With the opinion and awareness that “Orthodox Liturgy Today” also refers to the tradition and practices of the increasingly present interest and acceptance of Western Rite Orthodoxy, I post this edited and adapted article on the EMBER DAYS. The article was adapted & edited and from an article published by Holy Trinity (German) Catholic Church , Boston, MA.  (Parish now suppressed).

I am eagerly awaiting opinions and comments, especially concerning the increased awareness Orthodox Christians are being asked to give to the issues of environmental concern.

 (Fr. Gregory+)

The “Four Times,” or Ember Days

 What Are They?

• The Ember Days are four series of Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays which correspond to the natural seasons of the year. Autumn brings the September, or Michaelmas, Embertide; winter, the Advent Embertide; Spring, the Lenten Embertide; and in summer, the Whit Embertide (named after Whitsunday, the Feast of Pentecost).
• The English title for these days, “Ember,” is derived fro m their Latin name: Quatuor Temporum, meaning the “Four Times” or “Four Seasons.”
• The Embertides are periods of prayer and fasting, each with a particular Liturgy. 

What Is Their Significance?

The Ember Days Are…

Universally Christian,

• The Old Law prescribes a “fast of the fourth month, and a fast of the fifth, and a fast of the seventh, and a fast of tenth” (Zechariah 8:19). There was also a Jewish custom at the time of Jesus to fast every Tuesday and Thursday of the week.
• The first Christians amended both of these customs, fasting instead on every Wednesday and Friday: Wednesday because it is the day that Christ was betrayed, and Friday because it is the day that He was slain. (And we now know that this biweekly fast is actually older than some books of the New Testament). Later, Christians from both East and West added their own commemorations of the seasons.
• Although the Ember Days were initially celebrated only in the Church of Rome, they gradually were adopted in the other local Churches of the West ( Naples – 7th cent., England – late 7th cent., Gaul (France) - 8th cent., Spain – 11th cent., Milan – 12th cent.). The tradition of celebrating the Ember Days never developed=2 0in the Eastern Church. However, there was already in place a practice of keeping Fast periods throughout the year; Great Lent, the Apostles Fast (June), Dormition Fast (August 1- 14), and the Christmas Fast (November 15 to December 24). And with the exception of the weeks after Pascha (Easter), Pentecost, and Christmas, there has been and continues to be the weekly fast on Wednesdays & Fridays. 
• The Ember Days thus perfectly express and reflect the essence of Christianity. Christianity does not abolish the Law but fulfills it (Mt. 5:17) by following the spirit of the Law rather than its letter. Thus, not one iota of the Law is to be neglected (Mt. 5:18), but every part is to be embraced and continued, albeit on a spiritual, or figurative, level. And living in this spirit is nothing less than living out the. New Covenant.   

Uniquely Western,

• The Apostles preached one and the same faith wherever they went, but sometimes instituted different customs and practices. Thus, Christians came to love not only the “catholic” faith but the particular apostolic traditions of each Church which had initiated them into that faith.
• The Christians of the Church of Rome adopted the customs of the ancestral Roman religions by solemnizing the three agricultural seasons of summer, fall and winter. They subsequently added the celebration of the beginning of spring, thus keeping alive the memory of the time when the month of March was the first of the year, as well as keeping the Lenten Fast, a tradition which was also in its developmental stages. Their approval was first given by Pope Siricius (+399 AD) at the end of the 4th cent. St. Leo the Great (+461 AD) already regarded them as traditional.
• The development of the Ember Days at Rome involved adding one day: Saturday. This was seen as the culmination of the Ember Week. A special Mass and procession to St. Peter’s in Rome was held, and the congregation was invited to “keep vigil with Peter.”  It should be noted that as this tradition developed the Saturday celebration of the Liturgy (Mass) was actually the Liturgy for the Sunday to follow as the Litrugy was celebrated in the evening, thus it was a “vigil” of the Sunday celebration, akin to the Vigil of Pascha or Christmas.
• Observing the Ember Days, therefore, not only celebrates our continuity with sacred history, but with a specifically “western” ecclesiastical tradition. 

Usefully Natural,

• But continuity is not important because of a blind loyalty to one’s own or a feeling of nostalgia. On the contrary, the Christian fulfillment of the Law is important because of its pedagogical value. Everything in the Law (not to mention the rest of the Bible) is meant to teach us something fundamental about God, His redemptive plan for us, or the nature of the universe, often on levels that are not initially apparent to us. In the case of both the Hebrew seasonal fasts and the Christian Ember Days, we are invited to consider the wonder of the natural seasons and their relation to God. The seasons, for example, can be said to intimate individually the bliss of Heaven, where there is “the beauty of spring, the brightness of summer, the plenty of autumn, the rest of winter” (St. Thomas Aquinas).
• Second, because the liturgical seasons of the Church are meant to initiate us annually into the mysteries of our redemption, they should also include some commemoration of nature for the simple reason that nature is the very thing which grace perfects. 

Communally Clerical,

• Another Roman variation of Embertides, instituted by Pope Gelasius I in 494, is to use Ember Saturdays as the day to confer Holy Orders.^* Apostolic tradition prescribed that ordinations be preceded by fast and prayer (see Acts 13:3), and so it seemed quite reasonable to place ordinations at the end of this fast period. Moreover, this allows the entire community to join the men in fasting and praying for God’s blessing upon their calling and to share their joy in being called. 

And Personally Prayerful

• In addition to commemorating the seasons of nature, each of the four Embertides takes on the character of the liturgical season in which it is located. In fact, the Ember Days add to our living out the times of the Church’s calendar. For example, Ember Wednesday of Advent (a.k.a the “Golden Mass”), commemorates the Annunciation while the Ember Friday two days later commemorates the Visitation, the only time in Advent when this is explicitly done.
• Embertides thus afford us the opportunity to ruminate on a number of important things: the wondrous cycle of nature and the more wondrous story of our redemption, the splendid differentiation of God’s ordained servants — and lastly, the condition of our own souls. Traditionally, these were times of spiritual exercises and personal self-examination, the ancient equivalent of our modern retreats and missions. Little wonder, then, that a host of customs and folklore grew up around them affirming the special character of these days.