Ember Days
September 15, 2024
Morning, Catskill Valley by George Innes; 1894
NEXT SUNDAY brings the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun is at its highest point directly above the equator, and the fall season, with its smoldering beauty, begins. The liturgical calendar also assigns seasonal significance to this season. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are “Ember Days” on the traditional Catholic calendar, days of fast, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving. These penitential days are more important than ever. This is something you can do to help yourself, your country and the people you know.
Reflections on the Autumnal Embertide can be found at Fisheaters.
In the 13th century, Blessed Jacopo de Voragine gave eight reasons to fast on an Ember Day:
For the first time, which is in March, is hot and moist. The second, in summer, is hot and dry. The third, in harvest, is cold and dry. The fourth in winter is cold and moist. Then let us fast in March which is printemps for to repress the heat of the flesh boiling, and to quench luxury or to temper it. In summer we ought to fast to the end that we chastise the burning and ardour of avarice. In harvest for to repress the drought of pride, and in winter for to chastise the coldness of untruth and of malice.
The second reason why we fast four times; for these fastings here begin in March in the first week of the Lent, to the end that vices wax dry in us, for they may not all be quenched; or because that we cast them away, and the boughs and herbs of virtues may grow in us. And in summer also, in the Whitsun week, for then cometh the Holy Ghost, and therefore we ought to be fervent and esprised in the love of the Holy Ghost. They be fasted also in September tofore Michaelmas, and these be the third fastings, because that in this time the fruits be gathered and we should render to God the fruits of good works. In December they be also, and they be the fourth fastings, and in this time the herbs die, and we ought to be mortified to the world.
Another purpose of these days is to express gratitude for the gifts of nature. Scientists observe the regularity of the seasons and say it is a purely physical process, arising from chance. Modern scientists are obsessed with the details and fail to see … the trees. Every season has its own spiritual undertones and expresses the will of its Maker. (Source)
The Japanese dish tempura allegedly comes from priests in Nagasaki, Japan who wanted new ways to eat vegetables and seafood on Ember Days.
See thoughts here on appreciating the September Ember Days with your children.
If we would be truly rich with God, if we would draw down his blessing on the preservation, as well as on the production, of the fruits of the earth, let us, at the beginning of this last quarter of the year, have recourse to those penitential exercises, whose beneficial effects we have always experienced in the past. The Church gives us the commandment to do so, by obliging us, under penalty of grievous sin, to abstain and fast on these three days, unless we be lawfully dispensed.
— Dom Prosper Guéranger
