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The Time After Pentecost
We give expression to our repentance when we fast on Ember days. We sanctify our fast
through the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice. At this sacrifice we unite our fasting and
penance to the suffering and death of the Lord, and we beseech God that He may be pleased
with the sacrifice of our fast and make us worthy of His grace, which we expect from the Mass.
This grace will lead us to the promises of eternal life (Secreta).
A special fruit of repentance is the reception of the Holy Eucharist. “Remove from me
reproach and contempt” (Communion). How else may I hope to participate worthily in the
holy Sacrament of Thy body and blood? At Holy Communion we receive the power to seek “out
Thy commandments, O Lord, for Thy testimonies are my meditation” (Communion). The final
fruits of penitence are “blessings yet more excellent” (Postcommunion); that is, our union with
the Lord in heaven, where He will take us up to share His joy, His light, His glorified life, forever.
Today we willingly undertake to do penance and propose for ourselves a life of self-denial
so that we may participate in the fruits of penitence. With Magdalen we forsake a life of sin for
one of friendship with the Lord; as friends we are changed into saints and become heirs of the
joy of the Lord.
Prayer
Grant, O almighty God, we beseech Thee, that by our devout keeping of the holy observances
year by year, we may in body and in soul give pleasure to Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ember Saturday in September
At Matins today the liturgy connects the celebration of the Feast of Atonement (first lesson)
with that of the Feast of Tabernacles (second lesson). The Feast of Atonement, celebrated by
the Israelites for seven days, was a feast of thanksgiving for the guidance which God had given
His people during the forty years of wandering in the desert. Thus our Ember days are marked
as days of penance and thanksgiving.
Christ is the “high priest of the good things to come” (Epistle). The Feast of Atonement in
the Old Testament was only a type and a symbol. The high priest entered the holy of holies to
sprinkle the blood of the slaughtered animals on the Ark of the Covenant. But this ceremony
could not obtain forgiveness of sins. It is different with Christ, our high priest. Through His
death on the cross He has won for us an eternal inheritance, and at His Ascension He goes
into the heavenly holy of holies, not with the blood of animals, but with His own precious
blood which He shed for us and by which He cleansed us of our sins and reconciled us with
God (Epistle). Although the Feast of Atonement in the Old Testament is only a figure, a feeble
symbol of what is given to us in the New Testament, the admonition given to the people of
Israel applies to us as well. “The tenth day of this month shall be the day of atonement. It shall
be most solemn. . . . You shall afflict your souls, . . . because it is a day of propitiation, that the
Lord your God may be merciful unto you. Every soul that is not afflicted on this day, shall
perish from among His people” (first lesson). How much more important to us are the Ember
days, days of penance, on which we pray, afflict ourselves, fast, and abstain in order to obtain
pardon! “Forgive us our sins, O Lord. . . . Help us, O God our Savior, and for the glory of Thy
name, O Lord, deliver us” (first Gradual).
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