WEDNESDAY: The first of the 3 Ember Days this week... Four times a year, the Church sets aside three days to focus on God through His marvelous creation. These quarterly periods take place around the beginnings of the four natural seasons. These times are spent fasting and partially abstaining (voluntary since the new Code of Canon Law) in penance and with the intentions of thanking God for the gifts He gives us in nature and beseeching Him for the discipline to use them in moderation. The fasts, known as Jejunia quatuor temporum, or the fast of the four seasons, are rooted in Old Testament practices of fasting four times a year. These four times are each kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and are known as Ember Days, or Quatuor Tempora, in Latin. The first of these four times comes in Winter, after the the Feast of St. Lucy; the second comes in Spring, the week after Ash Wednesday; the third comes in Summer, after Pentecost Sunday; and the last comes in Autumn, after Holy Cross Day. fisheaters/emberdays.html
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:10:36 +0000
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