Origin, theological meaning of Sunday and its celebration in the Early Church.

One can talk nowadays about a Sunday issue, about its understanding and living in the current Christian life. Christians mostly refer to Sunday as a day of rest. In fact they mistakenly consider it the seventh day, equivalent to the day when God 'rested from all His things' (Gn. 2:2). At some point during the history of Christianity and of the cultic life, a certain 'synthesis'occurred between the attributes and demands of the two days specifically dedicated to worship -- the Old Testament Seventh Day (the Sabbath) and the New Testament Sunday -- so that gradually Sunday has become a Christian 'Sabbath'. All the prescriptions and definitions of the Old Covenant concerning the seventh day were gradually transferred to Sunday. This confusion is quite serious in the perspective of a correct service, understanding and experience of the liturgical cult. The present research aims to discover the revealed and authentic theological meaning of Sunday, to show its purely Christian origin, as well as to show, based on the documents of the first Christian century, how Sunday was celebrated in the Early Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]