Category Archives: Devotion

Devotion

Ember Days after the Cross

Ember Days or the Quatuor Temporas are a traditional time of harvest fasting “four times” per year. The Ember days are the Wednesday, September 19, Friday, September 21 and Saturday, September 22.

This is a time to ask God for the gift of holy priests for the harvest of souls. Let us voluntarily take up the Ember Days, whatever your intention may be.

For more on the Ember Days:

Devotion

Ember Days for Spring 2018

The Spring 2018 Ember Days begin today, and continue on Friday and Saturday. There is an intensity of prayer, fasting and almsgiving for Ember Days.

Ember Days are days of  fasting and partial abstaining from meat: days of penance with the intention of thanking God for the gifts He gives us in nature and asking Him for the discipline to use them in moderation. The fasts, known as “the fast of the four seasons,” are rooted in Old Testament practices of fasting four times a year:

Zacharias 8:19

Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace.

It is good to ponder what St Cyril of Jerusalem once said,

“I praise and glorify Him that made us; for it is a divine command which saith, Let every breath praise the Lord. I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all. For the Lord Jesus encourageth my weakness, by saying, No man hath seen God at any time.”

Devotion

February prayer intention

For the month of February, the prayer intention of Pope Francis is:

That those who have material, political or spiritual power may resist any lure of corruption.

Let’s ask for the grace to be steadfast to the Gospel and teaching of the Church.

Devotion

TLM this coming week

The Traditional Latin Mass will be offered:
 
~January 28, Septuagesima Sunday, Low Mass at 2:00pm
 
~Friday Friday Mass, February 2, Low Mass at 8:00 am
 
~Candlemas, Sunday, February 4, High Mass with the blessing of candles, procession and the Blessing of Throats following Mass at 2:00 pm
 
Bring your house candles to be blessed. A table will be provided in the sanctuary.
Devotion

Angels give praise

Earlier this month the Church liturgical recalled the Guardian Angels and in late September we did the same for the Archangels. Thinking of the presence of the angels of late, here is a line from St. John Chrysostom who tells us of our angelic calling:
 
“On high the armies of the angels are giving praise. Here below in the Church the human choir takes up after them the same doxology. Above us, angels of fire make the thrice Holy hymn resound magnificently. Here below is raised the echo of their hymn. The festival of heaven’s citizens is united with the inhabitants of earth in a single thanksgiving, a single upsurge of happiness, a single chorus of joy.”
 
On Ozias, Homily 4,1(PG 56,120)
 
Olivier Clement, trans. Roots of Christian Mysticism: Texts from the Patristic Era with Commentary, second edition. (New York: New City Press, 2013), 118.