Holy Sundays

Last night I spoke with my good friend on the phone. She was telling me about her preparations for Sunday, she said, "I have to run to the store tonight and get some milk so we won't need anything for tomorrow." I nonchalauntly responded, "Oh, we don't worry about shopping or eating out on Sundays, it's one of Don's days off work, so we need to get caught up on all of our running around. And with homeschooling it's hard to get out during the week." She went on and explained that she even lets the dishes pile up so as not to work on Sundays. I thought to myself, well, God understands Our circumstances. This chilly Sunday morning found us straggling into Church and restlessly participating. During the homily, Fr. Boor was going through the ten commandments explaining each one in more detail. The one that struck me like a hot flaming sword right to my prideful heart, was "Keep the Lord's Day Holy". He very simply said, "Do you think people at Dillons, Walmart, and other places would have to work on Sundays, if we didn't do our shopping then?" Ouch!!! I fell off my high horse right then. He was RIGHT! Loving involves sacrifice. It isn't easy to plan ahead and resist the urge to check out all the sales that are in the newspaper ads. Dying to self isn't painless and it isn't fun. This is one of the rules I have never paid much attention to, and I always jusitified it in my mind. If I truly wish to earn Heaven, can I leave out God's laws that don't fit into my lifestyle?? Probably not. I started to internally panic...What are we going to do all day long??? So today during menu planning our family will come up with some great ideas. One idea I plan to share, is to visit relatives, friends, and neighbors, or to have them over to our house.
 Thanks for your mercy Lord in awakening my soul to task, and enlightening me before it was too late...my time here isn't long enough to wait for holiness to come to me. As Jesus proclaimed in the gospel today, "The time of God is at hand."