Michael De Sapio
Daniel Fitzpatrick’s book is, in essence, a diagnosis of the ills of modernity viewed from the aspect of the Sabbath. Lost today are the grandeur and the normative and unitive force of the Sabbath, the center of the life of the individual, the family, and the community.
Restoring the Lord’s Day: How Reclaiming Sunday Can Revive Our Human Nature, by Daniel Fitzpatrick (243 pages, Sophia Institute Press, 2024)
This past year I read a good number of excellent books, but one of the most important for sheer weight of subject was Restoring the Lord’s Day: How Reclaiming Sunday can Revive Our Human Nature, by Daniel Fitzpatrick. This will not be a book review in the strict sense, but more of a review-essay in which I meander a bit around the tremendous topics Mr. Fitzpatrick has introduced. I beg the reader’s indulgence.
Mr. Fitzpatrick explains why the observance of the Lord’s Day is the lodestar of life itself. He writes as a Christian and more specifically a Catholic. The book, published by Sophia Institute Press, is vast in its scope (what could possibly be bigger than reviving human nature itself?). The author argues, with force and reason, that the pressures of modern life—social, cultural, moral, economic, and more besides—have weakened our sense of the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship, leaving us prey to acedia (spiritual sloth or indifference) and various unnatural anxieties. The book is, in essence, a diagnosis of the ills of modernity viewed from the aspect of the Sabbath, with all its theological associations.
Fitzpatrick’s analysis of the Sabbath goes back to its origins in the Old Testament. The Sabbath (Hebrew Shabbat) commemorated God’s resting on the seventh day of creation. The Sabbath observances were among the distinguishing features of the Jewish people, marking them out as followers of the Lord among the various pagan peoples surrounding them. » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/01/restoring-lords-day-daniel-fitzpatrick-michael-de-sapio.html