” “"Sundays remain the embryonic foundation and at the same time the primeval core of the liturgical year, which takes its origin from the Resurrection of Christ, through which the traits of eternity have been engraved on to time. Sundays are therefore, as it were, a fragment of time imbued with eternity". This was written by Benedict XVI to card. Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for the Cult of God and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on the occasion of the yearly study day for the anniversary of the promulgation of the Council Constitution on the Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium" (4 December 1963). "For the first Christians recalled the Pope to the participants in the day that is held in the Vatican today , participation in the Sunday celebrations was the natural expression of their belonging to Christ, of communion with His mystical body, in the joyous wait for His glorious return". Such a belonging "heroically" expressed itself in the story of the martyrs of Abitene, who "faced death exclaiming: ‘Sine dominico non possumus’, that is, without gathering on a Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist, we cannot live". (to be continued)” “
