no ember days are no longer observed as days of fast and abstinence in the US
Catholics in the US may abstain from meat on Friday, or substitute another penance that seems suitable to them, but this is not binding under pain of sin. Fridays of Lent and Ash Wednesday are days of abstinence, only Ash Wed. and Good Friday are fast days. Check with your local diocesan website for the rules that apply in your diocese. I am looking at the Lenten guidelines for our diocese.
don’t know about Saturday or Wednesday they have not been fast days in my lifetime (over 60 years).
Not unlike the U.S. Bishops the Canadian Bishops follows the new revised Norms with regards to Ember Days
Ember Days are discussed in the General Norms for the Liturgical Year U.S. (GIRM) tuck into one of the very last paragraphs, 394
- Each diocese should have its own Calendar and Proper of Masses. For its part, the of 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. 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. above, no. 373), as well as the forms and texts for their celebration,155 and other special measures should also be taken into consideration.
This is one of those instances in which the newer, post-Conciliar calendar reveals the myopia of the “experts” who cobbled together the liturgical reform.
By moving saints’ feast days around, they caused disruption with celebrations of name days, patronal feasts, etc. By changing the liturgical seasons – especially by eliminating the pre-Lenten Sundays – they diminished preparation for Lent. By eliminating Rogation Days and Ember Days, they removed crucial moments of petition from our schedule. In sum, they didn’t consider that people’s lives were tied or could be tied to the rhythm of the Church’s year of grace.
If there were ever a way in which the older, Extraordinary Form could provide “enrichment” for the newer, Ordinary Form, this would be one way: reconsideration of the structure of the newer and the older calendar and how they fit together or don’t fit together. Preferably; its regrettable that the addition of new feasts in the older calendar and the reintegration of elements of the older calendar don’t get placed into the newer.
Still though I have to admit the U.S. Bishops have done a far better job in keeping (“Traditional Feast Days”) in comparison to here in Canada where we once held the same devotions with virtually the same U.S. Catholic Feast Days that have now since been sliced, diced and omited from liturgical observances in Canada.
C’est le vie.
