Family Corner: Reclaiming Sundays

“What’s holding you up; ain’t you Catholic?”
 
One dad in the parish calls this when his teenagers dilly-dally getting ready for Mass. This parent is wise, because he un understands that kids want to be among their friends and neighbors on Sunday morning; belonging to a community is an important part of being Catholic. We often celebrate Sundays, the Lord’s Day, with social gatherings, like donuts in Steiner Hall.
 
But the Mass, the celebration of the Word and of the Eucharist, is the defining feature of our Sunday identity. The festivity of the donuts, the brunches, the pot roast dinners flows out from this central event.  
 
As this week’s bulletin insert explains, Family Corner will now tie into the Archdiocesan initiative to help us refresh and deepen observation of the Lord’s Day. This initiative is described in Reclaiming Sundays: A Guide for Families. For each month of the next year, Family Corner will develop the archdiocesan theme as we can live it here at Nativity.
 
September’s Reclaiming Sundays theme is Prayer. See the bulletin insert or the full document for more details. But please note the first “Sample Activity” suggested for September:

• Attend Mass every Sunday this month.

This is the place to start. Developing within our families a Catholic culture means making the Mass central to every Sunday. We are blessed at Nativity with options in times and liturgical styles; our parish truly offers a Mass for every family! Here’s Fr. Tollefson’s update on the refocusing of the 9:00 Mass as a Family Mass: nativitystpaul.org/documents/2025/8/Pastoral%20Letter%20Liturgy%202025%20July%2031.pdf
 
And, take note of our pastor’s hope to start Donut Sunday every Sunday. Wow! That'll get the kids going.  
 
There is always so much going on. There are so many demands on family time. When we choose to make Sundays truly a sabbath, however, we enrich rather than complicate family time. We begin building a truly Catholic foundation for our families!