Ember Days
The three little one’s dancing in the flames…referred to in the Benedicite. They represent the hope of rebirth & resurrection and were popular in tomb depictions and decorations in the early church
Ember Days – those who have heard of this term will probably not understand what they refer to beyond perhaps being a colloquial reference to the less good times in one’s life. They were traditionally days of fasting and prayer – a bit like the one pope francis recently proclaimed for Syria. They occurred four times in the church’s year and lasted four days. services in those Ember days included a series of special prayers (collects) and canticles (songs) particularly adapting the famous song found in the Book of Daniel (3,47-51) – bededcitus es
The first group occurred in Advent starting on 14th December – the feast of St Lucy. Lucy or Lucia is so special to early Christian tradition her name is included in the Roman Canon. The next group occur at the beginning of Lent – the days after Ash Wednesday. The third occur on the Wednesday after Whitsun and finally the fourth group begin after the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on 14th September, just before the wild feasting associated with Michaelmas.
For all the panjandrums of the conservative elites in the West pipe pieties abouts ours still being a Christian society we are in fact rather embarrassed by and ignorant of our religious tradition.
This is a gaudy secular age is gorged on plenty; it eats and consumes its way through the allotted span of life like heedless locusts in swarm. We are in fact so self absorbed by consumption we are embarrassed to consider we might fast – unless we call its a “diet”, which somehow makes the self denial sexy.
We have become almost ashamed of our religious heritage and its social, cultural and linguistic splendours. We would shudder uncomfortably if some acquaintance for example suggested that the poetry of the Song of Solomon was beautiful. Yet, if the same acquaintance were to offer us some obscure passage from Virgil or Homer or from the Egyptian Prayers of the Dead – we would cry “awesome” and would sagely nod our heads in solemn agreement if our attention was drawn either to the beauty or to the wisdom of these ancient words.
The poetics of the classical times of Homer or Virgil are rightly revered. They afterall span a millenium of human experience. We have tended to be a bit casual about the poetry of the early Middle Ages and particularly those centuries which were still known as the Dark Ages when I did O Level history – at that dawn of time we know these days as the 1960’s.
Scholars now think these Dark Ages were more enlightened than the adjectival use of ‘dark’ has come to imply. Of course when the term was coined it meant dark in the sense of obscure. Looking back at these centuries through the prism of the Twelfth Century Renaissance and its Italian cousin – the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries – inevitably distorts a nearer medieval past. These renaissances rediscovered Greek and Roman texts, literature, art and architecture. They made everything from the classical era define our ideal of civilised. Th classical world was a world of wonders full of vibrant written and oral traditions, scholarship and libraries, buildings that shaped architectural form; statues that elevated the human form to the divine. By comparison the four centuries from Rome’s fall to reign of Charlemagne were indeed obscure and dark.
Yet these centuries saw the early flowering of monasticism which also gave our culture such reverence to the power of words. The greatest words of course we found in the bible and the liturgical books of the church. These housed magic words which were painstakingly and lovingly illuminated to throw light into the life of all those who saw them or touched them and the few who read them. These words also inspired poetry and poetics of their own.
The old Sarum missal – the book of services used by the English Church until 1559 – has the same readings from the Book of Daniel as at Pentecost for this ember days of September. It is followed, however by a canticle composed by the German monk, poet and scholar Walafrid Strabo, a student of Rabanus Maurus at the famous Abbey of Fulda in the first half of the 9th century.
This canticle is a poetic paraphrase of the Benedicite, each verse of which is followed by a refrain, “Let them ever adore the Almighty, and bless him through every age.” In the Sarum use the refrain was sung with the verbs in the indicative – “They ever adore the Almighty, and bless him in every age.”. The song is divided into two parts, which are sung after alternate verses. There are a few other minor variants from Walafrid’s original version.
I just think it is rather special. The words are beautiful. Beautiful words should be treasured and shared and loved. This poet is in love with the world. It matters to him. He respects it. He cherishes it. Ember Days were there to remind us of our custodial responsibilities to love, cherish and husband the earth.
Omnipotentem semper adorant, They ever adore the Almighty,
Et benedicunt omne per aevum. and bless Him through every age.
Astra polorum, cuncta hominum gens, The stars of heaven, every sort of men,
Solque sororque, lumina caeli. and the sun and his sister, the lights of heaven.
Omnipotentem semper adorant. They ever adore the Almighty.
Sic quoque lymphae quaeque supernae, So also all the waters in heaven above,
Ros pluviaeque, spiritus omnis. the dew and the rains, and every wind.
Et benedicunt omne per aevum. And bless Him through every age.
Ignis et aestus, cauma geluque, Fire and heat, warmth and cold,
Frigus et ardor atque pruina. Chill and burning and the frost.
Omnipotentem etc. They adore etc.
Nix glaciesque, noxque diesque Snow and ice, night and day,
Lux tenebraeque, fulgura, nubes. Light and darkness, lightnings and clouds.
Arida, montes, germina, colles, Deserts, mountains, plants, hills,
Flumina, fontes, pontus et undae. Rivers, springs, the seas and the waves.
Omnia viva, quae vehit aequor, All things that live and are born on the waters,
vegetat aer, terraque nutrit. That the air quickens, and the earth nourishes.
Cuncta hominum gens, Israel ipse Every sort of men, Israel itself,
Christicolaeque, servuli quique. And the worshipers of Christ, and all His servants.
Sancti humilesque, corde benigno The holy, the humble, the gentle of heart,
Tresque pusilli exsuperantes And the three little ones in their triumph.
Rite camini ignei flammas, Justly ready to disdain the flames
jussa tyranni temnere prompti. Of the fiery furnace, and the tyrant’s orders.
Sit Genitori laus, Genitoque Praise to the Father, and to the Son,
lausque beato Flamini sacro. And praise to the blessed Holy Spirit.