Ember Days in Lent

Introduction

Four times a year, the Church sets aside three days to focus on God's creation. These quarterly periods take place around the beginning of the four seasons of nature. Embertides were spent in fasting and abstinence for the purpose of thanking God for creation's gifts and asking for the self-discipline to use them in moderation. They were also the traditional times for ordinations to take place. The fasts, known as "the fast of the four seasons" were made optional following the liturgical reforms under Pope Paul VI which, in my opinion, was a tremendous loss. There is every reason to restore them in these days of materialist excess, ecological devastation and crises affecting the church's ministry. The second of the fasts takes place during Lent on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following the First Sunday of Lent. This service may be used on any of those days along with a penitential practice of one's choosing to curb immoderation, help heal the earth and support the vocation of those called to service in the church.

Opening Chant (The Lent Prose)

Hear us, O Lord, have mercy upon us:
for we have sinn'd against thee.

1 To thee, Redeemer, on thy throne of glory:
lift we our weeping eyes in holy pleadings:
listen, O Jesu, to our supplications. [Refrain]

2 O thou chief Corner-stone, Right Hand of the Father
Way of Salvation, Gate of Life Celestial
cleanse thou our sinful souls from all defilement. [Refrain]

3 God, we implore thee, in thy glory seated
bow down and hearken to they children
pity and pardon all our grievous trespasses. [Refrain]

4 Sins oft committed now we lay before thee
with true contrition, now no more we veil them
grant us, Redeemer, loving absolution. [Refrain]

5 Innocent, captive, taken unresisting
falsely accused, and for us sinners sentenced,
save us, we pray thee, Jesu our Redeemer. [Refrain]

Opening Collect

Scripture (Ezekiel 18:20-28)

The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him. “But if the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die.  None of his transgressions that he has committed will be remembered against him. In his righteousness that he has done, he shall live.Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh, “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live? “But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, should he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die. “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies in it, then he dies in his iniquity that he has done.Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he will save his soul alive.Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die.Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ House of Israel, aren’t my ways fair? Aren’t your ways unfair?

Psalm Response

Interlude

Scripture (1 Thess 5:14-23)

We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good for one another and for all. Always rejoice.Pray without ceasing.In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.Don’t quench the Spirit.Don’t despise prophecies.Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.Abstain from every form of evil.  May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Meditation (Pope Francis; Homily; First Sunday of Lent; March 9, 2025)

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert (cf. Lk 4:1). Every year, our Lenten journey begins by following the Lord there and sharing in that experience, which he transformed for our benefit.When Jesus entered the desert, a decisive change occurred: the place of silence became a place of listening. In the desert, our ability to listen is put to the test, because a choice must be made between two completely different voices. In this regard, the Gospel tells us that Jesus’ journey began with an act of listening and obedience: it is the Holy Spirit, the very power of God, who leads him to a place where nothing good springs from the ground or rains down from the sky. In the desert, we experience material and spiritual poverty, our need for bread and for God’s word.

Jesus, who is true man, experienced that hunger (cf. v. 2). He was tempted for forty days by a word that came not from the Holy Spirit, but from the evil one, the devil. Having begun the forty days of Lent, let us reflect on the fact that we too are tempted, yet are not alone. Jesus is with us, to guide us through the desert. The Son of God made man does not simply give us an example of how to combat evil. He gives us something much greater: the strength to resist its attacks and to persevere on our journey.

So let us consider three aspects of Jesus’ temptation and of our own: its beginning, the way it takes place and its result. In this way, we will find inspiration for our journey of conversion.

First of all, the beginning. Jesus’ temptation is intentional: the Lord does not go into the desert to show the strength of his will, but out of filial openness to the Spirit of the Father, whose guidance he readily and freely accepts. Our temptation, on the other hand, is not intentional: evil is prior to our freedom, attacking it from within, like an inner shadow and a constant threat. Whenever we ask God not to lead us into temptation (cf. Mt 6:13), we need to remember that he has already answered that prayer through Jesus, his incarnate Word, who remains with us always. The Lord is close to us and cares for us, especially in times of trial and uncertainty, when the tempter makes his voice heard. He is the father of lies (cf. Jn 8:44), perverse and perversive, for he knows God’s word without understanding it. Quite the opposite: just as he had done since the days of Adam in the Garden of Eden (cf. Gen 3:1-5), so he does now in the case of Jesus, the new Adam, in the desert.

Here we see the remarkable way in which Christ is tempted, namely, through his relationship with God, his Father. The devil is the one who separates and divides, whereas Jesus is the one who unites God and man, the mediator. In his perversion, the devil wants to destroy that bond and have Jesus exploit his position. He says: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread” (Lk 4:3), and again: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (v. 9) from the pinnacle of the Temple. In response to these temptations, Jesus, the Son of God, led by the Spirit, chooses the way that he will live out his filial relationship to the Father. This is what the Lord chooses: his unique and exclusive relationship with God, whose only Son he is, becomes a relationship that embraces everyone, without excluding anyone. Jesus’ relationship with the Father is not something to be grasped at (cf. Phil 2:6), or boasted of, in order to achieve success and attract followers, but rather a gift that he shares with the world for our salvation.

We too are tempted in our relationship with God, but in a completely different way. The devil whispers into our ear that God is not really our Father, that he has in fact abandoned us. Satan tries to convince us that there is no bread for the hungry, least of all from stones, that angels will not come to our aid when we are falling, and that at best, the world is in the hands of evil powers that crush nations by their arrogant schemes and the brutality of war. Yet just when the devil would have us believe that the Lord is far from us, and would tempt us to despair, God draws all the closer to us, giving his life for the redemption of the world.

The third aspect is the result of these temptations. Jesus, God’s Anointed One, vanquishes evil; he drives away the devil, who will nonetheless return to tempt him, waiting for “another opportunity” (v. 13). So the Gospel tells us, and we will keep this in mind when, on Golgotha, Jesus is tempted again: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mt 27:40; cf. Lk 23:35). In the desert, the Tempter is defeated, yet Christ’s victory is not yet definitive, as it will be in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection. 

As we prepare to celebrate this, the central mystery of our faith, we realize that the result of our own trials is different. In the face of temptation, we sometimes fall; we are all sinners. Our defeat, however, is not definitive, because following our every fall, God lifts us up by his infinite love and forgiveness. Our testing does not end in failure, because, in Christ, we are redeemed from evil. As we journey through the desert with him, we follow a road previously untravelled: Jesus himself opens up before us this new path of liberation and redemption. By following the Lord in faith, from drifters we become pilgrims.

Intercessions                     

Concluding Hymn