During these days, we offer these small sufferings up in remission for our own sins, in reparation of the sins of others that have wounded Christ’s Mystical Body, and we pray for the conversion of poor sinners. Fasting is the same as it is during Lent, with no eating in between meals. Half-abstinence means that only one of the days three meals may contain meat, typically dinner.
#EMBER DAYS 2019 FULL#
On all of these days, fasting and half-abstinence are to be observed, except on Friday where full abstinence is to be observed. The requirements for observing Ember Days are fairly simple. Those Ember Days were observed the following week. We just recently celebrated the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on a Friday. Ember Days are observed on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays following four important feasts in the life of the Church. They follow not only the liturgical calendar but the seasonal calendar. With the current crisis in the Church, it’s clear that Latin Catholics must regain their collective liturgical memories and observe these practices of penitence once again so that the Church may be healed. But with abstinence no longer obligatory, this was quickly forgotten. This is similar to what happened with meatless Fridays: Although the bishops decreed that it was no longer necessary to abstain from meat on Fridays, the obligation to make some sort of penitential sacrifice every Friday of the year (unless that Friday falls on a solemnity) was and still is binding on all Catholics. But once they were no longer made obligatory, their observance fell into disuse. These special days of penitence were never banned or suppressed. Ember Days, in particular, served as a sort of “quarterly checkup.”
It used to be the same for Catholics, with several days throughout the year (e.g., Christmas Eve) being days of fasting and abstinence. Philip’s Fast, which is the equivalent of Advent for Byzantine Catholics, requires strict fasting and abstinence so as to strengthen the will and spirit, to make reparation for one’s own sins and those of the whole world. Our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters observe many penitential periods throughout the year, and not only during Lent. This sadly shows how much we’ve forgotten about the true meaning of penance over the last half-century or so. Just What are Ember Days, Anyway?įirst, for the typical North American Catholic, any call to fast or make a penance is usually observed only for Lent. However, many Catholics may only have a faint memory of what these penitential days are. In response to the Pope’s call for reparation, several bishops in the United States have asked the faithful to observe the Ember Days this year. Paul, if one part of the Body suffers, we all suffer. The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion.”Įven though we ourselves have not committed these outrages against the Lord, we are one Body. In his Letter to the People of God released on August 20th, Pope Francis remarked, “Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change. This is certainly a somber period in the history of the Church, which is why calls of fasting, repentance, and reparation are being heard all across the nation and into the Vatican itself. The Church is reeling right now from the various scandals that have been in the news since earlier in the summer. As one looks across the Catholic landscape right now, one would think that we were in Lent.
0 kommentar(er)
