EMBER DAYS

Today, as well as Friday and Saturday of this week are known as 'Ember Days'. Following is what it is all about:

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

All things have their season,
and in their times all things pass under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal.
A time to destroy, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.
A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather.
A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to get, and a time to lose.
A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew.
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
A time of war, and a time of peace.

Four times a year, the Church sets aside three days to focus on God through His marvelous creation. These quarterly periods take place around the beginnings of the four natural seasons that "like some virgins dancing in a circle, succeed one another with the happiest harmony," as St. John Chrysostom wrote.

These four times are each kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and are known as "Ember Days," or Quatuor Tempora, in Latin. The first of these four times comes in Winter, after the Feast of St. Lucy; the second comes in Spring, the week after Ash Wednesday; the third comes in Summer, after Pentecost Sunday; and the last comes in Autumn, after Holy Cross Day. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:

Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia
Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria. Which means:

Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,
are when the quarter holidays follow.

These times are spent fasting and partially abstaining (voluntary since the new Code of Canon Law) in penance and with the intentions of thanking God for the gifts He gives us in nature and beseeching Him for the discipline to use them in moderation.



I. The meaning of the law of fasting and abstinence.

1. The law of fasting requires that only one full meal be taken a day; but it does not forbid that, in addition to this, some food be taken in the morning and in the evening in accordance with the approved custom of one's locality. This law does not forbid the eating of fish and flesh at the same meal, and it permits one to take his full meal either at noon or in the evening, as he may wish.

2. The law of abstinence requires that one abstain from meat, as well as soup or broth made from meat; it does not forbid the use of eggs, butter, milk, cheese, etc.

3. The days of abstinence are all the Fridays of the year; this is in memory of our Lord's death on Good Friday. But when Friday falls on a Holyday, e.g., Christmas, meat may be eaten.

4. The times of fasting are:

(a) the Ember Days, i.e., Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in a week of each of the four seasons of the year. The purpose of these fasts is to consecrate each season of the year by some days of mortification, to thank God for His graces, ask His blessing upon the harvest, and to pray for those whom it is customary to ordain to the priesthood at those times,

(b) The vigils of Pentecost, Assumption, All Saints, and Christmas. These days are called vigils because in ancient times the faithful used to spend the night before them in watching, prayer and fasting,

(c) The longest, strictest and most venerable fast of the year is that of Lent, which goes back to the times of the Apostles. It commemorates our Lord's forty days' fast in the desert, associates us with His suffering by the practice of penance, and prepares us for the great feast of Easter. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and terminates at noon on Easter Saturday.

5. The days of both fasting and abstinence are: (a) Ember Days; (b) the vigils mentioned above: (c) Ash Wednesday and the Fridays and Saturdays in Lent.


II. The obligation of the law of fasting and abstinence.

l. Fasting in general is of the natural law, because nature and common sense teach us that it is necessary for subduing the passions, elevating the mind to spiritual things and making satisfaction for sin. Hence it has been practiced at all times, as we learn from the Old Testament (Exod. xxiv. 18; Jonas iii. 10; Dan. i. 15; I Esdras. viii. 23, etc.). Moreover, fasting has its basis in the law of mortification laid down by our Lord (Luke xiii. 5). But as neither the natural, nor the divine law has fixed the time and circumstances for observing fast and abstinence, the Church, in virtue of her divinely given authority of making laws that are for the advantage of the faithful, has determined the days, the times, and the manner of fasting and abstaining.

2. The law of abstinence binds all those who have completed their seventh year. The law of fasting obliges all who have completed their twenty-first year, and who have not yet entered upon their sixtieth year.

3. Reasons which excuse from the law of fasting and abstinence are: (a) infirm health, which would be made worse by fasting; (b) necessary work that is incompatible with fasting; (c) works of charity or piety for which there is some necessity, or which are more valuable than fasting, e.g., waiting on the sick, making a pilgrimage.

4. Those who are in doubt as to whether they are excused from fasting or abstinence should consult their confessor. Dispensations may be granted by parish priests (See Code, ec. 1243 ff.).


EXHORTATION:

1. Those who are able to fast should do so gladly and cheerfully in memory of the great event which Lent commemorates, and for the sake of the great blessings it brings with it.

2. Those who are excused from fasting and abstinence should remember that they are not exempt from the law of mortification and self-denial which they can fulfill by saying extra prayers, hearing Mass when possible on week days, giving alms to the poor or for holy purposes, refraining from unnecessary amusements, delicacies, etc.

Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part IV

The point is also beautifully made (of the seasons) in the eighth Psalm:

O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens. Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger. For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.

What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: And hast set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields. The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth! 

 
Be mindful of your effects on our dear earth and don't allow people to "politicize" the issue of our stewardship of God's creation! But to be mindful of nature, it helps to actually see her first. Go outside and look! And praise God for all you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste as you allow His glorious works to touch your senses!