On a recent trip to Israel, I had the opportunity to celebrate Shabbat dinner with some fellow Catholics in the home of an Orthodox Jewish family—a family who, by and large, don’t socialize with Christians. For the other Catholics on this trip (sponsored by the Philos Project), this was their first experience of a Sabbath dinner, where “exotic” rituals are attached to the blessing and consumption of the traditional wine, the challah bread, and the meal.
The experience for me was not unfamiliar, as I have celebrated what certain Catholics call a “Lord’s Day Dinner.” It is, in essence, a Christianized version of a Shabbat dinner. Instead of celebrating on Friday evening, the beginning of the Sabbath for Jews, it takes place on Saturday evening, which is when Sunday would have begun in biblical times. This is why Saturday evening vigil masses “count” for the Sunday liturgical obligation.
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