Day 282: The Sunday Obligation (2026)

Mike Schmitz (0:05)

Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to The Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family, as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 282 We are reading paragraph 2177 to 2183 As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com/c-i-y. Lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 282 Yesterday, we started talking about the Lord's Day. We started talking about the Third Commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. We know that the Sabbath day has been transferred from Saturday, that seventh day of the week, to the eighth day, the first day of the week, which is Sunday, the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection. Because as we heard yesterday, Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. Now, because of that, yes, we're invited into rest. In fact, we're commanded into rest. We're also invited slash commanded into worship. And we recognize that the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. There is nothing more important that we do than the Sunday Eucharist. That is the heart of everything. It is our participation in the re-presentation of the Paschal mystery. So, yes, the Church is called and actually commanded to take care of the poor. The Church is commanded to spread the Gospel. Yes, absolutely, completely.

At the heart of that is the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. Therefore, we're going to talk about this. It's a holy day every Sunday, holy day of obligation as well as some of the other days. Now, that goes back to the very beginnings of Christianity. And so, we're called, again, called slash commanded to fulfill the Sunday obligation. We're going to talk about how we do that today. And so, to open our hearts, because I know that this is one of those aspects I mentioned yesterday when it came to rest, which we're also talking about rest tomorrow, when it came to rest yesterday, and I said, yeah, these are some of these things that I'm convicted about. They bring to the surface some challenges that I realize, man, I don't do this the way I should. You might be someone who is convicted, very convicted, deeply convicted about the need, the necessity to live up to the obligation, the commandment to go to Mass every single Sunday. We'll talk about that today. So open our hearts to allow our minds, our hearts, our wills, our everything to be convicted by the Lord's command. So we pray, Father in heaven, in Jesus' name, we ask you to please receive our thanks, receive our praise, receive the worship that we owe you. And Lord God, please send your Holy Spirit in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, to allow us to be moved by love of you. Jesus, you said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Lord God, help us, help us to love you by keeping your commandment to do this, this Eucharist in memory of you. Help us to love you by listening to you and obeying you in every way, but especially in this way, by honoring your Holy Eucharist, by honoring your Paschal mystery every single Sunday. Lord God, please help us, meet us in our need, meet us in our weakness, and give us your grace, and give us your strength. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 282 We are reading Paragraphs 2177 to 2183

The Sunday Eucharist The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. Sunday is the day on which the Paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the Universal Church. The Code of Canon Law further states, Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the Feast of St. Joseph, the Feast of the Apostles, Saints, Peter and Paul, and the Feast of all Saints.