Prayer Intiatives
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Ember Days - Praying Light into the Darkness through Prayer, Penance and Fasting!
Next Opportunity to Participate June 11, 13 and 14th
(Read more about Ember Days Below: "Holding Fast to Ember Days" to learn more about this amazing Catholic tradition!)
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Order of Creation Restored through Prayer and SacrificeThe amount of division, confusion and uncertainty we live in today are bigger than we are, but they are not bigger than our creator who has already won the victory over this world.
How can we live in that victory each day? By living in God's perfect order, the grace obtained through prayer and sacrifice bring us restoration and life eternal. The stronger the battle, the greater the need to ask God for more. Traditionally Ember Days were days of prayer, fasting, abstinence from meat and almsgiving. What a mighty way to ask our Lord for more.
Are you willing to sacrifice for a few days and participate in this great need of restoration for humanity? The Summer (June) or Whit Embertide is also a time to give thanks to God for the wheat harvest. Wheat is used in making the bread (host) consecrated into the Body of Christ at Mass. Let's approach His throne with great gratitude for the gift we receive in Communion by visiting Jesus in the most blessed Sacrament especially during Ember Days.
We are all on this journey together seeking God in our needs. You are free to prayerfully yield to how the Holy Spirit might be inviting you to this much needed prayer initiative.
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Holding Fast to the Ember Days, by Leonard WathenCall me crazy - my wife does - but I appreciate fasting and think that more Catholics should rediscover its value. I enjoy feasting as much as the next person, but I've found that fasting is uniquely effective in helping me to focus on the Lord and to offer him a very tangible sacrifice. Next week, then, I look forward to fasting on the traditional post-Pentecost “Ember Days” (Wednesday, June 11, Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14, 2025), and I want to encourage you to do the same.
Though fasting requirements have varied somewhat throughout the centuries of Church history, there is a tradition going back to at least Pope Callixtus I (217–222) of fasting at the changes of the seasons in order “to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy” (see The Catholic Encyclopedia). By the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (1073-1085), all Roman Catholics were required to fast on twelve Ember Days, three days at each change of sea
son:
1. The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday
2. The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost Sunday
3. The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
4. The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13, the Feast of St. LucyEnglish-speaking Catholics used the rhyme “Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy” to remember the four feasts that marked the approach of the Ember Days. These feasts may seem somewhat arbitrary, especially as St. Lucy and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross have lost their former prominence, but they align fairly well with the four seasonal changes of the year. It makes sense as the weather changes to turn our attention to the God who provides for our needs through creation.
Although the Ember Days remain part of the Church's liturgical calendar, the obligation for Catholics to fast on these days was lifted by Pope St. Paul VI in 1966. When the Church relaxed the requirements for fasting in the late '60s, it was hoped that Catholics would still voluntarily fast and make acts of penance throughout the year at their own initiative, but we've instead all but forgotten the value of such self-denial. As Pope St. Paul VI himself pointed out when loosening the traditional fasting requirements, Jesus modeled self-denial and sacrifice both in his own fasting and in the Crucifixion, and Christians have an obligation to follow his example.
One might ask why God would take any delight in our fasting. The Lord doesn't gain anything by our self-denial, does he? Even though the Lord had commanded the Old Testament people to offer some of their own food to him in sacrifice, he made it clear that these sacrifices were not for his benefit:I will not take a bullock from your house, or he-goats from your folds. For every animal of the forest is mine, beasts by the thousands on my mountains. I know every bird in the heights; whatever moves in the wild is mine. Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for mine is the world and all that fills it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of he-goats? Offer praise as your sacrifice to God; fulfill your vows to the Most High. Then call on me on the day of distress; I will rescue you, and you shall honor me. (Isaiah 1:9-15)
Fasting is not for God's benefit, but for ours. Merely going through the motions of fasting is of little spiritual value, but when we fast or perform other acts of self-denial out of love of God, we demonstrate that we love him more than what we've sacrificed and thus discover the relationship with God for which we were created. God has no need of the things that you might deny yourself, but he takes great delight in seeing that you love him more than those things. He doesn't want your cheeseburger, but he does want your love.
The Lord wants each of us to learn - deeply and viscerally - that our true hunger is satisfied not by filling our bellies with food, but by filling our souls with his grace. Jesus told us in the famous Bread of Life Discourse of John 6, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger by giving us himself, especially in Holy Communion. As St. Thomas Aquinas succinctly summarized, “God alone satisfies” (CCC 1718).
On one occasion, after a journey, Jesus' disciples urged him to have something to eat. Rather than eating, Jesus turned their attention toward more important things:But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. (John 4:32-36)
The basic messages here are simple: Our souls need to do God's will even more than our bodies need to eat. We need to prepare for the harvest of eternity - God's judgment of humanity - even more urgently than a farmer prepares for the harvest of his fields. Those who reap the rewards of eternal life will rejoice far more than a farmer rejoices in his crops. The Ember Day fasts are a traditional way not only to thank God for the things of Earth, but to direct our hearts to the more important things of Heaven.St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out that fasting helps us in three ways:
First, fasting can help us to bridle the lusts of the flesh. After all, if you can't say no to a cheeseburger, how are you going to say no to even more appealing sensual temptations?
Second, fasting can help us to free our minds to contemplate heavenly things. Setting aside created things provides an opportunity for us to turn our attention toward the Creator.
Third, fasting can help us to express sorrow for our sins. When we offend God through sin, we have a natural - and very biblical - desire to make up for our sins through some act of penance, such as fasting.
If you do decide to fast next week, please pray for the revitalization of the Church. Though the Church in every age is in need of renewal, this need seems particularly apparent to me in our own age. As Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).
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Jubilee Holy Year 2025 - The Year of Hope
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St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown - Jubilee Pilgrimage Site
Among the ways live out the Jubilee Year is through prayer and pilgrimage. Making a pilgrimage allows us to intentionally have the aim to encounter the Lord, who is the Way, in the rough path or arduous walk, in the silence of our journey or the silence we keep before him in the Blessed Sacrament, in the friendships we form with fellow pilgrims and in the created nature.
Since only a few people will be able to travel to Rome throughout the Jubilee Year 2025 to pass through any of the four Jubilee Doors, Cardinal Wilton Gregory has designated several churches within our archdiocese as Jubilee Pilgrimage Sites where the faithful will be able to pray the official prayer for Jubilee Year 2025, participate in liturgical and catechetical events, deepen their openness to God’s grace and the working of the Holy Spirit and unite themselves spiritually with all who will journey as pilgrims to Rome.
St. Aloysius Catholic Church -
Consecration of America to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Immaculate Mary, most Holy Mother of God and of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we the people of the United States of America at this historic moment stand before you in a humbled condition of love, loyalty, affection, and thankfulness. To your Immaculate Heart we recommit and dedicate ourselves throughout the entire American nation. To your Son Jesus Christ we pledge to serve His teaching, His church, and to work for His kingdom on earth. O Mary, to you do we flee for protection. Surround the American family with your maternal care; enfold us in your arms. Give to this American land, built on the blood and tears of so many faithful forebears, a peaceful and praiseworthy existence in truth, love, justice, and freedom. O Mary, we submit to you as the Patroness of our beloved country. O Mary, Help of Christians, enfold the Holy Father and the Catholic Church within your protective cloak; be our shield in the days ahead. Give to the Church true holiness and freedom. Obtain for our leaders holy zeal, the ability to face the truth, and the courage to correct all abuses. Stop the flood of atheism, greed, heresy, impurity, lukewarmness, materialism, and selfishness that threaten our nation. Show to those who have strayed from the Church the way to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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