Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R.
May our frailty, we beseech You, O Lord, find support in the help of Your mercy so that what is marred by its own nature may be restored by Your grace.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Take up a pleasant psalm with the harp blow the trumpet in the beginning of the month for it is a statute in Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. Ps 80:6 He made it a decree for Joseph, when he came forth from the land of Egypt: he heard an unfamiliar speech. Sing joyfully to God our strength acclaim the God of Jacob. According to the words of Solomon, ‘The just is the first accuser of himself,’ and in another place, ‘Confess your sins that you may be justified.’ Accordingly, Matthew calls himself, in his Gospel, both Matthew and the publican, to show his readers that no one should despair of salvation who is converted to a better life, since he was himself changed suddenly from a publican to an apostle.“ But Matthew refers to himself as Matthew. “ The other Evangelists, out of respect and reverence for Matthew would not call him by his ordinary name, but addressed him – for he had two names – as Levi. Jerome, Priest: Commentary on Matthew, Bk. teach men to make use of them in moderation, and. As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, through these activities, and through prayer, we use the Ember Days to “thank God for the gifts of nature. (If you observe the traditional Friday abstinence from meat, then you would observe complete abstinence on an Ember Friday.)Īs always, such fasting and abstinence has a greater purpose. The Ember Days are celebrated with fasting (no food between meals) and half-abstinence, meaning that meat is allowed at one meal per day. Originally celebrated only by the Church in Rome, they spread throughout the West (but not the East), starting in the fifth century. By the time of Pope Gelasius II (492-96), the fourth set of Ember Days had been instituted.
The adoption of Ember Days by Christians happened so early that Pope Leo the Great (440-61) considered the Ember Days (with the exception of the one in the spring) to have been instituted by the Apostles. The pagan practice, though directed at false gods, was praiseworthy all that was necessary was to transfer the supplications to the true God of Christianity. The Ember Days are a perfect example of how the Church (in the words of the Catholic Encyclopedia) “has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose.” The adoption of the Ember Days wasn’t an attempt to displace Roman paganism so much as it was a way to avoid disrupting the lives of Roman converts to Christianity. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. It’s common to claim that the dates of important Christian feasts (such as Christmas) were set to compete with or replace certain pagan festivals, even though the best scholarship indicates otherwise. In the case of the Ember Days, however, it’s true. Embertide is traditionally a time of preparation for Ordinations on Ember Saturday: please remember those preparing for Ordination this Embertide.įeria Quarta Quattuor Temporum Septembris Commemoration of the Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist: Missa “ Exsultáte Deo ”
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