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April 29, 2014
Marriage/Art & Life
Marriage Minute
Keeping Holy the Lord’s Day
By Paul & Stephanie Francois
Worldwide Marriage Encounter
As we reflect on Lent just past, we are reminded that
through prayer, fasting, and alms-giving, we are called into deeper relationship with Jesus. Ideally, we’d like to maintain this focus all year. How can we
do that? The Third Commandment offers us a start:
(Exodus 20: 8) Remember the Sabbath day—keep it holy. Six days you may labor
and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God.
In our lives and in our relationship, we are trying to keep holy the Lord’s
Day. For us, that centers around Sunday Mass. We make attending Sunday
Mass an absolute priority. It’s not a matter of IF we’re going to go, it’s a matter
of WHEN. Whether we have plans to visit family or friends, we go to Mass.
Whether it’s convenient or not, we go to Mass. We make the Lord a priority in
a tangible way, to give thanks to Him, and to surround ourselves with a community of believers to support us.
We also try to make Sundays a “family day.” When our kids were at home
and attending college locally, this meant attending Mass together as a family
and then going out to lunch. We try not to do any work on Sundays -- not from
our jobs, our ministry work, or chores. We try to be extra attentive to our own
relationship on Sundays.
Here are some more ideas that we are either considering or have heard others talk about:
• Turning off the computer on Sundays and not turning it on for any reason.
• Turning off our cell phones and taking a break from being ultra connected
to the world.
• Reaching out to extended family and touching base with those whom we
do not often see or speak to.
• Planning a family picnic or game.
• Turning off the TV or only watching programs with a spiritual influence.
• Not patronizing ANY business, including restaurants, so as not to cause
others to be able to keep holy the Lord’s Day by having to work.
Visit www.sanjosewwme.org for more information on creating a joy-filled marriage.
www.valleycatholiconline.com
T
he Valley Catholic
Movie review: ‘Heaven is for real’
By John Mulderig
NEW YORK (CNS) -- “Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings hast
thou ordained strength.” Those familiar
words, addressed to God in Psalm 8
of the King James Bible, might serve as
the tagline for the fact-based drama
“Heaven Is for Real” (TriStar). Audiences
of almost any age will benefit from this
intriguing, child-guided glimpse into
the afterlife.
As readers of Todd Burpo’s bestselling book (written with Lynn Vincent) will know, this is the story of his
young son, Colton. After coming close
to death during an operation, the 4-yearold (Connor Corum) startled his Wesleyan minister father (Greg Kinnear)
and choir-director mother, Sonja (Kelly
Reilly), by announcing that he had visited he ]