July 2, 2017: Del Rio News-Herald * OPINION * Summer time is also church time by Father Henry Clay Hunt III

Summer time is also church time

Dear People of Del Rio, 

I hope that you are enjoying the summer of 2017. 

It is unbelievable that June has already passed and the summer days are escaping us. 

I have come to observe that in our parish of St. Joseph, and I suspect that it is similar in other church communities, that participation in services on Sundays decreases notably in the summer days. 

This is absolutely reprobate and unacceptable to the Lord. 

We do not take a vacation from the Lord; our worship to God does not follow the academic calendar and then we abandon the ways of the Lord. 

This is true for those who are Catholic as well as any protestant or evangelical church. 

Anyone who believes in Christ is bound to keep holy the Lord’s Day. 

For Catholics, that means to go to Holy Mass every Sunday. 

For anyone else who claims to be Christian, that means to go to church every Sunday. 

Jesus is the one who said, If you love me, keep my commandments. 

The third commandment is to keep holy the Lord’s Day. 

From the earliest days of the Church, as expressed in the ACTS of the Apostles, that means that the community would gather on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, for the reading of the Prophets and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (the Breaking of the Bread). 

There are persons who know nothing of history and much less anything of the Lord, even persons who contribute to writings in this paper, who will comment with their own understandings or opinions. 

There are others who follow their own philosophies and ideologies. 

Let the world live as it desires to live. 

But if it is true that you believe in Christ, make it that you and your family go to Church on the Sundays of the Summer of 2017. 

Fr. Henry Clay Hunt, III