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Course 21 · Lesson 3.1

Sunday, the week and the hours of the day

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 21 outline

Module 1: The Theology of Worship

  1. What liturgy is: the word, the idea and the debate
  2. Worship in the Old and New Testaments
  3. Praying and believing: how worship shapes doctrine and doctrine shapes worship
  4. Word, sacrament and sign across the traditions

Module 2: How Christian Liturgy Developed

  1. The earliest descriptions: the Didache, Justin Martyr and the early church orders
  2. The liturgical families of East and West
  3. The Reformation and the revision of worship
  4. Liturgical renewal in the twentieth century

Module 3: The Christian Year: Calendars, Feasts and Fasts

  1. Sunday, the week and the hours of the day
  2. Easter, Holy Week and the dispute over the date
  3. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
  4. Lent, the Orthodox fasting seasons and Protestant approaches to fasting
  5. Saints days and the second cycle of the calendar

Module 4: Sacred Space and Sacred Images

  1. From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings
  2. The meaning of church buildings: altar, table, orientation and the Orthodox and Gothic examples
  3. Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea
  4. Images and the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican approaches

Module 5: Material Signs: Incense, Water, Oil and Blessings

  1. Incense: Scripture, temple worship and its use in the churches
  2. Water: baptism, the renewal of baptismal vows and holy water
  3. Oil: anointing of the sick, chrismation, confirmation and ordination
  4. Blessings: what the church means when it blesses a person, a house or an object
  5. Sacraments and sacramentals: the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant vocabulary

Module 6: Popular Piety and Devotional Practice

  1. What popular piety is, and why scholars take it seriously
  2. Pilgrimage, relics, medals and pious objects
  3. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, litanies and akathists
  4. How the churches have regulated and corrected popular devotion

Module 7: Telling Tradition from Superstition

  1. What the theologians mean by superstition, and why the line is hard to draw
  2. A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence
  3. Case studies: apocryphal legends, magical formulas and invented history
  4. Honesty and respect in judging other people’s devotion

All courses

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 3.1

What you will learn

  • Explain why Christians gather on Sunday and what the earliest sources say.
  • Describe the Sabbath debate among Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed and Adventist Christians.
  • Outline the daily hours of prayer in monastic, Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox use.
  • Distinguish what a person can keep alone, such as daily prayer, from what needs a gathered church.

The big idea

The smallest unit of the Christian year is the week, and its center is Sunday, the first day, kept in memory of Christ’s resurrection. Around Sunday the churches built a pattern of daily prayer at fixed hours, which came from Jewish practice and the Psalms. Christians disagree about whether Sunday takes the place of the Sabbath or is a separate Christian day. A person alone can keep the hours of prayer, but Sunday itself is, in every historic tradition, the day of the gathered church.

Key terms

Lord’s day
The New Testament name for the first day of the week (Revelation 1:10), later understood as Sunday.
Sabbath
The seventh day, a day of rest in the Law of Moses (Exodus 20:8-11). Some Christians keep it on Saturday; most keep Sunday as a day of worship.
Eighth day
A name used by early writers for Sunday, as the day after the Sabbath and a sign of new creation.
Hours of prayer
Fixed times of daily prayer. In Benedict’s Rule they include Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, with a night office.
Vespers
Evening prayer, which in Eastern and Western churches belongs to the setting of the sun.
Matins
Morning prayer in Eastern, Lutheran and Anglican use. In Catholic monastic use it is the night office.
Horologion
The Orthodox book of the daily hours.

Background

The New Testament shows Christians meeting on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and calls it the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10). The Didache tells believers to gather on the Lord’s day, and Justin explains Sunday as the day of Christ’s resurrection. Ignatius of Antioch speaks of those who no longer keep the Sabbath but live according to the Lord’s day. In 321 the Emperor Constantine ordered that city courts and shops be closed on Sunday, giving legal support to the day of rest.

Christians have not agreed about how Sunday relates to the Sabbath. Some traditions see a continuity, with Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Others see a new Christian day with its own meaning. A small group of churches keeps the seventh day.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Why Sunday

The Gospels record that Christ rose on the first day of the week (Mark 16:2). Early writers called Sunday both the first day and the eighth day, a new beginning after the old week. Sunday became the day for the Eucharist, for rest in later centuries, and for the chief sermon. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians attendance on Sunday is an obligation of the church. For most Protestants it is a matter of faithful practice, with the duty drawn from the commandment to keep a holy day.

Step 2: The Sabbath question

Catholic teaching (Catechism, paragraphs 2174 to 2176) holds that Sunday replaced the Sabbath as the Lord’s day, and that the third commandment is fulfilled in rest and worship on Sunday, though not by transferring the Mosaic rules. The Orthodox generally agree that Sunday is the Lord’s day and not a continuation of the Sabbath rules. Reformed confessions, such as the Westminster Confession, teach that the Sabbath was moved to the first day and that its rest and worship still bind Christians, so they traditionally avoided ordinary work and recreation on Sunday. Lutherans, following Luther, held that the Sabbath rule was ceremonial and not binding, yet they kept Sunday for worship. Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists keep Saturday, arguing that the commandment was never changed. Paul’s words in Colossians 2:16 and Romans 14:5 are cited by those who deny that any day is binding.

Step 3: The days of the week

The Didache calls for fasting on Wednesday and Friday, in remembrance of the betrayal and the crucifixion, and the Orthodox and many Catholics have kept these days as days of penance. In the Orthodox calendar each weekday has a theme: Monday for the angels, Tuesday for John the Baptist, Wednesday and Friday for the Cross, Thursday for the apostles and Saint Nicholas, Saturday for the departed and all the saints, and Sunday for the resurrection. In Catholic practice Friday was long a day of abstinence from meat, a custom that was later relaxed, though bishops may still call for Friday penance.

Step 4: The hours of the day

Jewish practice had set times for prayer, and Daniel prays three times a day (Daniel 6:10). The Psalms mention seven times of praise a day (Psalm 119:164). The Didache says to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day. Monks built these into the Divine Office, which in Benedict’s Rule is organized around the Psalter, so that all 150 Psalms are prayed in a week. Catholics today pray the Liturgy of the Hours, which includes Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, daytime hours, Night Prayer and an Office of Readings. The Orthodox keep a daily cycle in the Horologion, with Vespers, Matins and other offices, which in parishes is sometimes shortened. Cranmer condensed the old hours into Morning and Evening Prayer in the Anglican Prayer Book, and Lutherans keep Matins and Vespers. Reformed Christians historically stressed morning and evening prayer in the home as family worship.

Step 5: What can be kept alone

A person can pray at fixed hours alone: a morning prayer, a midday pause and an evening prayer, using the Psalms, the Lord’s Prayer and a short reading. Catholic teaching treats the Liturgy of the Hours as the church’s prayer even when one person prays it. A person who cannot attend Sunday worship because of illness, distance or the lack of a church can still read the Sunday Scripture and pray, and some traditions encourage this as a way of staying joined to the church. But in all the historic churches, private prayer is not a replacement for Sunday gathering, and a student who has no church nearby should say so honestly and seek one, in person or by a trusted pastor, and not claim that private study fulfills the same thing.

  1. On which day does this tradition worship, and what reason does it give?
  2. Does it treat Sunday as a Sabbath or as a different day?
  3. What kind of work or leisure does it ask people to avoid on that day?
  4. Which hours of daily prayer does it keep, and how?
  5. Which of these practices can I keep alone, and which belong to the assembly?
  6. What does my own use of the week show about my priorities?

Examples

A daily rhythm

A Lutheran teacher prays a short morning prayer from the Small Catechism, says the Lord’s Prayer at noon, and reads Psalm 4 at night. He belongs to a congregation and attends Divine Service on Sunday. His habit supports his church life and does not replace it. (A constructed example.)

A Sabbath church

A Seventh-day Adventist family keeps the Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening, with worship on Saturday morning. They hold that the fourth commandment has not been changed. Their practice shows that Christians have read the commandment differently.

An Orthodox weekday

An Orthodox believer fasts on Wednesday and Friday, remembering the Cross, and prays morning and evening prayers from a prayer book. On Sunday he attends the Divine Liturgy. The week is ordered around the cycle of prayer and fast.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Sunday is the Lord’s day and the first holy day of obligation. It is the day of the Eucharist, of rest and of joy. The Liturgy of the Hours is the daily prayer of the church, which laypeople are encouraged to pray.

Orthodox

Every Sunday is a little Easter. The weekly cycle of themes and the daily offices continue the pattern of the early church and the monasteries.

Lutheran and Anglican

Sunday is kept for worship and rest by Christian freedom. The hours are kept in Matins, Vespers and the Daily Office, and are encouraged for homes.

Reformed and Puritan

The fourth commandment continues in force, with the day moved to Sunday. Faithful keeping includes public worship and rest, and family worship in the home.

Seventh-day Adventist and Seventh Day Baptist

The seventh day Sabbath was never abolished, and they hold that no biblical text changes it to Sunday. They worship on Saturday.

Why it matters

The week and the day are the places where most believers live their faith. How a church keeps Sunday and how it prays through the day shows what it believes about rest, work and the resurrection. For a student, learning the differences prevents confusion when visiting another tradition and allows a more honest account of what personal daily prayer can and cannot do.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Sunday is the Sabbath renamed.

Correction: Some traditions, especially Reformed ones, teach that, and others do not. Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran teaching distinguishes the Lord’s day from the Mosaic Sabbath.

Misunderstanding: Constantine invented Sunday worship.

Correction: Sunday gatherings are described in the New Testament and in Justin long before Constantine. Constantine in 321 gave Sunday legal rest, which is a different matter.

Misunderstanding: The Liturgy of the Hours is only for monks and clergy.

Correction: Catholic teaching encourages laypeople to pray it, and Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches provide forms of daily prayer for all believers.

Misunderstanding: Private daily prayer is enough, so Sunday attendance is optional.

Correction: The historic churches teach that gathered worship is part of Christian life. Private prayer is good and necessary, but it is not offered as a substitute.

Knowledge check

What do early sources say about Sunday?

Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 mention the first day, Revelation 1:10 the Lord’s day, the Didache tells believers to gather on it, and Justin explains it as the day of creation and resurrection. Constantine gave it legal rest in 321.

How do Reformed and Lutheran views of the Sabbath differ?

Reformed confessions say the Sabbath commandment continues, moved to Sunday, and binds Christians to rest and worship. Lutherans held that the Sabbath rule was ceremonial and not binding, though Sunday is kept for worship by Christian freedom.

What were the daytime hours of prayer in Benedict’s Rule?

They include Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, along with a night office. They arrange the Psalms so that the whole Psalter is prayed in a week.

What can a person keep alone and what needs a gathered church?

A person can keep daily prayer, Psalms and Scripture reading and the fasting days. Sunday worship, with the sacraments, is the act of the gathered church and is not replaced by private prayer.

Think it through

  1. How do you currently mark the days of your week?
  2. Which view of the Sabbath seems best supported by the New Testament, and what is the best case for another?
  3. What would a daily rhythm of prayer look like for you, in about ten minutes a day?
  4. If you cannot attend a church, what honest steps could you take?

Independent assignment

A rule of daily prayer

In your own notebook, write 300 to 500 words. Draft a short daily pattern of prayer based on one tradition’s hours, using only texts such as the Psalms, the Lord’s Prayer and a creed. State the tradition you drew on and why. Keep it for one week and note what you learned. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study