After the release from church on the holy day of the Lord, while the blessed
 bishop Eusebius sat down, Alexander came forward and asked him: “I beg you, my
 Lord, why is it necessary to keep the day of the Lord and not to work? And what
 kind of gain do we have, if we do not work?” The blessed opened his mouth and
 said: “Hear, child, and I will tell you, why it is taught to us to keep the day of
 the Lord and not to work. When the Lord taught his disciples the mystery
 (of Eucharist), he took the bread, blessed it and breaking it gave it to his
 disciples and said: ‘Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, for
 remission of sins.’ Likewise he also gave them the cup and said: ‘You all,
 drink from it, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for
 you, the many, for remission of sins. Do that for my remembrance,’ he says. Therefore, the holy day of the Lord is
 remembrance. That’s why it is called day of the Lord, as it is lord over the days.
 For before the passion of the Lord, it was not called Lord’s day, but first day.
 On that day the Lord began the first-fruits of the creation. And on exactly that
 day he gave the world the first-fruit of the resurrection, on that day, as we
 said, he also ordered the holy mysteries to be performed. Now, we have the
 beginning of all goodness on such a day, the beginning of the creation of the
 world, the beginning of the resurrection, the beginning of the week. Three
 beginnings has that day, it dawns the beginning of the most-holy trinity. Well, seven days has the week, God gave us six days to work, and he gave us one
 for prayer, rest, and deliverance from evil and that we may make atonement for
 them before God on the day of the Lord, if we did sinful actions during the six
 days. Get up before dawn in the church of God, come to the Lord, confess him your
 sins, repent in prayer and with a contrite heart, stay in the divine and holy
 liturgy, complete your prayer and never leave before the release! Look, how your
 Lord is cut in pieces and distributed and is not eaten up! And if you have a good
 conscience, come forward and take part in the body and the blood of the Lord! But
 if your conscience condemns you for bad and foul deeds, decline the community
 until you amend yourself in repentance, but stay for the prayer and do not leave
 the church, if you are not released. Remind yourself of Judas the traitor! The
 beginning of his destruction was that he did not stay with the others praying.
 When he (Jesus), it says, took the bread, he (Judas) as first of all left and
 at once Satan entered him, and he eagerly betrayed the Lord. Now, if you leave before the
 release, you impersonate Judas . Certainly, you do not want to get judged with Judas because of a little time!
 Staying doesn’t hurt you. The church has no snow inside, no fire, no other thing
 tormenting you, but only a small amount of patience is needed and your prayer is
 perfect. We keep the day of the Lord only to stay away from work and to have opportunity to
 pray. But if you stay away from work and do not go to church, you gain nothing. To
 the contrary, you hurt yourself greatly. Many wait for the day of the Lord, but
 not all for the same end. Those who have fear for God wait for the day of the
 Lord, that they may send their prayer to God and enjoy the dear body and blood.
 But the careless and the negligent wait for the day of the Lord that they may stay
 away from work and spend their time with bad people. And what happened gives
 evidence that I do not lie: Go to the main street on any day and you will find
 nobody. Go on the day of the Lord and you will find some playing the lyre, others
 beating and dancing, others sitting and joking with their neighbor and scolding,
 others wrestling, others wrangling with each other, others nodding to bad things,
 and if somewhere there is a lyre and a dance, then all run. The announcer calls to
 the church and all display hesitation and inability. A sound of the lyre or of the
 flute or a beat of dancing is produced, and all come there very fast as if they
 had wings. What do those who come to church look at? I say it to you: the Lord
 Christ offered on the holy table while the Seraphim sing the three-holy hymn, the
 Holy Spirit’s arrival and visit, the prophet and king David celebrating, the praised apostle
 Paul , who resonates
 his teaching in the ears of everybody, the hymn of the angels, the never-ending
 hallelujah, the evangelical voices, the Lord’s commandments, the admonition and
 counsel of the holy bishops and presbyters, all spirituals, all heavenly things,
 all relief of salvation and kingdom. Who comes to the church hears that and sees
 that. What see those who run to the theater? Prostitutes, devilish songs, voices
 full of filth and anarchy, women dancing, or rather being possessed by a demon.
 For what does the female dancer? It’s nothing other than that she is voluntarily
 possessed by a demon. Equally the lyre-player assaults his wooden instrument like
 a demon. All those spectacles of the theater are demonic, all are causing
 destruction, all are amusements of demons. That’s why their
 reward is good-for-nothing. Such was the banquet of Herod . As Herodias entered, she danced and cut off
 the head of John the
 Baptist , and
 (then) she inherited the Hades under the earth. Now, those who loved her
 lascivious dance have their share and their condemnation with her. Now, be content, my beloved, to work on six days for your business and to cease
 wrongdoings on the day of the Lord. I know many who have troubles with each other
 and are fighting and say: ‘The day of the Lord comes and we have a trial.’ Oh
 wretched and miserable man! You are ordered to pray on the day of the Lord, not to
 organize courts of justice! Now the day of the Lord comes and the one who has a
 trial premeditates the whole night what he has against his neighbor and when the
 sunrise comes he arms himself against him. This custom is custom with most people
 that they sit outside when they leave the church and often the presbyter acts like
 that in the first place, and then they throw affairs at each other, disputes,
 insolences, reproaches, and such things and even worse things than that. Then they
 reenter the church and look angrily on each other like wild animals that creak
 with their teeth. Woe to the presbyter who sets such things in motion or sits in
 judgment on the day of the Lord and does not give his prayers to the Lord at the
 set hour! But if someone tastes from the common things before the release, he is
 liable to great judgment and punishment. And if he had tasted and has communion in
 the mysteries, then his part is that of the traitor Judas . I know many who tasted and
 took part on the day of the holy Pascha and woe to their soul, even more, if they
 are in adult age, that they instead of releasing their sins load even more on
 themselves. But also who has acknowledged bad deeds to himself and has had
 communion before he wiped them off through repentance is liable to the same
 judgment. For the bigger the day the bigger the sin. And those who are not without
 blame need to be strong until the release and need to have communion in that way.
 Woe to those who play lyre on the day of the Lord or dance or get judged or sit as
 judges or work or take an oath or make one swear, that they will be condemned to
 inextinguishable fire and their part is with the hypocrites. For that day was
 given to us for prayer and for atonement of evil, for repentance and for
 salvation, for rest of hired laborers and of servants. For that is the day that the Lord had made. Let us praise and rejoice in
 it! Let us rejoice not
 befuddled by intoxication and drunkenness, but delighted in the declamation of the
 divine scriptures! God gave us that day, on which he began to make the world, in
 which he destroyed the power of death, and he called it the day of the Lord, that
 beginning with the name of the day itself we respect and keep the commandments of
 the Lord. A hired laborer goes in his house and dedicates himself to his work and
 on six days he does not dare to look up and see the sun, where it comes from and
 where it goes to, but weary in your works the lamentable shatters and weeps, in
 sweat and in pains, and never is it granted to him to look up or to take a rest,
 as we said, but he only waits for the day of the Lord, that, if anything, the dirt
 is shaken off his body, and often you do not even concede him that. And which
 defense will you have, tell me! Of course, there are some who out of beneficence
 will say on the day of the Lord: Come here, today let’s help the poor in their
 work! And who do not know that since they want to do good they sin even more. If
 you want to help the poor, do not steal the day of God, but give your earnings to
 the poor, from which you have your revenue. When they are obliged to do your work,
 then give help to the poor! But when your slaves and your hired laborers and your
 cattle are obliged to rest, then you take away their rest and give it to the poor.
 God knows whose work it is! Do not transgress the commandment of the Lord, do not
 steal his day, do not deprive your slaves and your hired laborers from their rest,
 do not get separated from the prayer, do not stay away from the church! For
 nothing is higher than the church, the church is higher than the heaven and
 brighter than the sun and clearer than the moon and the stars and more valuable
 than the whole world. I know many who do not enter the church the whole week,
 often even entirely. And when something bad happens to them because of their
 ill-doing, they accuse God and not themselves and say: ‘Why has God allowed that
 to happen?’ And they do not know that as far as they put themselves away from the
 church as far away is also God from them, as also the prophet says: Those
 far away from you perish.