As this edition of the "Scranton Post" hits the streets, most of us will be settling into our fall routines after the Labor Day holiday.

We have enjoyed the long holiday weekend, made special by many personal and communal traditions, and we have used the short work week to orient ourselves to the schedule of labors that will characterize the coming month.

I have two recurring experiences associated with holidays: the first is the joy of the break in routine, the anticipation of "special time," the enjoyment of sleeping in, or getting up early to do something that just doesn’t fit into the demands of our work routines. I will call this "the joy of the Sabbath." The second experience seems to be the opposite, since it involves an eagerness to return to work, an enthusiasm for getting engaged and productive in doing things I enjoy and think are important. I will call this "the joy of work."

The word "Sabbath" comes to us from the Jewish tradition, where it refers to the "seventh day," which in the very first chapter of the Torah of the Jewish Scriptures is established as a "day of rest." Expanding on the biblical commandment to "keep holy the Sabbath," the rabbinic traditions that emerged in the first centuries of the common era developed an intricate interweaving of expectations on how to make this day special. Rabbi Abraham Heschel in his remarkable little book on the Sabbath speaks of it as a "Sanctuary in Time," a palace built not from bricks and mortar but carved out of the ongoing rush of time that so often seems to dominate our existence.

Maintaining these special Sabbath traditions has been a characteristic of Judaism for more than two millennia, and in the process has had a profound effect on Jewish identity. It has often been remarked that "even as the Jews have preserved the Sabbath, the Sabbath has preserved the Jews." I would like to suggest that the need for a "day of rest" is something is more important in today’s world more than ever before, and that we could all learn much about living a happy productive life if we would gain an appreciation of Jewish Sabbath tradition.

Theoretically, we have more "leisure time" today than at previous times in history. Certainly few of us work the sunrise to sunset hours that were common in most agricultural societies, and few of us work the 60 to 70-hour work weeks that were common in the mines and textile factories that were the backbone of the Scranton economy 100 years ago. Still, we all today experience the "pressure" of time in ever more acute ways – we have too much to do, and never enough time in which to do it.

So it doesn’t take too much of a sales pitch to convince people today that we need holidays, we need special times of rest, we all need the Sabbath.

"The Joy of Work" is often a tougher sale, but that is the second topic I would offer in these reflections. I hope all of you have some area of your life where you experience this joy of work. It may be an activity we often consider hobbies today – gardening, working on your car, exploring the world through our computers. Many of us find satisfaction in meeting our own daily needs and those of people we care about – cooking, cleaning, taking care of clothes and the like.

If we are fortunate, we are employed in occupations that we honestly enjoy, in which we would choose to do these things even if we weren’t being paid to do so. We all want a job where we are eager to go to work, because we look forward to the satisfaction we get from doing it.

In the early Christian monastic tradition, physical labor was looked on not only as an obligation but also an opportunity. In the medieval Benedictine tradition, this was summarized in a Latin slogan "Laborare orare est," "To work is to pray."

Too many of us experience this joy of work by its absence. The anguish of unemployment remains a major problem in this area, noticeably worse than in most areas of our country. Those who have been unemployed know only too well that there is a dignity to work, a dignity that cannot be given but rather must be earned. When one is unable to find gainful employment, one often doubts their own self-worth, and a painful depression can be difficult to combat.

Hopefully, all of us who do have jobs, who do have the opportunity to bring order to chaos, to help others in need, to expand the human quest for truth and beauty. Hopefully we can appreciate "the joy of work" in our efforts.