“He makes me lie down in green pastures,” reads Psalm 23. “He leads me beside quiet waters.”

“Holy leisure” brings work to a halt and provides a respite against the servitude of work and the worship of money. Join the Notre Dame family in acknowledging the value of rest and refreshment.

“Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity,” writes Pope Francis in his most recent encyclical, Laudato Si. “Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture.”

St. Thomas wrote, “God, who made things, did not rest in the things he made, but rested from them, in himself… just so should we learn to rest not in our things or in his things, as if they were the goal, but rather in God himself, in whom our happiness exists.”

Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “Through the recreation and leisure made possible by travel, people are restored and renewed, body and spirit. They return home to family and work with a new perspective and enthusiasm for life.”

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “We live in a society in which it seems that every space, every moment must be ‘filled’ with initiatives, activity, sound; often there is not even time to listen and dialogue… Let us not be afraid to be silent outside and inside ourselves, so that we are able not only to perceive God’s voice, but also the voice of the person next to us, the voices of others.”

Pope Francis said, “Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport.”