Anyone doing Ember Days?

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Tis_Bearself

Patron
I thought I would give it a try, as the Lucy ones are coming up. I can do the fasting and abstinence part okay, I figured I would just follow the standard Vatican fasting rules (yes I know it’s kind of a wimpy fast but I already do bread and water Mondays and it’s a little tough to eat nothing but bread for four days out of the week, I am pretty sure I would start getting sick).

I understand there are supposed to be extra readings and lessons on those days. Obviously this was all thrown out in the switch over to OF Mass. I have an old missal (free on Google Play) and it has the readings and lessons for Ember days so I figured I would just read them.

Anybody else do Ember Days? What do you do, especially if you do something in addition to the fasting? I know on Ember Saturday we’re supposed to pray for vocations.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for my ignorance I geuss I could call it but what are Ember Days it sounds rather quite intriguing…
And what are bread and water Mondays could I have this bread toasted with a little bit of butter
 
I don’t know what it is either… 😇
 
Last edited:
Bread and water Mondays are a personal devotion I do for the souls of priests in purgatory, in connection with the Flame of Love devotion, which Archbishop Chaput has approved as a devotion in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and it’s very popular here (and in a few other dioceses). You consume only bread and water until at least 6 pm. If you wish to eat something else after 6 pm you must say a 5 decade Rosary that day for the Holy Souls. I will leave it at that so I don’t get into unapproved apparitions on the forum.

I hadn’t ever heard of Ember or Rogation days till I joined this forum either. It’s unfortunate that so many of our traditions got lost along the way. Here is an article on Ember Days

 
My community observes ember days.
Ember days are traditionally Wednesday Friday and Saturdays of particular liturgical weeks. These days are set aside for penance , fasting and prayer.

Here’s a blurb on them


“I wonder how many people are aware that Friday week, 4th September, is designated as the Spring Ember Day for the Catholic Church in Australia.
The word ‘ember’ in this context does not mean a glowing or smouldering piece of coal or wood; it probably comes from the old English word ymbryne meaning a recurring period.
Ember Days originated in pagan celebrations connected with harvest, vintage and seed time that were taken into the Church calendar. They were four groups of three days (always Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) of fasting and abstinence observed after the first Sunday of Lent, Pentecost Sunday, the feast of the Holy Cross on September 14th and the feast of St Lucy on December 13th. Ember Days corresponded roughly with the beginning of each of the four seasons.
The second Vatican Council retained Ember Days in principle but left it to bishops conferences to determine the time, number, and purpose of Ember Days.
Last year, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference decided that the Australian Church should observe the first Fridays in Autumn and Spring (March and September) each year as special days of prayer and penance. All Fridays are days of penance with fast and abstinence in any case.
The official document on the liturgical year and calendar says this about Ember Days:
On ember days the practice of the Church is to offer prayers to the Lord for the needs of all people, especially for the productivity of the earth and for human labour, and to give him public thanks (GNLYC 45).
In good times, it is natural to offer praise and thanksgiving to God for the blessings bestowed on us. In times of drought or flood in Australia, our prayers focus on people and places affected by natural disaster. At all times we need to be attentive to those who are devastated by famine and exploitation.
Ember Days in the 21st century will need to focus on the environment, climate change, and our stewardship of the world’s resources. They will help us connect our intercession for favourable conditions with a conversion of heart in relation to our care of the earth. For this reason, the bishops requested that emphasis be placed on doing penance, and on fasting and abstaining in connection with these Ember Days.
Fasting and abstaining from meat will serve to encourage restraint in our exploitation of natural resources. A day of penance will express our solidarity with those who are disadvantaged, especially those who suffer through famine and the inequitable distribution of the world’s goods.
It is recommended that prayers and readings for celebrating Eucharist on Spring Ember Days be chosen from Masses for Various Needs and Occasions.
 
Last edited:
It wasn’t thrown out, it was retained and left to individual Bishops to make decisions.
 
I feel quite comfortable saying “thrown out” because while, as the Aleteia article I posted states, the US bishops left it as a voluntary activity (the statement about Ember Days from 1966 is still posted on their website), I have literally never heard of them in decades of being a Catholic/ being around Catholics. That’s a pretty good sign that in USA some practice was allowed to erode to the vanishing point. I bet there are priests in the local churches around here who wouldn’t be able to tell me what an Ember Day was.
 
That’s fine, the experience is not universal though, and your experience is not the result of the intentions of the Church. We must remember that it is not the ubiquitous result of the switch to Mass in the Vernacular. My Community is Italian in origin and it’s Mother House is in Italy, Ember Days are very much a thing still. And Australia, as seen in my link, observes several Ember days.
 
I’d heard about the Ember Days before, but was never sure how to figure out the dates (or what these days were really even about). Then I saw this article on Church Pop that listed the dates for 2018/2019, so I’ve marked them on my Church calendar (the one they give out during Advent).


I’m already dieting, so I’m counting that for the fast, but I’m going to add in abstinence and a holy hour on these days. Thanks for the reminder, @Tis_Bearself!
 
I’m gonna be real with you here, as a new convert this sort of stuff freaks me out. I have visions of saints starving themselves and have never heard of ember days. We weren’t taught them on our RCIA course and I only found out about how you are supposed to behave on good Friday as regards fasting due to my own research. I have visions of people ‘suffering ‘ and as I’m from a Protestant background I was taught that Jesus did all the suffering. I am still not confortable with ‘penance’ in terms of physical deprivation and it weirds me out . I have not got a problem giving to charity and giving up stuff on a Friday in remembrance of Jesus’s sacrifice but I think the rest of it is just not for me. Jesus has suffered for us all and we can’t take his place. We can remember him when we suffer and unite ourselves with him but surely going out of our way to ‘suffer’ is unnecessary? Forgive me for my ignorance xx
 
Well, first of all a whole lot of longtime Catholics never heard of Ember Days either. The Church hasnt exactly been emphasizing them during the last few decades, at least not in USA.

Second, nobody ever starved to death following the official Roman Catholic fasting rules. More like I eat a fish sandwich or peanut butter instead of a burger, and I skip having snacks or dessert between meals. Even the private devotion bread fast that I do is a minor penance. Yes, it makes me tired and makes my mood lousy, but it’s not extreme self-mortification.

Third, you probably shouldn’t focus on saints who starved themselves. Those saints were operating in a totally different social context than we are. There was a limited amount of available food and going without food was a way to make sure another person, maybe a child or an old person, had something to eat. The “fast before a feast” was likely compensating for the fact that people would be eating extra during the feast. Plus, going without food isn’t just a Catholic thing, it’s done in all kinds of religions and spiritualities, traditionally. It can be a bit of a Vision Quest type activity. Finally, some of the people who went without food no doubt harmed their bodies and may have had some mental issues. In this day and age we are more careful about that and food is also more available in the Western world, so someone who is saintly would not be starving himself unless maybe he was in the concentration camp or in a famine in some remote land, and gave his food allotment away to others.

Having said all that…If you’re not ready for penance yet then you’re not ready. You don’t have to do everything all at once.
 
Last edited:
Roseeurekacross said:
That’s fine, the experience is not universal though, and your experience is not the result of the intentions of the Church. We must remember that it is not the ubiquitous result of the switch to Mass in the Vernacular. My Community is Italian in origin and it’s Mother House is in Italy, Ember Days are very much a thing still. And Australia, as seen in my link, observes several Ember days.
Click to expand...
Well, to be fair, Tis_Bearself never said it was universal. She did mention the U.S. in referencing her experience and the linked source. She was speaking of her own experience, which also seems to be the same for many of us here in the U.S. That’s all.
 
I followed the ember days this past fall, and plan on doing next week’s as well. Only the fasting and abstinence, plus some extra prayers for the purity of the Church.
 
That’s fine too. This is an international platform.

Catholic means universal.
And to be fair I was pointing out that the national experience is not necessarily the international experience. It was not the Australian, nor, it seems, the Italian experience.

I am sorry for the experience in USA . Truly I am .
 
So am I. The first day might be an abstinence challenge (I’ll be on retreat and won’t have control over my meal options; it’s too late to declare a special dietary need) but I think I can make it work. The other days pose no particular problems. 🙂

Will pray for all of you who are also observing Ember days next week. Please keep me in your prayers as well 🙏
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top