St. Thomas: STOP Working on Sundays

The Obligations of the Third Commandment

Just finished recording a video on the traditional teaching surrounding obedience to the third commandment and the obligation to cease from work on Sunday (remember to subscribe and turn bell notification on YouTube so you don’t miss it!!!). Lots of surprising stuff from the contemporary magisterium (especially on civil obligations), along with important exegetical, catechetical, and canonical materials that need to be taken into account. Plenty of impossible to find out of print works that I need to find, along with random treatments from the medievals (Bl. Denys and Henry of Ghent have good treatments) before I do anything super extensive on the topic.

Even while the 2004 Directory of Bishops places teaching this as one of the necessary ministries of the Bishop (n. 148), the recent Catechism treats this topic for a number of paragraphs, the most recent magisterial document on the issue of Sunday Worship (Dies Domini) has an entire heading covering the topic, etc., few Catholics are aware of the “other half” of the Sunday Obligation.

Below, for my substack members, I have included a PDF that collects all of the treatments of St. Thomas Aquinas on the topic. Enjoy!