Bishop Alfred Schlert asks the clergy and faithful of the Diocese of Allentown to celebrate the Ember Days for the Season of Lent as a sign of reparation and healing for the Church.
The Lenten Ember Days for 2024 are Wednesday, Feb. 21; Friday, Feb. 23; and Saturday, Feb. 24.
Ember Days are quarterly observances with three days set aside (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) to pray in gratitude for the blessings of the season and human labor, to thank God publicly. There are 12 Ember Days in all.
Holy Mother Church provides many opportunities to refresh and renew. The Lenten Ember Days blend with the Season of Lent, providing reminders to continue and persevere in the spirit of conversion and penance.
The fasting and abstinence would follow the current laws of the Church, with abstaining being from all meat, and fasting would be one full meal a day, with the allowance of two smaller meals that do not equal the main meal, and no eating between meals.
The Church no longer regularly ordains priests during the Quarterly Ember Days, but traditionally this is a special time, particularly Ember Saturday, to pray for priests and for seminarians.
Photo: A cross is pictured atop Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Solomons, Md., Aug. 26, 2021. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
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