The Winter (Lucy) Ember Days

Wednesday, December 16
Friday, December 18
Saturday, December 19

The Ember days are set for us, four times a year, to center our attention on God’s Providence given through the beauty of creation. The Ember Days refine our understanding that by the quarterly periods that there is a sacramentality of creation. We have now past the feast of Saint Lucy, one of the great Virgin-Martyrs on December 13. This feast day signals that the winter ember days are coming coming historically after the harvest (some people will say following the harvest of the olives).

As you note from the dates above, the three days of asceticism (a disciplined time of prayer and fasting) preparing us for the Nativity of the Lord. Part of the Church’s tradition is to fast on Wednesday and Saturday, and to fast and abstain on Friday.

Pray for the poor and the ill, pray for the clergy, for the Latin Mass apostolate.

For more information on Ember Days, read this blog post at Fisheaters.

Fr. Arnaud Devillers, FSSP, has a brief essay on the Ember Days.