasn't I guarantee you that Sunday would not be so crowded at church and the amount of people attending would be spread between perhaps friday, saturday and sunday liturgies. I as well as others would definitely love this. :P
Attending the Liturgy any day of the week excluding Sunday is completely optional.
The church is one Body and if one does not attend on a Sunday the church can no longer be called One Body! Let's be realistic here and say that at least 1 person does not attend on a daily basis and lot's of us may take a sunday or two off of the year.. but this is wrong yet usually unavoidable. (my reference for this is pre-servants and this is 1 reason why I really push myself to go to church on Sunday other than a week day). At my church, they make sure that everyone is at least doing 1 Sunday service so that we can avoid a decline in attendance, works pretty good if you ask me. Our church is blessed with a HUGE number or servants we often feel that we have ran out of services.. To give you an indication we have 2 classes for each grade and about 4 servants each. Our youth do everything from cooking to cleaning to writing up Sunday school Bible study etc - ALL on a Sunday.. and if one has a service on another day or no sunday service they are required to attend a small Bible study after the liturgy.
Man, Sundays are way important...
Abouna gave us a Youth meeting 2 weeks ago about money, and the love of money.. He also mentioned how it's much beneficial to not work on a Sunday even if you were offered 2 or 3 times more than a normal day.. and this happens so much in our business world. And he told us how often people from church reject working on Sunday and God provides them with more than enough.
If ya scared go to Church.
i totally understand your question. in some big, noisy churches, there are many people (sadly) who go to church on sunday just to show off that they are 'good people' and go to church. or, even worse, they just go to find new business contacts and fall asleep during the preaching. they take Communion but during the week behave as if they didn't take it (parties, lots of drinking etc). so if u r in a church like this and can't stand the hypocrisy, then i think it is better to take Holy Communion on saturday.
this is better than going on sunday and either judging these people and thinking u r better, or being influenced by them and doing the 'minimum' necessary to be called a Christian.
yeah, i know, ideally we should be one body, but i think the job of teaching people to be sincere in their faith is mainly the job of priests, mature people in the church and church servants. it's not the job of young people who are growing in their faith and just want to be able to worship in peace.
Sunday is not a MUST for a Christian to attend the Liturgy. As long as you attend at least once a week, the end result is the same. Receiving Christ. The Sunday liturgy is not a "higher" or more important liturgy than a weekday or Saturday liturgy. Its the SAME.
Mabsoota:
You are assuming this person is talking about the problem you stated. Just because a church is big and crowded does not mean that there are people there "acting" for the sunday. By the way you posted you have judged these people in big churches across the world. There may be people the way you described and there may not, that is not anyones concern. The concern should be on the alter. If you get distracted sit in the front row. Its that easy.
God Bless
and regardless when you go to church or even take commnion,
God loves and forgives.
God bless and pray for me,
Cyril
i should have explained it better, i'm sorry :(
i meant to say i can understand how it is easy to get distracted, especially if u r in a long queue for communion.
i tried myself not standing in the queue and just singing and chanting, looking at the altar, but i've come close to missing communion by not being in the queue!
Now there are other times to pray. Weekday liturgies are the best time to pray; especially on fasts with night liturgies. In Saint Mark's Jersey City we do liturgies from 4-7 pm on fasts and 5-7 am wednesdays weekly. Those liturgies are just great. Sometimes there are a little fast, but you still feel like you are in heaven and standing before God.
Mikhail:
Sunday is not a MUST for a Christian to attend the Liturgy. As long as you attend at least once a week, the end result is the same. Receiving Christ. The Sunday liturgy is not a "higher" or more important liturgy than a weekday or Saturday liturgy. Its the SAME.
You're joking!
Sunday Liturgy IS compulsory!
I will try and look through my preservants stuff about this.. If not, I'll email the servant who gave us this lesson 2 years ago as I am not home... Egypt baby :)
[quote author=jydeacon link=topic=10031.msg122613#msg122613 date=1290531192]
Mikhail:
Sunday is not a MUST for a Christian to attend the Liturgy. As long as you attend at least once a week, the end result is the same. Receiving Christ. The Sunday liturgy is not a "higher" or more important liturgy than a weekday or Saturday liturgy. Its the SAME.
You're joking!
Sunday Liturgy IS compulsory!
I will try and look through my preservants stuff about this.. If not, I'll email the servant who gave us this lesson 2 years ago as I am not home... Egypt baby :)
No I'm actually quite serious. What happens if people must work on sunday and cannot make it? What makes the Sunday Liturgy more special then the others? We don't have "higher" liturgies or more special ones. The content is exactly the same. (except during lent)
But that does not mean that it is not necessary for us to be in Church participating in the Liturgy on a Sunday if it is possible, and if it is held of course. There are many who are not able to attend on a Sunday because they are Doctors, Nurses, etc etc. There is no blame in their absence, and if there are other weekday liturgies they can attend then this is a blessing for them.
But the Sunday liturgy is especially the place where the Church, as the Body of Christ, comes into being in a mystical manner. We do not participate in the liturgy alone, but we do belong to a community and a family, however stressful that can sometimes be. If someone NEVER attended the Sunday liturgy because of some personal preference it would seem to me to be rather damaging to the life of the whole Church. It is not just about individuals receiving communion, whenever and wherever they want, it is about a Holy and Spiritual Temple being built to the Lord from our communion with each other as well.
I would be concerned if there was a 'Wednesday group' who only communed on Wednesday (for example) because they liked the people who attended early in the morning, and it was quiet, and who always avoided the Sunday liturgy. To attend both would be commendable, but to actively avoid others seems to me to be problematic.
Do not think that I am ignorant of the challenges of being in Christian community. I am not. But we must be careful not to fall under St Paul's condemnation of those who neglect meeting together. Our presence in the Liturgy matters greatly. It is the 'work of the people' and cannot be properly conducted without us. If there are problems in the Church then they surely need to be dealt with, but in a particular place there should be a community not a group of atomised individuals.
So I guess if someone can honestly only attend on a weekday then that is not a problem. There are many who have to work and this is a real issue. But Sunday is the day of the Lord. It is the weekly celebration of the Resurrection. It is the day when the Church has always gathered to become the Church. In that sense it is 'compulsory'. Indeed it should properly be the case that we feel ourselves compelled to attend the liturgy and participate in it as much as we are able for the love of Christ.
To be at the liturgy is not just a personal matter. It is important to worship with as many of the local Christian community as possible, and to become a real spiritual community, not just people turning up to receive something for themselves.
In preservants, I was taught everything you just mentioned and that's why it is REALLY pushed in my parish. I've seen it 100 times where someone says that they will go to a weekday mass regularly to avoid Sundays but our church servants MAKE them attend the Sunday one because they can make it and there is no excuse.
I know for a fact that at my church only VERY FEW people take Sundays off for work, but it's extremely rare for this to happen when our church fathers very strongly influence attending mass on sundays. It's just so important.
If ya scared go to Church.
I usually don't feel that I pray well on Sunday Mass and I enjoy Saturday mass. What St. Paul meant by keeping the day of the Lord? Is it any day in the week?
BUT... having said all of that, we have to understand that God taught us that He is merciful beyond concrete measure, and therefore if anyone cannot for any reason attend Sunday liturgy they should attend other weekday liturgies once a week at least, and it should also be discussed with father of confession. I hope this helps
[coptic]oujai qen `P[C[/coptic]