Ember Days ... Half-abstinence?

[AlabamaCatholic]

Today, as the Wednesday of the third week of Advent, is an Ember Day. It is my understanding that on Ember days Catholics, if you are following the old rules, must fast (one large meal; two smaller meals not equaling a large meal) and adhere to a “half-abstinence”, or only eating meat at ONE meal.

Is my understanding correct? Thanks!

 

[JM3]

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html

1. Each diocese should have its own Calendar and Proper of Masses. For its part, the Bishops’ Conference should draw up a proper calendar for the nation or, together with other Conferences, a calendar for a wider territory, to be approved by the Apostolic See.[153]

In carrying this out, to the greatest extent possible the Lord’s Day is to be preserved and safeguarded, as the primordial holy day, and hence other celebrations, unless they be truly of the greatest importance, should not have precedence over it.[154] Care should likewise be taken that the liturgical year as revised by decree of the Second Vatican Council not be obscured by secondary elements.

In the drawing up of the calendar of a nation, the Rogation and Ember Days should be indicated (cf. no. 373), as well as the forms and texts for their celebration,[155] and other special measures should also be taken into consideration.

It is appropriate that in publishing the Missal, celebrations proper to an entire nation or territory be inserted at the correct place among the celebrations of the General Calendar, while those proper to a region or diocese be placed in a special appendix.

familyfeastandferia.wordpress.com/living-the-liturgical-year-at-home/ember-and-rogation-days/

Rogation and Ember Days
45. On rogation and 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 labor, and to give him public thanks.

1. In order to adapt the rogation and ember days to various regions and the different needs of the people, the conferences of bishops should arrange the time and plan for their celebration.

Consequently, the competent authority should lay down norms, in view of local conditions, on extending such celebrations over one or several days and on repeating them during the year.

1. On each day of these celebrations the Mass should be one of the votive Masses for various needs and occassions that is best suited for the intentions of the petitioners.

There is a different focus on each day of ember week:

Ember Wednesdays are dedicated to Mary; they are always “Mary’s Day”. All four ember Wednesdays were celebrated in the station church St. Mary Major. Wednesday, devoted to our Lady, is a day of reflection and spiritual orientation.

All four Ember Fridays take place in the stational church of the Basilica of the Apostles. I like how Father Parsch puts it: “Ember Friday is the liturgy’s ‘Yom Kippur.’” Friday emphasizes conversion and penance.

All the Ember Saturdays take place in the stational church of St. Peter. Saturday is a preview of Easter, and it marks the renewal of our baptismal covenant.

newadvent.org/cathen/01067a.htm

Ember Days
The beginning of the four seasons of the year is marked by Ember Week, during which Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are days of fasting and abstinence. Ember Week occurs after the first Sunday of Lent, after Pentecost, after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and after the third Sunday in Advent. According to some writers the Ember Days in December were introduced by the Apostles as a preparation for the ordinations which occurred during that month (Layman, loc. cit.). The scriptural basis for this practice is to be found in Acts 13:2 sq. The summer Ember Days were observed during the octave of Pentecost (St. Leo I, Sermo ii, de Pentecost.), and the autumn Ember Days in September (Idem, Sermo viii, De jejunio septimi mensis). In the False Decretals (c. 840-50) Pope Callistus (217-22) is made to add a fourth week. We decree, he says, that the fast which you have learned to keep three times yearly, shall henceforward be made four times a year (Epist., Decr. lxxvi, cap., i; Migne, P.G., X, 121). St. Jerome, in his commentary on the eighth chapter of Zachary, believes that the Ember Days were instituted after the example of the Jews, who fasted and abstained four times during the year, as noted in the preceding paragraph. St. Leo I (Sermo vii, De jej. sept. mensis) considers that the purpose of penance during Ember Week is to urge the faithful to special efforts in the cause of continency. The two views are entirely compatible.

I don’t know where you got “half-abstinence” from.

 

[sungirl]

Today, as the Wednesday of the third week of Advent, is an Ember Day. It is my understanding that on Ember days Catholics, if you are following the old rules, must fast (one large meal; two smaller meals not equaling a large meal) and adhere to a “half-abstinence”, or only eating meat at ONE meal.

Is my understanding correct? Thanks!

My understanding is the same as yours except that Friday should be full abstinence (which fits with the overall call to Friday abstinence).

 

[PattiDay]

Thanks for the reminder. The sisters instilled these teachings in us in elementary school. God bless them.

 

[Speramus]

I don’t know where you got “half-abstinence” from.

According to the Angelus missal (pp 4-5), Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays were days of complete abstinence in the universal Church, but days of partial abstinence in the United States.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

According to the Angelus missal (pp 4-5), Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays were days of complete abstinence in the universal Church, but days of partial abstinence in the United States.

As I recall the half-abstinence idea came in in the late 40’s.

 

[Speramus]

As I recall the half-abstinence idea came in in the late 40’s.

I believe you are correct, although that was not the first time fasting requirements were relaxed.

 

[utah_rose]

Thanks for the reminder. The sisters instilled these teachings in us in elementary school. God bless them.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it was my understanding that Ember Days after Vatican 11 were voluntary. No Catholic calendar that I have even has them on.

The rules were a lot stricter then. My mother worked at night, and it was very difficult for her to do this (she would get ill) but couldn’t get a dispensation from our parish priest.

I do believe though that if people want to do this during Advent, it’s fine. But during Lent I think it’s more important.

Also remember some people are diabetic and have trouble doing this. Sometimes fasting from other things (television, using the computer a lot or recreational things) is much more effective. Our Bishop in Salt Lake reminded everyone this is the Advent season and parties and such should be AFTER Christmas, not before and decorations should only be put up a few days before.

It is amazing how much more relaxed I feel this year. I haven’t been frantically baking, decoration the outside or inside and reflecting and praying more. Almost like Lent. Then right before Christmas the Nativity will be up, and trees up until the Epiphany or January 9th.

 

[AlabamaCatholic]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it was my understanding that Ember Days after Vatican 11 were voluntary. No Catholic calendar that I have even has them on.

The rules were a lot stricter then. My mother worked at night, and it was very difficult for her to do this (she would get ill) but couldn’t get a dispensation from our parish priest.

I do believe though that if people want to do this during Advent, it’s fine. But during Lent I think it’s more important.

Also remember some people are diabetic and have trouble doing this. Sometimes fasting from other things (television, using the computer a lot or recreational things) is much more effective. Our Bishop in Salt Lake reminded everyone this is the Advent season and parties and such should be AFTER Christmas, not before and decorations should only be put up a few days before.

It is amazing how much more relaxed I feel this year. I haven’t been frantically baking, decoration the outside or inside and reflecting and praying more. Almost like Lent. Then right before Christmas the Nativity will be up, and trees up until the Epiphany or January 9th.

The Church has always made exceptions for people with legitimate health reasons (diabetes would be a fine example). The vast, vast majority of people can easily have one large meal and two smaller meals not equaling another large meal.

People don’t have to anymore but as I said in the OP, for those of us who cling to the tradition … fasting is essential in the spiritual life. The desert fathers, saints from the 2nd to the 16th centuries, popes, and Our Lord Himself all testify to the importance of fasting.

The bishops have the authority to set guidelines for things like this if the Holy Father grants them that authority. They aren’t mandating that we don’t do it, though. Unfortunately, I think in the 70s and 80s we got a lot of bishops that were plagued by that “Let’s make it easier for everyone” mentality that merges solemnities with Sundays and wipes out fasts.

 

[JM3]

The Church has always made exceptions for people with legitimate health reasons (diabetes would be a fine example). The vast, vast majority of people can easily have one large meal and two smaller meals not equaling another large meal.

**People don’t have to anymore **but as I said in the OP, for those of us who cling to the tradition … fasting is essential in the spiritual life. The desert fathers, saints from the 2nd to the 16th centuries, popes, and Our Lord Himself all testify to the importance of fasting.

The bishops have the authority to set guidelines for things like this if the Holy Father grants them that authority. They aren’t mandating that we don’t do it, though. Unfortunately, I think in the 70s and 80s we got a lot of bishops that were plagued by that “Let’s make it easier for everyone” mentality that merges solemnities with Sundays and wipes out fasts.

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ON PENANCE

Paenitemini

Issued by Pope Paul VI on February 17, 1966

Therefore, **the Church, while preserving – where it can be more readily observed – the custom **(observed for many centuries with canonical norms) **of practicing penitence **also **through abstinence from meat and fasting, intends to ratify **with its prescriptions other forms of penitence as well, provided that it seems opportune to episcopal conferences to replace the observance of fast and abstinence with exercises of prayer and works of charity.

In order that all the faithful, however, may be united in a common celebration of penitence, the Apostolic See intends to establish certain penitential days and seasons63 chosen among those which in the course of the liturgical year are closer to the paschal mystery of Christ64 or might be required by the special needs of the ecclesial community.65

Therefore, the following is declared and established:

I. 1. By divine law all the faithful are required to do penance.

1. The prescriptions of ecclesiastical law regarding penitence are totally reorganized according to the following norms:

II. 1. The time of Lent preserves its penitential character. The days of penitence to be observed under obligation through-out the Church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of “Grande Quaresima” (Great Lent), according to the diversity of the rite. Their substantial observance binds gravely. (See note at end.)

1. Apart from the faculties referred to in VI and VIII regarding the manner of fulfilling the precept of penitence on such days, abstinence is to be observed on every Friday which does not fall on a day of obligation, while abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday or, according to local practice, on the first day of ‘Great Lent’ and on Good Friday (see note at end).

III. 1. The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat.

1. The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, observing- -as far as quantity and quality are concerned – approved local custom.

IV. To the law of abstinence those are bound who have completed their 14th year of age. To the law of fast those of the faithful are bound who have completed their 21st year and up until the beginning of their 60th year. As regards those of a lesser age, pastors of souls and parents should see to it with particular care that they are educated to a true sense of penitence.

V. All privileges and indults, whether general or particular, are abrogated with these norms, but nothing is changed either regarding the vows of any physical or moral person or regarding the constitutions and rules of any approved religious congregation or institute.

VI. 1. In accordance with the conciliar decree “Christus Dominus” regarding the pastoral office of bishops, number 38,4, it is the task of episcopal conferences to:

A. Transfer for just cause the days of penitence, always taking into account the Lenten season;

B. Substitute abstinence and fast wholly or in part with other forms of penitence and especially works of charity and the exercises of piety.

papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6paen.htm

 

[utah_rose]

The Church has always made exceptions for people with legitimate health reasons (diabetes would be a fine example). The vast, vast majority of people can easily have one large meal and two smaller meals not equaling another large meal.

People don’t have to anymore but as I said in the OP, for those of us who cling to the tradition … fasting is essential in the spiritual life. The desert fathers, saints from the 2nd to the 16th centuries, popes, and Our Lord Himself all testify to the importance of fasting.

The bishops have the authority to set guidelines for things like this if the Holy Father grants them that authority. They aren’t mandating that we don’t do it, though. Unfortunately, I think in the 70s and 80s we got a lot of bishops that were plagued by that “Let’s make it easier for everyone” mentality that merges solemnities with Sundays and wipes out fasts.

I’m a senior so I wouldn’t have to do it anyway, but personally it makes more sense to me fasting from material things and such. If people do want to fast, more power to you, but as Mother Angelica has said “if it puts a frown on your face instead of a smile” you aren’t doing anything good.

We go to the TLM Mass frequently also, and I do try to fast from meat on Friday (which isn’t very hard for me) but I believe the reason Ember Days are not mentioned much is that probably Catholics didn’t abide by them much.

And as far as dispensations were concerned, the priests definitely were not as liberal as priests today, and I know for a fact that my saintly mother suffered from this. It all really depends on how your parish priest reacts to this. For example, ours won’t permit a TLM Mass.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Ember Days were probably the most violated of the penitential days in past times. Friday was easy to remember; it came every week. Advent and Lent were well defined seasons. The Eves were associated with major Feasts. But Ember Days just popped up on their own four times a year. And one felt obliged to confess every time one forgot.

A hundred years ago the Rogation Days [the three days before the Ascension] were also observed with abstinence, but that was before even my time.