And any of these practices can be celebrated at any of the solstices (i.e. These are just a few of the ideas with which we came up. Spend at least a few hours sometime during the three Ember Days at a park, hiking or some other quiet place of solitude. Go for walk at night and try to do some stargazing. Nurture that seed and transfer that seed out of doors when the weather permits. Plant a seed (flower or vegetable) in a cup. Go to bed at an early hour - easy to do when the only source of lighting is by candle or fire in the fireplace. Read a good book or have a good conversation.
Turn off the computer, television, cell phone and all electronic devices. Have dinner by candlelight (with everyone present since no one drives that night). Limit yourself to only necessary cooking and driving. The significance of the days of the week is that Wednesday was the day Christ was betrayed, Friday was the day He was crucified, and Saturday was the day He was entombed. Lucy (December 13), during the third week of Advent, to give thanks for the olive crop. Or volunteer for a soup kitchen.įast from electricity for one day. Winter: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Feast of St. Tithe your grocery shopping during that period to a local food depot. Following are some suggested practices we put out to our parishioners. In addition to the traditional forms of fasting and abstinence, we challenged our community to some of the following methods of reconnection as part of the Ember Day observance. Elizabeth to brainstorm some practices that we as a parish community could observe to rekindle a sense of the Sacred in terms of the great annual movement of the cosmos. Unlike our ancestors, we really don't ritualize the mysterious changing of the seasons and their relationship to the cycle of life.Ībout four years ago I gathered some of the folk from the Worship Commission and artists of our parish of St. Given the psychic/spiritual cost of our contemporary era's alienation from those rhythms, I believe we need a revival of the potential power of Ember Days for the 21st century. I have felt for some time that we as a church, by our recent neglect of Ember Days, have lost an opportunity to connect ritually with those sacred rhythms of creation. And the summer Ember Days begin the Wednesday after Pentecost.Īlthough they were fixed by Pope Gregory VII, their origins predate Christianity as a sacred time for marking the seasons. The spring Ember Days begin on the Wednesday following Ash Wednesday. The winter Ember Days begin the first Wednesday following the Feast of St. The winter, spring and summer Ember Days also occur at or around the seasonal equinoxes. 14), they are inextricably tied to the fall equinox.
Lucys feast (Dec 13) Dec 17, 2021, Ember Day (Winter Friday) Dec 18, 2021, Ember. The church marks these three days as the fall Ember Days.Īlthough the fall Ember Days are marked as the first Wednesday following the Exaltation of the Cross (Sept. ADVENT Dec 15, 2021, Ember Day (Winter Wednesday) Wednesday following St. 21) would be marked as a day of fasting and abstinence. Once not so long ago, this coming Wednesday (Sept.
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