Ember Saturday in Lent (28 February): Scripture, prayer, and canticle. “Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth, The which sustains and keeps us And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright.”

The Ember Days are a quarterly series of 3 days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday), which the Roman church began observing near the beginning of the four seasons of the year.

The Lenten/Spring Embertide always falls after the First Sunday of Lent (which is sometimes closer to the beginning of Spring than this year). With Pope Bl. Paul VI’s calendar revision in 1969, the official observance of the Embertides were removed, but many of the traditions remain (as do liturgical observances in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite).

This Embertide, along with a selection of readings and prayers, /r/Catholicism is presenting a short series on the teaching of the Church on God’s will for our use and protection of his creation (the environment), which is a common theme of the traditional Ember Days, along with fasting and prayers for vocations.

• Ember Wednesday in Lent (25 February): Scripture, prayer, and catechesis. “There is a need to place ever greater emphasis on the intimate connection between environmental ecology and ‘human ecology.’”
  


• Ember Friday in Lent (27 February): Scripture, prayer, and catechesis. “The natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a ‘grammar’ which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation.”
  


• Ember Saturday in Lent (28 February): Scripture, prayer, and canticle. “Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth, The which sustains and keeps us And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright.”

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St. Francis’s Canticle of the Sun:

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord,

Praise, glory and honor and benediction all, are Thine.

To Thee alone do they belong, most High,

And there is no man fit to mention Thee.

Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy creatures,

Especially to my worshipful brother sun,

The which lights up the day, and through him dost Thou brightness give;

And beautiful is he and radiant with splendor great;

Of Thee, most High, signification gives.

Praised be my Lord, for sister moon and for the stars,

In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and precious and fair.

Praised be my Lord for brother wind

And for the air and clouds and fair and every kind of weather,

By the which Thou givest to Thy creatures nourishment.

Praised be my Lord for sister water,

The which is greatly helpful and humble and precious and pure.

Praised be my Lord for brother fire,

By the which Thou lightest up the dark.

And fair is he and gay and mighty and strong.

Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth,

The which sustains and keeps us

And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright.

Praised be my Lord for those who for Thy love forgive

And weakness bear and tribulation.

Blessed those who shall in peace endure,

For by Thee, most High, shall they be crowned.

Praised be my Lord for our sister, the bodily death,

From the which no living man can flee.

Woe to them who die in mortal sin;

Blessed those who shall find themselves in Thy most holy will,

For the second death shall do them no ill.

Praise ye and bless ye my Lord, and give Him thanks,

And be subject unto Him with great humility.

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Readings

Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 26:12–19. Declaration Concerning Tithes.

Lesson 2: Deuteronomy 11:22–25. Need for Fidelity.

Lesson 3: 2 Machabees 1:23–27. While the Sacrifice Was Being Burned.

Lesson 4: Sirach 36:1–10. A Prayer for God’s People.

Lesson 5: Daniel 3:47–56. The Song of the Three Holy Children in the Furnace.

Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 5:14–23. Church Order.

Gospel: Matthew 17:1–9. The Transfiguration of Christ.

^{From Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, for Ember Saturday in Lent.}

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Prayer

O Lord, the God of my salvation, by day I cry out, at night I clamor in Your presence. Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my call for help, O Lord. (from the Introit for today (EF), Ps 87(88):2–3)

O Lord my God, in You I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me. (Communion Chant for today (EF), Ps 7:2)