Christian and Jewish holy days Essay

The holy day of the Christian church is Sunday. Sunday replaces the Jewish â€Å"Sabbath† which takes place on Saturday. Jews chose Saturday as their day of rest because of the creation, God rested on the Seventh day (Saturday). God said that you must keep one day special for him and since he rested on this day, it would be logical for his people to also. Resting in its self reminded them that they were a free people. Christians chose Sunday to be their day of rest instead of Saturday because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. Easter Sunday is the Christians biggest feast of the year because Jesus is believed to have risen on this day. Christians also chose Sunday to sever the last tie with the Jewish religion. The Christian Mass takes place in two parts, these are: * The Liturgy of The Word * The Liturgy of The Eucharist The Liturgy of The Word includes readings from the bible, the priest may give a sermon, and ordinary Christians say the bidding prayers. During the Liturgy of The Eucharist the Holy Communion takes place. The mass is a sacrifice as Jesus is Sacrificed on the Altar at every mass, it is a meal because we are being fed with the Holy Spirit The Salvation Army is a group of Protestant Christians who do not have a Eucharist. William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the army in 1878. They decided to make their mass informal to make new people feel at ease. They only do the Liturgy of The Word and they take part in singing and music. Christians believe that worshiping together as a community is very important, they feel that meeting as the family or people of God is a Key part of worship. They believe that God wants them to be with others and to celebrate their common beliefs. They also worship together because they sometimes need the support of the rest of the community. The word â€Å"communion† means to be one with others and to be one with God. They share special moments and celebrate feasts as God’s family Some Christians think that worshiping alone can take place of Sunday worship. When they are alone they can, read the bible, pray, they can sing or they can just be quiet and spend time with God. Some people think that this is not as good as worshipping with others because you don’t get the support of others, and you can’t celebrate with the rest of God’s family. A02 The next thing I am going to look at is the relationship of Christian belief and worship to the attitude, behaviour and actions of a lay Christian or a Christian community. At the end of a mass the priest tells the people to â€Å"go in peace to love and serve the lord†, they can achieve this in many ways. They can help their fellow man by donating to charity. This money will go to house the homeless and feed the hungry or to help the sick. Lay Christians challenge themselves to help others help others through their parishes and youth groups they can try to live by the gospel and attempt to love and serve the lord. Catholic parish’s communities contribute to the lives of others in many ways, for example: parent and toddler groups are set up to support young or single parents. It is not a crà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½che but a group for mothers so that they can meet up and get advice from each other. There are groups set up to help the homeless, the unemployed and the disabled. Groups like St Vincent de Paul try to help those in need locally in a very private way. People can donate old items that they no longer need and the group will take them away and deliver them to those who need it. Lay Christians run all of these groups on a voluntary basis. They depend on financial support from parishes and donations from people. A03 Some people think that Non-essential activities should not take place on a Sunday. A small majority of the British population are Christians who actively worship on a regular basis and it would not be logical to let this minority dictate Sunday. For many people Saturday and Sunday are their only time off work and it would be unfair to make them work on these days. If companies were forced to stop working on a Sunday then they would lose lots of money and jobs would be lost however if everyone would be forced to work on this day then many people would not see their families. Sunday has been the day of rest of the Christian faith for 2000 years and is therefore a very important day.