Celebrating Shabbat creates a 'sanctuary in time' through which you can taste peace, deep joy, and wholeness and from which you are empowered to transform the world. Celebrating Shabbat opens a door to regain your connection to the part of you that is one with Oneness. The point of religious tradition and ritual is not to just know about God, or to mindlessly perform a series of words and actions. It is to reclaim the experience of your own soul, the core of your being that is in union with the Divine. From that Essence you can fulfill your unique purpose in life — to reveal, in your unique way, the Divine Self that is hidden in your world.

Jewish tradition of Sabbath Keeping: Kavannah and Menucha

Kavannah — Becoming Intentional 
Shabbat reminds you of the need to live your life deliberately. Kavannah means to act and to live with intentionality and consciousness. Instead of going through your life on 'automatic pilot', you can live with awareness and intentional choice. Kavannah reminds you that you are part of the whole cosmic 'tapestry of being'. Out of that awareness, which is the gift of Shabbat, you rediscover and live from your essence, from your wholeness.

The commandment to "keep and remember "… means to become conscious of the day, of God, and to act and refrain from acting based on that remembering. Shabbat is a commitment to recognize, honor, and deepen the inherent harmony of Creation — and as a result, to co-create that harmony and balance within your relationships, your homes, your self, and your world. " Keep and remember" also means become conscious of who you really are and as Abraham Heschel said, "to bring together the scattered forces of the self." Shabbat offers you an opportunity to practice living intentionally.

Menucha — Sabbath Rest
Shabbat is a day in which you step out of your 'doing' into 'being.' You keep and remember who you are — a human being created in the image of and in relationship with God.

Sabbath rest (menucha) has two basic aspects — to refrain from doing creative activity, and to do things that create rest, harmony, and peace. Shabbat is the day God and all Creation rested. And that sacred rest is what you honor in yourself and Creation.

Part of the reason for refraining from various activities is to honor the inherent wholeness and unity of Creation. Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace, is to reconnect with your experience of that inherent wholeness and unity.

Excerpts from Shabbat: A Taste of Wholeness
Dawn Lipthrott, Orlando, Florida

Christian Tradition of Sabbath Keeping: Christo-centric
At the very beginning of the Christian era, the Church shifted the Jewish observance of Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, basically for two reasons: Jesus rose on Easter Sunday, and the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles fifty days later, also a Sunday. It also sees in the celebration an understanding that Christ ushered in the new creation and fulfills the Sabbath.

In the light of this constant and universal tradition, it is clear that, although the Lord's Day is rooted in the very work of creation and even more in the mystery of the biblical "rest" of God, it is nonetheless to the Resurrection of Christ that we must look in order to understand fully the Lord's Day. This is what the Christian Sunday does, leading the faithful each week to ponder and live the event of Easter, true source of the world's salvation.

John Paul II
— excerpts from Dies Domini 1998