Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are Ember Days.
The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that Ember Days were given to us by the Church to “thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.” They were days of fast and abstinence.
Karen Marie has a reflection up on the Ember Days that reminded me of this passage, attacking the books that so breezily dismiss idealism and spiritual values, from C.S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man:
It will be seen that comfort and security, as known to a suburban street in peace-time, are the ultimate values: those things which can alone produce or spiritualize comfort and security are mocked. Man lives by bread alone, and the ultimate source of bread is the baker’s van: peace matters more than honour and can be preserved by jeering at colonels and reading newspapers.
And certainly our farmers can use our prayers; Sparki has an update on the devastation the recent storms have brought to the farmers in her area.