The Autumn Ember Days are This Week; Will You Keep Them?

This week begins one of the quarterly periods observed by the Catholic Church called "Ember Days." I remember them growing up. Our Catholic calendar showed a half fish meaning that on those days (Wednesday and Saturday) meat could only be eaten at the main meal. Friday, of course, was a day of complete abstinence. All three days were fast days (one main meal and two smaller meals that did not add up to a full meal).

The purpose of the ember days was to sanctify the coming season. Catholic Answers quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia describing them this way:

Do you keep the Friday abstinence?

A lot of Catholics think that the Church threw out the Friday rule of abstinence. What really happened is that Pope Paul VI in 1966 issued the Apostolic Constitution on Penance. It maintained the requirements of fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and the abstinence rule for the Fridays in Lent. The document also gave bishops' conferences the power to declare other types of penance. The friday abstinence outside Lent was recommended, but no longer required under pain of sin. However, the document did not, as many Catholics think, eliminate penance.

Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) has a great summary on the U.S. bishops' declaration of 1966 and reaffirmed in 1991:

In accord with Pope Paul VI’s directives and Canon, no. 1249, the U.S. faithful must do some sort of penance on every Friday, excluding Solemnities or a dispensation by their diocesan bishop. Abstinence from flesh meat maintained its primary place among recommended works of self-denial and personal penance from which the faithful may choose.