Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week mark the "Lenten Embertide." Four times a year--in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall--the Church sets aside three days for the faithful to offer the upcoming season to God through prayer and fasting. Here we are in the bleakest, coldest part of our record-breaking Winter, yet the Church bids us give thanks to God for Spring. Not much is known about the origin of the name "Ember" days. So often, we think of embers as something dying--the last bright holdouts in a fire about to consume itself. Yet embers are better seen as something living--sparks of light and life lying in the ashes, ready to blaze again.
Ember days come clothed in purple and remind us of the promise of Spring. The first crocus of the Liturgical Year.
Comments