The government should ban shopping on St Stephen's Day (whenever it falls on a Sunday) and on all Sundays. Western civilization, despite its diversity, was founded on Christian principles.

Keeping the Sabbath holy means that the Lord's Day should be marked from beginning to end by grateful and active remembrance of God's saving work. Sunday is the day of rediscovering the true nature and deep roots of joy. This joy should never be confused with shallow feelings of satisfaction and pleasure, which, as in the case of shopping and sports, inebriate the senses and emotions for a brief moment, but then leave the heart unfulfilled and perhaps even embittered. In the Christian view, joy is more enduring and consoling. It leads to a more intense time of sharing, and encouraging all the inventiveness of which Christian charity is capable.

As a day of rest, Sunday is a day in which we are called to withdraw from the sometimes excessively demanding cycle of earthly tasks in order to renew our awareness that everything is the work of God. In this way Sunday becomes the soul of the other days so that the perfect Christian is, in a sense, always in the Lord's Day.

Paul Kokoski

Columbia Drive,

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada