From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the beginning of the seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) ....
You can read the entire article here.
We first came across Ember Days from a cookbook called "A Continual Feast". In that book the author states that they are probably taken from a Jewish custom of 4 fasts each year, though the Catholic Encyclopedia pegs their origin to four yearly pagan feasts. The Ember Days are also a time to spiritually prepare for the next Church season, and Mrs. Pickles and I thought it was a great idea to end a season of feasting and partying with fasting--to remind us of our weakness, our need, and our earthly pilgrimmage.
Pray, and fast.
Peace of Christ,
The Pickles
We used to keep the Ember Days when I was young. I think they were removed from the universal calendar during the liturgical reforms following Vatican II.
ReplyDeleteThey recall a time when the spiritual life of the faithful was more in tune with the seasons and cycles of nature, and the Faith permeated everything people did. It wouldn't be a bad thing to recover that sense of the Faith as the atmosphere we breathe, and the liturgical life of the Church as the rhythm of our lives, rather than its being just one of many "lifestyle options", or something we do in between the events of our "real lives".