Marking the Day

'Always have something to look forward to doing', my spiritual director advised me a while ago. This time of the year there isn't necessarily much going on, and the things one looks forward to doing, such as holidays, are at some distance. As far as days off are concerned, too, the days are short and not much can be fitted into daylight hours, especially if I'm going to collect Ms Formerly Aldgate from work at 4.45ish. How to mark the day off and make it seem special? Which you surely must do, to energise you for your work the rest of the time.

I took to reflecting on the commandment to keep the Sabbath and realised I wasn't really doing it. Any Christian minister spends their Sunday helping other people observe the Sabbath, as a time set apart to remember and give thanks to God and to rest from labour (in so far as anyone does in contemporary society), and of course trying to bring God into our thinking every day means that the ring-fencing of a particular day to do so seems less obvious. However, it's vital: ignoring the Sabbath runs the risk of diluting the sense of God's importance the rest of the time as well.

I already have a 'shrine' beside the front door which includes a cross and images of my intercessor saints which is supposed to act as a place of recollection and calling the mind to God (not that I am always very disciplined in this). This seems an obvious place to observe my Sabbath consciously, and my day off the right time to do so, beginning, in proper fashion, the night before so that the Sabbath runs from night to night. I now have a small pewter cup which contains a very small amount of wine as a sign of joy, and a lantern. As Shinto is my third favourite religion, I also (when I remember) begin the Sabbath with two solemn hand-claps in front of the shrine, to gather the attention both of the angels, and me. We'll see how it goes.