by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

Many are no doubt familiar with the blessing of the New Fire at the Easter Vigil, and some are likely familiar with the blessing of a fire on the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, but, perhaps, only a few are familiar with the more generic blessing of a fire found in the Roman Ritual, a translation¹ of which is here provided:

℣. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
℟. Who made heaven and earth.
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

O Lord God, almighty Father, unfailing Light, You Who are the creator of all light: hallow + this new fire, and grant; that after the darkness of this world we may come with pure hearts to Thee, our unfailing Light; through Christ our Lord.

℟. Amen.

It is sprinkled with holy water.

The above formula is also found as part of the larger ceremony for the above-mentioned blessing of a bonfire on the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.²

What stands out in this blessing is that the main aspect of fire — which interestingly is not called “a creature” as is common in blessings of other natural items — referenced is the fire being a source of light.  Its being a source of heat or its utility, such as in cooking, are not mentioned at all, although there can be seen a nod to fire’s role in purification.  Both of these properties, that of being a source of light and of being an agent of purification, are reflected in God being the unfailing Light and creator of all light, including light from fires – indeed the very first creature named in the Genesis creation account is light (1:3) – as well as in the purification of heart which God works in and for His Faithful as they make their way in this world of darkness (hujus sæculi caliginem, a nod to the mundi tenebrarum harum of Eph 6:12).

Twice in the blessing, God is invoked as an “unfailing Light” (lumen indeficiens).  This phrase is found in the twenty-fourth chapter, verse 6, of the Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) where the wisdom figure is speaking.  In the literal sense of interpretation, this passage is referring to Wisdom’s creation of material light, which will perdure even in the world to come, while there are several associated spiritual meanings, including the lumen indeficiens being the light given to the minds of the faithful by Jesus the Light (lux not lumen) and the lumen indeficiens being the Blessed Virgin Mary herself.³  In its original context, then, lumen indeficiens does not refer to God Himself.  However, God Himself is referred to as being “light” in the First Letter of St. John where it is written: “God is light and in him there is no darkness” (1:5).  Commenting on this passage, Cornelius à Lapide, summarizing the commentary tradition, has the following:

That God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.  The Word then is the light of men, by which they are enlightened through faith, hope, and charity. For it is spiritual light which is here spoken of.  The meaning is, that our life consists in the enlightenment of the Word, whereby men are enlightened in the knowledge of God and their own salvation.  And this was the reason why the Word was made flesh, and manifested to men.  The Word then is substantial and uncreated light, formally, ideally, and as the cause of all light, whether corporeal or spiritual, of grace and of glory.  God, accordingly, is said to be clothed with light (Ps. civ.), to be the Father of lights (James i. 17), and to dwell in unapproachable light (i Tim. vi. i6).  For light is the noblest quality of matter, setting forth the glory and gifts of God’s illumination and grace.  There are indeed very many and most beautiful resemblances between God and light.  For the quality of light is its great swiftness and its efficacy, its purity, which is not soiled by anything it comes into contact with, bringing with it warmth, brightness, and gladness—making everything visible, giving to all living things life and vigour.  Such is the grace of God.  Sin is the opposite, and is therefore symbolised by darkness.  S. Dionysius (Cœlest. Hier. cap. xv.) gives thirty-one resemblances between light and the grace of God.  And S. John Damascene (de Fide ii. 11) compares the Holy Trinity to a parhelion, in which there appear to be three suns, though in reality there is but one.  “He says the Godhead is indivisible, just as in these three suns, inseparably connected together, there is one and the same tempering and blending of light.”  And Dionysius represents the Holy Trinity by three lamps, illuminating a house as with one single indistinguishable brightness.  And the light of the Deity, and the Trinity, bright as it is in itself, yet is obscure darkness to us, because the eyes of our mind are unable to gaze steadily on so brilliant and over-powering a light.  This is also referred to by Dionysius.  The Father then is the source of light; the Son, light proceeding directly from Him with equal and commensurate brightness; the Holy Spirit, as a reflected brightness, proceeding from the mutual and reflected love of the Father and the Son.  The Gentiles had some shadowy notion of this, Parmenides defining God as a continuous circle of light, encompassing heaven, and Democritus, as mind in a fiery circle.

Christ, as God and the Word, is the formal uncreated light; as man, He is the created light, because He is full of wisdom, grace, and glory.  He is also the causal light, as being the cause of all grace and glory in us.  As S. John says, “He is the light, because He enlightens every man that cometh into the world,” and that not as giving them the light of reason (as Origen and S. Cyril suppose), but rather as giving them the supernatural light of faith and wisdom.  Malachi terms Him the Son of righteousness.  Manichæus was wrong in supposing that the material sun was Christ (see S. Augustine, Tract. xxxiv. on S. John).  Christ specially shone forth after His Incarnation, though He shone as a light even before that, as the dawn precedes the day.  See S. Augustine (Tract. i. on S. John and Isa. xlx. 6).  Christ said Himself, “I the Light of the World.”  And Simeon also, Luke ii. 32.  S. Augustine (Hom. xliii. inter 50 [nunc cxxxv]) says beautifully, “Christ came as an illuminator, because the devil had blinded men.  This chiefest Physician compounded an eye-salve of infinite value to cure the blinded eyes.  How healing was it, compounded of the Word and the flesh.  But the eyes of man were so restored and enlightened, as to be equal to the eyes of angels, and to behold the heavenly glory of God Himself.”  This light He imparted to the faithful, and especially to apostolic men, for them to become the light of the world (see Job xxxviii.; Ps. lxxxix.).  And as He said to His apostles, “Ye are the light of the world.”  So John, speaking of S. John the Baptist, and so S. Paul writes to the Ephesians, v. 5.

And in Him is no darkness at all, darkness being the type of ignorance and sin.  So Didymus and Œcumenius, who quotes John i. 5, and adds, “He calls our sinful flesh darkness, in which Christ was born, and yet was not partaker of sin.”  As Moses, David, Habakkuk, and S. James (i. 17) say of God.  Our actions, however they shine, are not the light.  But the Divine Essence is light.  It was said of the holiest of men [St. John the Baptist] “He was not that Light;” but of the Word of God, it was said, “That was the true Light,” &c.  And S. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xl.) says, “God is that highest and unapproachable Light, which cannot be conceived in the mind, or expressed in words, enlightening every nature which is endowed with reason, in matters intelligible to the mind, as the sun does in objects of sense, presenting itself more clearly to our comprehension, the more carefully we have cleansed our minds from sin, and as one who is the more greatly loved, the more we contemplate Him, and lastly, as one who is better known the more we love Him.”

All this indicates the truth of John’s words, that God is light perfectly unblended with darkness, and that light of the understanding, which enlightens the eyes of our soul to discern it, by withdrawing it from all material objects, exciting all our affections to desire it, and it alone.

This corresponds with John i. 4: “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”  Of which S. Gregory Nyssen (Orat. de Nativ.) remarks, “His purity touched our filthiness, but was not defiled.”  And S. Augustine (Epist. ad Honorat) says, “The Son of God is not absent even from the minds of the ungodly, though they see Him not, just as light is not seen when presented to the eyes of the blind.  But the light of the Word shines in the darkness of ungodly men, by the light of reason, by the voices of created beings, which exclaim that there is a Creator who is to be venerated and loved, by the law of nature within the mind, by the new law, by Scripture, by doctors and preachers, holy inspirations,” &c.

And hence S. Augustine (Tract. ii. in John) says, “Sink not into sin, and that sun will not sink to thee.  If thou sinkest, He will sink to thee.”

The Gentiles seem to have seen this in a shadowy way. See S. Clement Alex., Strom. Lib. iv.

As the amount of daylight continues to grow shorter as we approach the winter solstice, may these reflections on the blessing of fire give us confidence that God, the unfailing Light, will continue to illuminate our minds and hearts so long as we remain close to Him.  And if you, dear reader, ever have the opportunity to enkindle a fire with a priest present, see if you can arrange for him to bless it.

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 8, 10; English adapted from the Weller translation provided online by EWTN (2, VIII, 12).
2. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 3, 13.
3.  à Lapide, Cornelius. The Great Commentary on the passage under discussion.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the introductory articles: (1) , (2), (3), and (4).  There are more than four articles in the series, but the first four are very important to understanding the conceptual framework.)

Previously I mentioned that the month of Heshevan, the eighth month of the Hebrew religious year, has no feasts or special observances of any kind, and so its other common name Marheshevan (the original name, from the Akkadian wrḥ-šmn, lit. “moon eight”) was taken by speakers of Hebrew to mean “Bitter Heshevan” (“mar” means “bitter” in Hebrew, cf. Ruth 1:20).

While looking at our lunar calendar, some other dates begin to be of interest, and here is where the relationship between the vernal and autumnal calendars becomes more fascinating. A short review of the calendar, slightly reformatted, might make certain things clearer:

Note that the “Spring” and “Autumn” columns can be swapped and then the spring (vernal) calendar becomes the fall (autumnal) calendar.

The more prevalent Jewish tradition has always maintained (with a few notable exceptions) that all the dates given in the account of the flood (Gen 7-8) follow the autumnal, or civil calendar, meaning the first month of the year was Tishri. If we follow this assumption, the key dates given for the flood in Genesis are as follows:

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

. . .

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark, to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. (Gen 7:1, 7-11)

So we have two dates given here, the first at least implicitly: the first, when God commanded Noah to go into the ark, giving him a week to do so (10 Heshevan, T-minus seven days), and then the second, when He opened the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven, and water came from every direction (17 Heshevan). We are told how the rains and waters rose and stopped and receded at various intervals spoken of in the scriptures, and commentators and rabbis have struggled with those dates for ages. When precisely Noah sent out the doves has been a subject of dispute, as have been other calculable points of reference in this sequence of events.

However, a few other dates seem to be clearly and unambiguously stated in the sacred text: “At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat.” (Gen 8:3-4) In the autumnal calendar, this would correspond to the 17th day of Nisan, which we have seen corresponds to Easter Sunday on our idealized calendar. The ark comes to rest on the very day that our crucified Lord gloriously enters into His eternal rest. “Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.” (Ps 132:8) Note that there are two words used for “ark” in the Scriptures: “tebah,” which refers to the ark of Noah (as well as the basket in which the infant Moses was placed before being set in the river) and “aron,” which specifically refers to the ark of the covenant. The psalm just quoted speaks of the “aron,” the ark of the covenant, which might also be a reference to our Blessed Mother being subsequently taken up to her resting place. The Latin is delightfully ambiguous, also using the word “arca” for both concepts.

“And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.” (Gen 8:5) This would seem to be 1 Tammuz on the lunar calendar, but commentators do not agree on this.

In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.  In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. (Gen 8:13-14)

The first month here would be 1 Tishri, the traditional day on which man was created. We are told the face of the ground was “cleared off” on this day.¹ On the twenty-seventh day of the following month, the earth was completely dried.² The common attempted explanation for this strange gap is that God wanted the flood to last an entire solar year, which is ten days (actually eleven) longer than the lunar year.³

In our little arrangement of the calendar, the last two Sundays of the liturgical year fall on the last two Sundays of Heshevan. The 27th day of Heshevan corresponds to the Saturday before the Last Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday on which our Lord describes the end times in the gospel reading. (Mt 24:15-35) The matins reading assigned to this day is from the prophet Jonah:

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”  But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god; and they threw the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we do not perish.”

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And from where do you come? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” (Jon 1:1-12)

Certainly, this must be a coincidence, but it is a useful one from the standpoint of liturgical devotion, since it allows us to connect a biblical event with a particular day of the liturgical year, helping us to anchor the flood story in our minds during the course of the year. Perhaps the next time we read the story of Jonah, we might think of the flood narrative, and remember that just as Jonah spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the great fish, so also Noah and his family spent an entire year in the darkness of the ark. There was, after all, only the one window or hatch.  The important point to remember is that the liturgy is something that must be lived, and this is one more way to incorporate it into our life, if we find it spiritually beneficial.

It is also interesting to note that the flood narrative (Gen ch. 6-8) is utilized as the second lesson of twelve in the traditional liturgy of Holy Saturday. However, we see something interesting in the missal: while spaces of time, e.g. “forty days” or “seven days” remain, any mention of specific dates was removed by the Church, a prerogative which she exercises from time to time in adapting the scriptures to liturgical use. In fact, the only specific dates given in the Holy Saturday readings are those in the ninth reading, from Exodus ch. 12, which describes the institution of Passover, the same dates that were recited the previous afternoon, on Good Friday.

* * *

There is another legitimate way to look at this entire sequence of events, and that is from the point of view of the vernal calendar, which, as we know, begins in the month of Nisan (or Abib).⁴

In this sequence of events, the rains still begin to fall on the 17th day of the second month (but now that month is Iyar) and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month (Tishri) the ark comes to rest, in the middle of the Feast of Booths. There might be a connection here with our Lord’s activities in Jerusalem during the same feast (Jn 7:10-13), since it would be on or after 17 Tishri (about the middle of the feast) that our Lord would likely have arrived to begin his teaching in the temple. (Jn 7:14-36)

We can see a certain symmetry, but what is more noteworthy is the day the earth is completely dry on the 27th day of Iyar in this arrangement of the calendar. This day happens to be a Thursday, and corresponds with Ascension Thursday in our idealized calendar, forty days after Easter. We can find just as satisfying a meaning here if we imagine that the water in this case represents our Blessed Lord:

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may sprout forth (Is 45:8)

“In the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” (Gen 7:11)

From start to finish, the flood lasted a full solar year. Perhaps there is a connection here with what our Lord read in the synagogue in Nazareth:

He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk 4:17-20)

After He leaves us (according to the ordinary manner of perception), we can speak of the ground once again being dry, awaiting the flood of grace that would come with the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit upon the entirety of creation.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the previous installments (1) , (2), (3) , (4), and (5).

Today we will look at the remaining two fasts, and how there could be vestigial echo of them in the traditional Roman liturgy. The first of these is 17 Tammuz, which on our calendar (check for yourself) would be the Thursday after the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. This is a bitter day for the Jews, as it marks a number of sad occurrences. The first goes all the way back to the time of the Exodus:

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And t

hey rose up early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.”

But Moses begged the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.’” And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.

And Moses turned, and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the covenant in his hands, tables that were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it. (Ex 32:1-20)

According to Jewish tradition, 17 Tammuz is also the date when the twice-daily sacrifice (the Tamid) in the temple ceased because they ran out of sheep within the city due to the siege of the Babylonians (ca. 587 BC), the day an idol was placed in the second temple by the Greeks (1 Mac 1:54), and the date of the first breach of the city walls during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, and also the definitive end of the temple sacrifice (ca. 70 AD).

The source for some of these events comes from a work called the Mishnah Ta’anit. This is a very early rabbinic source that reflects some very old Jewish traditions, some of which, as we have previously seen, are mentioned in the Old Testament, only sometimes without specific dates. (cf. Zec 8:19) The text in bold is a translation of the original, and the plain text is inserted commentary:

Five calamitous matters occurred to our forefathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five other disasters happened on the Ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken by Moses when he saw that the Jews had made the golden calf; the daily offering was nullified by the Roman authorities and was never sacrificed again; the city walls of Jerusalem were breached; the general Apostemos publicly burned a Torah scroll; and Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary. On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed, as a sign that it would never be rebuilt. Not only does one fast on the Ninth of Av, but from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing.

During the week in which the Ninth of Av occurs, it is prohibited to cut one’s hair and to launder clothes, but if the Ninth of Av occurs on a Friday, on Thursday these actions are permitted in deference to Shabbat. On the eve of the Ninth of Av a person may not eat two cooked dishes in one meal. Furthermore, one may neither eat meat nor drink wine. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: One must adjust and decrease the amount he eats. (Mishnah Ta’anit 4:6)¹

We will look at the second date shortly, but first, take a look at part of the matins reading for what would correspond to 17 Tammuz, 40 days after Pentecost:

And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart  with the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he put forth his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken forth upon Uzzah; and that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. (2 Sam 6:3-8)

The Hebrew word פֶּרֶץ (peretz) that is used in the name of the place is a word that is often applied to cracks or breaches in a wall (cf. Neh 6:1: “it was reported… and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that there was no breach (פֶּרֶץ) left in it.”) The Vulgate unfortunately renders the name of the place “Percussio Ozae,” or the “Striking of Uzzah,” but we can see that this misses the nuance of the Hebrew and the likely connection to the breaking of the tablets of the covenant, due to the Israelites’ “breach” of the covenant. Uzzah was punished in this way because he did not have the proper respect for the ark, which was supposed to be carried by hand, with the poles that are never supposed to be taken out of the rings, and certainly not on a cart being pulled by animals. (Ex 25:14)

This date begins a period of mourning for the Jews called the “Three Weeks,” culminating in the last of the four fast days, 9 Av. On this day the first and second temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans. Most traditions observe a second day after 9 Av, since the tradition holds that the temple continued to burn for another day, and this harmonizes with the event as recorded in Jeremiah. (Mishnah Ta’anit 29a, cf. Jer 52:12-13) What is significant, however, is to note that the Sunday immediately after this event would be the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, i.e. 11 Av.² And what might the gospel reading be for that random Sunday after Pentecost, which just happens to be the closest one following after 9 Av, if we just count the Sundays from our starting point, Easter Sunday, which we define as 17 Nisan?

And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.” And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. (Lk 19:41-47)

At this point, you can see (if you have not already) that we are not dealing with just a few random coincidences. Whether this was intentional or not, it cannot simply be dismissed.³

There is a further rather mysterious observance that is very ancient, but alluded to nowhere in scripture, most likely going back to before the destruction of the second temple. This day took on even greater significance after the destruction of the temple. Note that the Rabbi Shimon being quoted is the son of the great Gamaliel, at whose feet St. Paul studied. (Acts 22:3) This same Gamaliel was the one who persuaded the Jews to ignore the Christians, since if they were of God, they could not be opposed. (Acts 5:34-39) Thus, this would represent a very old tradition. Once again, the text in bold is a translation of the original, and the plain text is inserted commentary:

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days as joyous for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur, as on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothes, which each woman borrowed from another. Why were they borrowed? They did this so as not to embarrass one who did not have her own white garments. All the garments that the women borrowed require immersion, as those who previously wore them might have been ritually impure. And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say? Young man, please lift up your eyes and see what you choose for yourself for a wife. Do not set your eyes toward beauty, but set your eyes toward a good family, as the verse states: “Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30), and it further says: “Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:31). And similarly, it says in another verse: “Go forth, daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon, upon the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the gladness of his heart” (Song of Songs 3:11). This verse is explained as an allusion to special days: “On the day of his wedding”; this is the giving of the Torah through the second set of tablets on Yom Kippur. The name King Solomon in this context, which also means king of peace, is interpreted as a reference to God. “And on the day of the gladness of his heart”; this is the building of the Temple, may it be rebuilt speedily in our days. (Mishnah Ta’anit 4:8)

If we ignore the fact that lunar and solar months have different lengths, and simply say “April (the first spring month) = Nisan, May = Iyar, etc.” we find that August = Av.⁴  I am not saying this special, mysterious, joyful feast on 15 Av could have anything to do with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but I leave you to ponder the possibility.

1https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Ta’anit.4

2Coincidentally, the day that mourning restrictions are lifted

3An excellent article was written on this topic some years ago. The only tiny point the author missed was that this Sunday is “literally” 11 Av. (https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/07/weeping-over-jerusalem-ninth-sunday.html)

4There is evidence that this is in fact how the Church regarded the solar months (as least as corresponding to the four seasons in this part of the year) if we take note of how, even though the old four-volume breviary changed to the “Pars Autumnalis” at the beginning of September, the invitatory and hymns for matins and lauds for the Sundays after Pentecost do not change until the first Sunday of October, and those hymns continue to be used for the Sundays after Epiphany, during the winter months.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the previous installments (1) , (2), (3) , and (4)

Aside from Yom Kippur and the Fast of Gedaliah, there are three other fast days in the Hebrew calendar, all relating to the destruction of the first temple. Yom Kippur (10 Tishri) is the primordial day of fast, going all the way back to the Exodus. (Lev 23:26-32) It is interesting that it stands as the fall equivalent of the day of the selection of the lamb for Passover (10 Nisan), and that it is the only day of fast that is also a day of rest (work is forbidden) according to the Torah. However, it is not one of the four fasts mentioned in Zechariah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love truth and peace.” (Zech 8:19)

The four fasts mentioned here are those of Gedaliah (previously mentioned [2]), that of 10 Tevet, 17 Tammuz, and 9 Av. The fast of the Day of Atonement is not included among these days.

The fast of 10 Tevet, assuming that we imagine in our idealized calendar that there are always 6 Sundays after Epiphany, and 24 Sundays after Pentecost, would fall on the Tuesday after the second Sunday after Epiphany, if we count backwards from Easter Sunday (yes, we can go backwards too, just not as far). Of course, there are not always 6 Sundays after Epiphany, nor are there always exactly 24 Sundays after Pentecost, but the puzzle pieces don’t fit together unless we use this precise number in our analysis. The unneeded Sundays after Epiphany in the schema are simply deleted, as they have the same Mass propers and repeat a similar theme, and the Sundays after Pentecost “grow” (cf. the parable of the mustard seed, the 6th and final Sunday after Epiphany, which, along with any others needed, is inserted in the gap between the 23rd and 24th Sunday after Pentecost, in a sense “growing” that period of time).

In fact, the only interesting events (from the standpoint of the Hebrew calendar) within the 6 Sundays after Epiphany fall in those first two weeks, and 10 Tevet in our arrangement lands on the Tuesday after the second Sunday after Epiphany. This Sunday completes the observance of Epiphany, commemorating the Wedding at Cana. During this week, an interesting event happens in our lunar calendar model, namely, the siege of Jerusalem began in approximately 587 BC. “In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.” (Ezek 24:1-2) This seems like a fairly strong endorsement for remembering this day.

This siege would ultimately result in the destruction of the temple and most of the city, including the walls:

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls round about Jerusalem. (Jer 52:12-14)

The account given elsewhere differs in detail but not in substance: “In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,” etc… (2 Kgs 25:8)¹

Ezekiel continues:

Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil well the flesh, and empty out the broth, and let the bones be burned up. Then set it empty upon the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its filthiness may be melted in it, its rust consumed. In vain I have wearied myself; its thick rust does not go out of it by fire. Its rust is your filthy lewdness. Because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your filthiness, you shall not be cleansed any more till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I the Lord have spoken; it shall come to pass, I will do it; I will not go back, I will not spare, I will not repent; according to your ways and your doings I will judge you, says the Lord God.” (Ezek 24:9-14)

Clearly a judgment by fire is coming. Now let us look at the matins reading assigned for this random weekday, the Tuesday after the Second Sunday after Epiphany, or as the Byzantines might say more concisely, the third Tuesday after Epiphany:

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.  So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.” (2 Cor 5:1-10)²

The idea of wishing to save their earthly habitation at any cost would be revisited by the high priests later, before conspiring to put our Lord to death.  “So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.”  (Jn 11:47-48)

They did not realize that the “earthly habitation,” i.e. their holy city, their temple observances, their observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, was a symbol of the weakened and corrupt flesh in which we now dwell, waiting to be reformed in Christ: “But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (Phil 3:20-21)

The next two fast days fall in the summer months, within 3 weeks of each other, and we will look at those next time. We have already seen hints of them in the scriptural passages quoted in this article.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the previous installments here (1) , here (2), and here (3))

We have seen some fairly strong correlations between the yearly cycle of Jewish feasts and the Roman liturgical calendar, and there are many more to come. Now that the last four Sundays have been discussed we have some time to take a breath, since there are no feasts in the 8th month of the Hebrew lunar calendar, which might be the topic of another article of its own, but now I think it is time to explain where all these ideas originally came from. It all started with a homily that I gave on Palm Sunday, in which I compared the two hosts that the priest (traditionally) consecrates on Holy Thursday, consuming one at that Mass, and reserving the other for the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday, to the practice of the Israelites gathering a double portion of manna on the day before the Sabbath. (see #4 in the link)  Of course, Friday is not the Sabbath, so it was nothing more than a fanciful comparison—but then again, Saturday is not our day of rest either.  However, it got me thinking, and so I went and read over the Exodus narrative, paying more attention to the small details. After all, there are no insignificant details in the Word of God, only details of which we have not yet been shown the significance.

When Good Friday came around later that week, we heard the same reading that we hear every year on Good Friday:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. (Ex 12:1-11)

That got me thinking a little more: Passover is the 14th day of the month, and the lamb is slaughtered at sunset, in the evening. By the time of our Lord, this process ended up taking all afternoon in the temple due to the number of lambs being processed. The Last Supper was the Passover meal before our Lord’s crucifixion; therefore, the 10th of that same month would have been what we call Palm Sunday. Moreover, the eating of the paschal lamb would have taken place after sunset, meaning the first day of Unleavened Bread had already begun, i.e. 15 Nisan, Good Friday. Remember that feasts begin at sunset of the previous day, a point that was made explicit in the sacred scriptures. (Lev 23, see the first article in the series) It is then simple to see that the first day of the week, Sunday, would be 17 Nisan. The idea of some correspondence of Holy Week and Easter with the lunar calendar began to float around in my head. At that initial stage, however, I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole would go.

In any case, the tenth day of the month, Palm Sunday, is the day that the paschal lambs were selected, as God instructed Moses in the book of Exodus, and it was also the day that the people were crying out “Hosanna” to Jesus as he triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Then, just a few days later, they would be calling for his crucifixion. Whether this followed historical events precisely is irrelevant. The point of this exercise is not to present precise history, but to symmetrically arrange both Christian and Hebrew observances. It is important to realize that I am making no historical judgment on the issue of the synoptic chronology vs. the Johannine chronology, which would (seem to) suggest that the crucifixion took place on the afternoon of the 14th. I am approaching this issue from the standpoint of liturgical devotion, and as we’ve already seen (and will continue to see), this “arrangement” demands the synoptic chronology, and any meaning must be sought within that framework.

So in this arrangement of events, Our Lord was killed after fulfilling in himself the entire old law on the previous evening of the Passover. He was killed not as the lambs were being slaughtered.  It would have been impossible for the priests to be present jeering during the crucifixion, as they had a great deal work to do that day.  He was rather put to death after eating the old paschal Lamb and making it a part of Himself. It would have still been working its way through His digestive system even as He was being scourged and crucified. In like manner, on Good Friday (in the older form) as the priest is walking out of a church now devoid of the Real Presence, he carries within himself the sacred host that he just consumed, which he consecrated on the previous day.  He will once again make our Lord present on the altar on the following afternoon at the Easter Vigil.

These are all mildly interesting observations, but it was the later miracle of the manna that suggested to me that there might be something more going on, extending beyond Holy Week and Easter.

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your murmurings against the Lord. For what are we, that you murmur against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your murmurings which you murmur against him—what are we? Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord.” (Ex 16:1-8)

Since the day begins in the evening, at sunset, both of these things, the quail and the manna, would come on the same day, the sixteenth day of the second month. The quail would come in the evening, to be eaten after sunset, just as the Passover was eaten after sunset, at night. Then the manna would come in the morning of the same day.

They were told to gather the manna for six days. Philo, a first-century Jewish author from Alexandria who lived while our Lord was walking the earth, but certainly never met Him or even heard of Him, was quite certain that the manna began to fall on the first day of the week, echoing one traditional school of thought that claims that creation began on the first day of the week with the creation of light.

“Now the greatness of the wonder was shown not only by the double supply of food and its remaining sound contrary to the usual happening, but by the combination of both these occurring on the sixth day, counting from the day on which the food began to be supplied from the air; and that sixth day was to be followed by the dawning of the seventh which is the most sacred of numbers. And therefore consideration will show the inquirer that the food given from heaven followed the analogy of the birth of the world; for both the creating of the world and also the raining of the said food were begun by God on the first day out of six. The copy reproduces the original very exactly: for, as God called up His most perfect work, the world, out of not being into being, so He called up plenty in the desert, changing round the elements to meet the pressing need of the occasion, so that instead of the earth the air bore food for their nourishment, and that without labour or travail for those who had no chance of resorting to any deliberate process of providing sustenance.”¹

The Exodus was meant to be a type of the death and resurrection of our Lord, and we know that it is, based on the account of the Transfiguration in the scriptures: “And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” (Lk 9:30-31) Therefore, it is not unreasonable to suppose that not only the moon, but even the days of the week would have been aligned at the time of the first Exodus and the one that Christ underwent. Even if they didn’t, let’s suppose that they did, because otherwise a potential work of art could remain hidden. We’re not talking about two or three “coincidences” here, as we already saw in the previous articles, and will continue to see. During the liturgical year, most especially in the Easter and Pentecost season, we can almost imagine ourselves walking with the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt, their subsequent journey to Mt. Sinai, and even parts of the end of their wandering in the desert.

Making this presupposition, this sixteenth day of the second month after the Exodus could occur on two days, either Sunday or Monday, depending on whether Nisan had 30 days or 29. We can be reasonably sure that the Israelites would not be gathering manna on the Sabbath. And in fact, part of the manna story includes the establishment of the Sabbath, so we have another point of reference upon which to build our calendar (unless we want to imagine that the Sabbath fell on a Tuesday at some point in human history):  

On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers apiece; and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.’ ” So they laid it by till the morning, as Moses bade them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.” On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. (Ex 16:22–27)

This helps us to decide that Nisan must have 29 days in this liturgical arrangement of the calendar.  This departs from the current custom, based on the Metonic cycle, that Nisan must always have 30 days, but I hope that the reader can see that the goal is not to harmonize the current calendars, but to construct a primordial calendar for the time of the Exodus or the Resurrection (or both), where the new moons were still being directly observed.  This would put the 15th day of the second month (later called Iyar) on a Saturday. This might seem insignificant, except that the next day, the night and day during which the quail and manna came respectively, would be the 16th day of Iyar, which would correspond with the 4th Sunday after Easter, the first day of the week, agreeing with the previously mentioned opinion of Philo. Also, the matins reading for what would correspond to the fifteenth day of the second month is the end of the Apocalypse, when we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.” (Apoc 22:20) That is the only remaining “complaint” that a Christian can make to God, begging that Jesus return soon and release us from this earthly tent.

Moving along to our next “random coincidence,” we have the epistle for the 4th Sunday after Easter, from the Catholic Epistle of James, and the first words are as follows:  “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:17-18)

The manna comes from above, as a prefigurement of the heavenly manna, but indeed of every gift of God, including the Eucharist, the greatest of all the heavenly gifts that we can receive while on this earth. The greatest joy we can have is the possession of the unchanging Good, and we have a foretaste of this in the Eucharist, in which we receive the One who was for all eternity, the Lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world. (Apoc 13:8)

When Moses promised the manna, he framed it in terms of a precept: “and the people shall go out and gather . . . that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” It was very important that they follow the law of gathering the manna, such that every day, they had to put their trust in God. They had to believe that He would provide for them each day, including the Sabbath, when they had to gather a double portion the previous day.  Even the collect of the Mass supports this idea: “O God, who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will, grant to Thy people to love what Thou commandest and to desire what Thou dost promise, that amid the changing things of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are found.”

The manna is always spoken of as falling from heaven, as we saw in the above passage from Philo. Earthly food (quail) in the evening, when things are getting dark, is replaced with heavenly food (manna) in the morning, when the sun is beginning to make everything light. This is commemorated roughly in the middle of the 50-day period between the Exodus and Pentecost. It is a few weeks after Easter, in the middle of the time called “Mid-Pentecost” by the Byzantines, that we become weary of waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and complain to God, who sends us both earthly and heavenly food in due season. I thought that this was a neat little “Easter egg” left in the liturgy, perhaps by some clever churchman in the 7th or 8th century. Then for some reason I kept digging. 

To be continued…

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the previous installments here (1) and here (2))

(Update 10/9/2025: An erroneous passage has been deleted, which does not affect the points I was trying to make.  Please read here for an excellent treatment of the matter.)

When we last left off, we were just about to look at the Feast of Tabernacles, which God commanded to be observed on the 15th day of the 7th month, called Tishri. Before proceeding to that, we need to examine the Ember Days, which relate to these Sundays, even if they do not fall precisely when they “should” because of how the Ember Days are determined.  Traditionally they began on the Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14) which always ends up being in the third week of September, if the weeks are calculated in the older, more traditional manner.

As has been observed in many places, the Ember Days correspond to the Day of Atonement and the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, and mention is also made of the new year (Rosh Hashanah) on Ember Wednesday, when Ezra reads the law in the hearing of the people. (Neh 8:1-10)

The Ember Saturday is where the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles are referred to in the lessons, the first and second lessons respectively. (Lev 23:26-32 and Lev 23:39-43) The gospel alludes to the custom of taking branches from various trees. In modern Judaism, these branches and flowers are used to construct the “bundle” that each practicing Jew must make for himself for the feast. They are allowed to “gift” these bundles to each other but must use their own for the first two days of the feast.¹  “And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” (Lev 23:40)

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. (Lk 13:6-17)

The first part shows the connection to the Feast of Tabernacles, with the tree and the vineyard, and the second part also serves as a reminder to Christians that the Sunday observance does not excuse from works of charity and love of neighbor. If the reader is interested in low-hanging fruit we can also point out that this comes right before the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, and the woman was 18 years in her infirmity.

We now come to the 18th Sunday after Pentecost (15 Tishri). The gospel reading selected for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost is from the gospel of Matthew, somewhat preferentially favored by the Roman rite, perhaps as a special humiliation to St. Mark the Evangelist, whose gospel is sometimes called “Peter’s gospel.”

“And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Mt 9:1-8)

This is a fine reading, the choice of which assumes that the listeners, presumably Romans—since we are dealing with the Roman rite after all—are familiar with the parallel account in St. Mark’s gospel (perhaps not St. Luke’s, though he includes this detail as well): “And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.” (Mk 2:4, cf. Lk 5:19)

The feast of Tabernacles is an interesting feast. As a reminder of its purpose, recall “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord seven days in the year; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the sons of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 23:39–43)

The idea of dwelling in booths seems to be twofold.  One aspect of the observance was to remind the Israelites that this earthly habitation is temporary. The other is to point forward to the coming of Christ, who reminds us, “the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” (Mt 8:20)  We must never become too comfortable in our earthly habitation, whether our body or even the house in which we dwell. All these things can be taken away from us at any time.  In any event, on the day when we are imagining the people are all dwelling in booths, the men removed the roof of the house to let the paralytic down, the man who was helpless and could not move his own body, perhaps alluding to the restrictions recently placed upon the Israelites on the Day of Atonement, when the men were not allowed to perform any work at all, even work necessary for their own sustenance.

If we take the lunar year of twelve months and split it exactly in half, we find that it divides precisely (354 days evenly spaced) between 15 Tishri and 17 Nisan (which we have defined as Easter Sunday). We dwell now in the earthly tents, the tents of the Old Covenant, the tents made of flesh, as St. Paul says, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor 5:1) Many Jewish traditions place the creation of man on 1 Tishri. If we are saved, our future will not be in these corruptible bodies, but in transfigured bodies, as a seed that dies springs forth transformed and bears much fruit. The autumnal calendar (civil) being at antipodes to the vernal calendar (religious) brings this point into focus. We live now in the flesh, but that is not our ultimate destiny. We are to be restored to the glory that we lost with the sin of Adam, and much more besides. Our race was born and within moments entered a state of decline. Christ has truly given us the means to live again, but only if we will die to ourselves by giving ourselves completely to Him. The further coincidence of Good Friday and Ember Friday in September being the only places that have an entire reading from the prophet Hosea further strengthens this connection between these two poles of the calendar, like the north and south poles of a magnet.

The nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost corresponds with 22 Tishri, or Shemini Atzeret, “eighth day of assembly.” Recall that this was also a “miqra’ qodesh”, which means “solemn assembly,” but literally means “call of holiness.” In the gospel for this day, we have an assembly of sorts, to which people are invited, and then subsequently servants are sent to “call” them.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’ But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the streets, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt 22:1-14)

While the primary purpose of this parable is to remind us of the rejection of Christ by His own people, this can also be interpreted in the light of the New Testament as a somber reminder that not all those who were called to union with Christ through baptism are chosen for eternal life. Many are called to the Holy Assembly, the Call of Holiness, but few are chosen.

by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew is found the account of St. Peter’s sinking into the sea after walking upon it and his subsequent rescue by Our Lord (14:28-33).  Perhaps unsurprisingly, this incident has found its way into the liturgy of the Roman Church which was founded by this same Apostle.

The first time one is most likely to encounter this episode is when it is referenced among the ceremonies of the very Sacrament which makes one a member of Church, that of Baptism.  In the first exorcism of the Baptismal ceremony in both the Roman Ritual and the Roman Pontifical, the “accursed and damned one” is commanded by “He Who walked upon the sea and stretched out His hand to the sinking Peter.”¹  This is a very fitting reference as immersion, the full submersion of the one being baptized under the water, was the common practice in the early Church.²  It is easy to see symbolized by Peter and Christ the one submerged and the one raising him out of the waters.  For just as Christ lifted Peter out of the water thus saving him from death, so does the priest raise the one submerged out of the font saving him from the death of sin and bringing him to a new, supernatural life.

There are two other references to this event in the Roman Ritual, namely in the blessing of a boat (navis)³ and in the solemn blessing of, specifically, a fishing-boat (benedicito solemnis navis piscatoriæ)⁴ (this second blessing was approved by the Congregation of Sacred Rites on April 10, 1912).  In both, it is prayed: “Reach out Thy hand to them [the passengers], Lord, as Thou did to blessed Peter as he walked upon the sea.”  This is, of course, a prayer for the safety and protection of those on the boat, that they be guarded against the dangers of the waves and winds which can be encountered while out on the water.  The full text of the prayer in which this petition is found is common to both blessings and reads as follows:

Lord, be well disposed to our prayers, and by Thy holy hand bless + this ship [or fishing-boat] and its passengers, as Thou were pleased to let Thy blessing hover over Noe’s ark in the Deluge.  Reach out Thy hand to them, Lord, as Thou did to blessed Peter as he walked upon the sea.  Send Thine holy angel from on high to watch over it and all on board, to ward off any threat of disaster, and to guide its course through calm waters to the desired port.  Then after a time, when they have successfully transacted their business, may Thou in Thy loving providence bring them back with glad hearts to their own country and home.  We ask this of Thee who live and reign forever and ever.⁵

It is interesting that this prayer attributes to God the Son Himself the blessing given to Noe’s ark during the Flood, a reminder that all Three Persons of the Trinity acted together throughout the events recorded in the Old Testament.  The request for the Holy Angel mirrors that found in the blessing of a house and in the prayer which accompanies the Asperges at Holy Mass.  For those who may be interested, the blessing of a fishing-boat runs several pages and involves the dedication of the boat to a particular titular saint.  It is likely that this blessing is meant for a commercial fishing-boat, not a recreational one.

Turning to the Missal, this episode is read as the Gospel (Matt 14:22-33) on the Octave Day of Sts. Peter and Paul (July 6th).⁶  The collect for this Mass also references this event:

O God, Whose right hand upheld blessed Peter walking upon the waves lest he should sink, and delivered his fellow-apostle Paul when shipwrecked for the third time from the depth of the sea; hear us in Thy mercy, and grant that through their merits we may obtain the glory of everlasting life: Thou Who livest…⁷

This same oration is found in the Votive Mass of Sts. Peter and Paul recommended for Wednesdays later in the Missal.  In this votive Mass, however, the oration is not in harmony with the Gospel reading, which is the same as that read during the Octave (Matt 19:27-29) rather than that of the Octave Day itself.  As per usual, the Gospel and oration of the Octave Day are also utilized in the Office of the day.

Lastly, turning to the Breviary, in addition to what has already just been noted, the second antiphon for Vespers and Lauds for the Feasts of the Finding (May 3rd)⁸ and Exaltation (September 14th) of the Holy Cross unites Our Lord’s saving of St. Peter with the saving power of the Cross:

Save us, O Christ the Saviour, through the might of Thy Cross: Thou Who didst save Peter on the sea, have mercy on us.

A common theme throughout is that this incident is invoked as an expression of God’s power and ability to save from both natural and spiritual peril and confidence that, in accordance with His wisdom, He will so do in favor of his faithful.  May the faithful then, when inundated by the winds and waves of this world, imitate St. Peter and cry out for God’s help confident that He will not let a soul which trusts in Him be lost.

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus II.  Translation adopted from: Manus, Frederick. Parish Ritual. (New York: Benziger Brothers, Inc., 1962), p. 5.
2. The old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Baptism.”
3. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 8.5.
4. Rituale Romanum [1957], Titulus IX – Caput 8.6.
5. Translation adapted from the Weller translation provided online by EWTN (2, VIII, 19 and 20).
6. This octave was removed from general observance by Pope Pius XII in 1955 with the decree Cum hac nostra aetate. Perhaps the day will come when this octave is restored, fittingly, for the use of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.
7. Translation adopted from the Saint Andrew Daily Missal (St. Paul: The E. M. Lohmann Co., 1940), p. 787. Original Latin: Deus, cujus déxtera beátum Petrum, ambulántem in flúctibus, ne mergerétur, eréxit, et coapóstolum ejus Paulum, tértio naufragántem, de profúndo pélagi liberávit: exáudi nos propítius, et concéde; ut, ambórum méritis, æternitátis glóriam consequámur: Qui vivis.
8. This feast was also removed from general observance by Pope John XXIII, but its Mass can still be celebrated on May 3rd as a votive.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles. The first and foundational article can be found here.)

Now that you have had a chance to let these ideas settle in your mind, let us revisit the “month” that we find ourselves in now, the fictitiously liturgical (or liturgically fictitious), and yet entirely real month of Tishri, which includes the sixteenth through twentieth Sundays after Pentecost. Remember, we are simply counting forwards from Easter, 17 Nisan; seven Sundays from Easter to Pentecost, and sixteen more take us to the month of Tishri, which in this arrangement providentially begins on Sunday, the first day of the week. If you read my first article, you are now able to figure these things out on your own with a pencil and paper or an old calendar. If you have not read the first article, it is available here.  So here we are at the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the beginning of the month of Tishri, from the point of view of our liturgical year.  

This is an interesting month for several reasons. The first day of this month is also the first day of the civil year, and so the normal Rosh Hodesh (new moon) is a special one.

“And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.” (Lev 23:23-25)

The collect for the Mass for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost likewise seems to contain an allusion to a transition from one year to the next: “May Thy grace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever go before us and follow after us; and make us always intent upon good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, etc.”

This particular choice of words, and the notion of God’s grace “going before and following” (Tua nos quaesumus Domine gratia et praeveniat et sequatur) is interesting. The new year on the Roman solar calendar begins in January. It was not always so, but the shift of the new year from March to January was understandable, given that the month of January is named after Janus, the Roman god typically depicted with two faces facing in opposite directions, and to whom was attributed patronage of change and transition. One face looks forward to the future, while the other looks backward and contemplates what has already taken place. St. Augustine makes this observation in his discussion of the Roman gods Janus and Terminus (“End”): “Would it not be a far more elegant interpretation of his two faces to say that Janus and Terminus are actually the same, and to assign one face to beginnings and the other to endings?”¹

Every new year is both a beginning and an end. We put the old year behind us and the new year before us, and ask that the grace of God be behind us and in front of us. This also serves as a reminder to us that our prayer stretches behind us and ahead of us. Why would we pray that the grace of God go behind us?  Why do our funeral liturgies ask that the soul of the departed be spared the pains of hell?  If the person is already dead and judged, what difference would that make? We tend to imagine past events as unaffected by our prayers, but God is outside time. Who can say that our prayers now might not mitigate the effects of some terrible past event? We certainly know that what is past cannot be undone, but how can we perceive the intentions of Him who is the creator of time?

Continuing along, we come to the next occurrence on the Hebrew calendar, 3 Tishri, known as “Tzom Gedaliah” or the Fast of Gedaliah. This commemorates the following event relating to the Babylonian captivity:

“And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor.  Now when all the captains of the forces in the open country and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite.  And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, ‘Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials; dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.’  But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men, and attacked and killed Gedaliah and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.  Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose, and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.” (2 Kgs 25:22–26)

The fast on this day is certainly that one mentioned in Zechariah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love truth and peace.” (Zec 8:19) The prophet had made a previous mention of the fast of the fifth and the seventh month, both relating to the Babylonian exile. (Zec 7:5) These four fasts do NOT include the Day of Atonement, as that is a very unique day. Rather, these “four fasts” all pertain to events surrounding the Babylonian captivity: the one we just mentioned, the commemoration of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (10 Tevet, 2 Kgs 25:1 and Ezek 24:1-2) and the two days commemorating the ending of the daily sacrifice and the destruction of the temple (17 Tammuz, Jer 39:2, and 9 Av, 2 Kgs 25:8-9).

An important point that needs to be made at this time is that any Jewish observance from before the coming of Christ, even if it is not explicitly in the scriptures, but is only known from later pre-Christian tradition, ought to be considered authentic, and part of our shared common tradition, because until they inexplicably and mysteriously rejected their Messiah, the Jews had the faith, the exact same grace of faith that we have. Otherwise, those righteous Jews who died before the coming of Christ could not have been saved. “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:5–6)  So, although the date of 3 Tishri for this observance is not explicitly found in the scriptures, it can be regarded with as much authority as the observed date of December 25 for the birthday of our Savior, as this date was observed long before the first Christmas.  However, none of these dates have any significance for the Christian without a connection to the celebration of Easter.

A lesson to be learned from this fast for the assassination of Gedaliah is that the secular authority is also imposed upon us by almighty God as a chastisement or punishment, but that does not excuse us from our obligations to it.  Having to fill out your taxes every year is in itself a little chastisement from God for your own sanctification. What other reason could there be for having a special penitential fast because a politician was assassinated? After all, in the end, that is all that Gedaliah was. Yes, he was regarded as a righteous man by the Jews, and he was no doubt an admirable man on the carnal level, but he likely got his position through some connections he had made with the invading Babylonian officials, and was able to get himself installed as governor of the land of Judah. Most of the remaining Jews probably made the mistake we too make, which the Psalmist reminds us not to make: “It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.” (Ps 117:8–9)

Have politics changed so much since biblical times? We were given this short summary of the historical events in the book of Kings, but perhaps that’s all we need. The inspired writer knew that people even thousands of years later would understand how politics work, and they would also understand how easily a bunch of rebels could band together and take out their enemy, whether perceived or real, but that is not, in fact, what God wants.

Life, death, and judgment belong to the Lord, and the final judgment of our leaders is also placed in His hands. It is not ours to dispense, as St. Peter said: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God.  Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Pet 2:13–17)

The next “official” occurrence on our calendar is the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, corresponding to 8 Tishri. The collect seems to point towards the coming Day of Atonement: “Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to Thy people, to avoid all contact with the devil: and with pure minds to follow Thee, the only God.”

The gospel reading also suggests coming humiliation and penance: “Because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Lk 14:11)

If we imagine that the week in which the Ember days fall is always after the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, as that is where the Ember Days fall in the missal (see previous article for this), we “should” be reading the book of Tobit this week at matins to correspond with the Ember Days in the third week of September, and in our idealized year, today we would read the introduction:

I, Tobit, walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life, and I performed many acts of charity to my brethren and countrymen who went with me into the land of the Assyrians, to Nineveh. Now when I was in my own country, in the land of Israel, while I was still a young man, the whole tribe of Naphtali my forefather deserted the house of Jerusalem. This was the place which had been chosen from among all the tribes of Israel, where all the tribes should sacrifice and where the temple of the dwelling of the Most High was consecrated and established for all generations for ever.

All the tribes that joined in apostasy used to sacrifice to the calf Baal, and so did the house of Naphtali my forefather. But I alone went often to Jerusalem for the feasts, as it is ordained for all Israel by an everlasting decree. Taking the first fruits and the tithes of my produce and the first shearings, I would give these to the priests, the sons of Aaron, at the altar. Of all my produce I would give a tenth to the sons of Levi who ministered at Jerusalem; a second tenth I would sell, and I would go and spend the proceeds each year at Jerusalem; the third tenth I would give to those to whom it was my duty, as Deborah my father’s mother had commanded me, for I was left an orphan by my father. (Tob 1:3-8)

And, as Fr. Rock has already observed here, the homily for this day is one of St. Leo’s on “the fast of the seventh month.”

Typically, at this time of year, the matins readings do not have a tight correspondence to the sequence of Sundays, but this one time, due to it being the week containing the Ember Days, we can make an exception to this rule, and imagine that this is the proper “home” of this book of the bible in the cycle of readings because of its close connection to the Ember days.  You’ve had to use your imagination quite a bit leading up to this point already, so please continue to bear with me.

On this day, Solomon began the dedication of the first temple, 7 days and 7 more days, ending with 22 Tishri, the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles, the day of “solemn assembly,” after which we are told that he sent the people home. (2 Chr 7)

Next we have the Day of Atonement. (10 Tishri)  This comes right before the Fall Ember days, which eventually took the place of all the fall penitential observances for the Roman Christians.

Recall what Moses told the people:

“On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.” (Lev 23:26-27) The term “afflict yourselves” refers to being humbled or bowed over, but it additionally includes the notion of fasting.² The Jewish calendar does not have many fast days prescribed, but this is an unusual fast, as work is also forbidden. Ordinarily days on which work was forbidden were joyful holidays, including the first and seventh day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles on the first and eighth day. But on this day, men are not allowed to eat and may not even do anything to better their miserable condition through work. They must acknowledge their own helplessness in the sight of God. We Catholics have many opportunities to humble ourselves in our hearts, by the grace of God, and that more than once a year. The Israelites simply had to do it with their bodies, once a year.

The Ember Days and the rest of the month will be discussed in the next article.

by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

One of the most ancient practices of Christianity as practiced in the city of Rome is the keeping of the Ember Days (Latin Quatuor Tempora, “four times”).  According to the old Catholic Encyclopedia, “the ‘Liber Pontificalis’ ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older.  Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution.”¹

For those who may be unfamiliar, the Ember Days are four sets of three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) somewhat evenly spaced throughout the year which are kept as days of penance.  In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Ember Days were to be kept as days of fasting and abstinence, with no exception for those which corresponded with the Octave of Pentecost (the Ember Days, it should be noted, predate this Octave) (canon 1252.2).  By 1962, the abstinence on Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays was reduced to partial.  These sets of days, as they correspond, some better than others, with the changes of natural seasons, were observed as a way to give thanks to God for the blessings of the previous season and to ask His blessing on the one beginning.  As ordinations at Rome historically occurred on Ember Saturdays, these days were also days of preparation for this event.

With respect to their origin, the Ember Days seem to be a christianization of Roman agricultural celebrations with the December Ember Days being the christianization of the feriæ sementivæ (“for the seeding”), the Summer Ember Days of the feriæ messis (“for a bountiful harvest”), and the Autumn Ember Days of the feriæ vindimiales (“for a rich vintage”).²  The Lenten, or Spring, Ember Days, which seem to be without an agricultural precedent, were added, presumably, to balance out the year.  The Autumn and Winter Ember Days are also called the Fast of the Seventh Month and Fast of the Tenth Month, respectively.  Lest there be any confusion regarding calling the September Ember Days the Fast of the Seventh, and not the Ninth, Month and the December Ember Days the Fast of the Tenth, and not the Twelfth, Month, it is important to note that the Roman calendar, prior to the reform under Julius Caesar (d. 44 B.C.), originally marked the beginning of the year in the spring with March being the first month,³ thus making September the seventh and December the tenth, hence their names (septem, “seven”; decem, “ten”).⁴  So while September and December were not the seventh and tenth calendar months at the dawn of Roman Christianity, they were still the seventh and tenth months by name.

Some authors, such as Servant of God Dom Prosper Guéranger,⁵ attempt to justify the keeping of the Ember Day fasts by invoking the Prophet Zacharias (8:19): “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Juda, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace.”  The Fasts of the Seventh Month and of the Tenth Month mentioned by the Prophet, then, would correspond with the September and December Ember Days.  The Fast of the Fourth Month would correspond with the Ember Days following the Feast of Pentecost which can fall between May (the third month) 10 and June (the fourth month) 13.  If one were to assign a correspondence in the Roman liturgical calendar for the Fast of the Fifth Month, the fasts before the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and before the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, both celebrated in late June, close to July, the original fifth Roman month, serve as possible candidates.  It is not by coincidence, then, such authors would argue, that this passage of the Prophet is read as part of the Fourth Lesson on September’s Ember Saturday (Zach 8:14-19).  Rather, it is the Church’s liturgy itself giving witness to the origin of these fasts.

It is clear, however, that there is not a perfect correspondence between the passage from Zacharias and the Roman liturgical calendar.  This is most likely due to the Prophet being invoked as a justification for a practice which was already being kept rather than the passage serving as the inspiration of the practice.  As was said above, the origin of the Ember Days is more likely a christianization of Roman agricultural celebrations at a very early date rather than the application of the writings of an Old Testament Prophet to the Christian liturgical year, although the Scripture text may have inspired the names of these christianized observances.  Dom Guéranger himself notes that “in the early writers” there is mention “of the three times [of fasting] and not the four,”⁶ but argues this is because the Ember Days of Lent add nothing to the Lenten fast already being observed.  Again, it seems more likely that the Spring Ember Days were added later, but by the time of Pope Gelasius (A.D. 492-496), to balance out the calendar.

Starting in August and continuing until the start of Advent, the weekly Sunday and ferial Scriptural Lessons as well as any Patristic Commentaries for the Office of Matins, the Church’s night office, are determined by the week of the month and not by weeks after Pentecost as are the Sunday Gospel lections, their commentaries, and orations.  Prior to this, however, even the weekly Sunday and ferial Scriptural Lessons as well as any Patristic Commentaries are also determined by the weeks after Pentecost.  In the Breviary, the material for the September Ember Days is presented on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the Third Week of September as these Ember Days always fall during this third week.  On each of these days, a short commentary from a Father of the Church on the Gospel of the day is given.  However, at the start of the week, that is, for the Third Sunday of September, prior to the changes made to the Breviary under Pope John XXIII (d. A.D. 1963),⁷ in place of a commentary on the preceding Scriptural Lessons as is usual, the readings for the second nocturn are taken from Pope St. Leo the Great’s Ninth Sermon on the Fast of the Seventh Month.  In this Sermon, the Holy Pontiff touches on keeping the expected fast and the spiritual advantages of giving alms.  This all resonates well with the reasons expressed by the old Catholic Encyclopedia for the institution of the Ember Days: “The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.”⁸ At the conclusion, the Holy Pontiff mentions the station at St. Peter’s, which is still listed as the station in the Missale Romanum, the station being the church in Rome where the Pope himself would say Mass on certain days.

On the Sunday following, the Fourth Sunday of September, the Patristic Commentary for the second nocturn is taken from St. Ambrose’s Book upon Elijah and Fasting.  The text chosen is not a strict commentary on the preceding Scriptural Lessons, which are taken from the Book of Judith, but she is referenced.  There is also a connection with the Sunday next, on which the Book of Esther is begun, by the mention of her.  In the text provided, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (d. A.D. 397), first details the dangers of drink and drunkenness while extolling sobriety.  This is a fitting warning to be read following the September Ember Days which are associated, it is believed, with the Roman vintage festival.  The Saint also praises the fruits of fasting by extolling the deeds wrought by God through these two great women which He granted them in light of their fasts, Esther’s even being kept for three days.  As the Church has just finished three days of fasting herself, such a reminder of the benefits of fasting is timely.

For the sake of the edification of the faithful as we enter into these Autumn Ember Days and so that they may keep these days with the same spirit which was expected of the early Christians and which the Church perennially expected of her children by including them in her liturgy, I here present translations of these readings just mentioned.⁹

For the Third Sunday of September from Leo’s Ninth Sermon on the Fast of the Seventh Month:

Well do I know, dearly beloved, that many of you are fervent in your observance of all those practices which belong to the Christian Faith, so that ye have no need to be admonished by our exhortations.  For what tradition hath laid down, and custom well established, is neither unknown to the learned nor neglected by the devout.  But because it appertaineth to the priestly office to exercise the same general care over all the Church’s children in all such matters as be profitable alike to the learned and to the simple (both of whom are equally dear to us), we do now exhort the both of you to celebrate, with lively faith, and all due discipline of soul and body, the Quarterly Fast, which the seventh month [that is, September] doth once again bring to us in its yearly round.

The Ember Days of fasting are appointed to the four seasons [observántia quátuor est assignáta tempóribus], in order that their quarterly recurrence in the course of the year may teach us how unceasingly we need to be purified, and how, as long as we are tossed about by the changes and chances of this life, we need through fasting and alms-deeds to be cleansed from the stain of that sin which we have contracted by the frailty of our flesh and our concupiscence.  Let us diminish a little, beloved, what we are accustomed to use for ourselves, in order that we have somewhat more to use for the relief of the poor and needy.

The conscience of the generous can thus be made glad by the fruits of their own liberality.  Whilst thou art giving happiness thou shalt receive joy.  Thy love for thy neighbor is a unity with thy love for God; and He hath taught us that in the unity of this twofold charity is to be found the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets.  Further, if anyone doubt that what is given to man is offered to God, we have the saying of our Lord and Saviour, when He spake of feeding and helping the poor: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.  Wherefore, let us fast on Ember Wednesday and Friday; and on Ember Saturday let us also keep vigil at the shrine of blessed Peter the Apostle; by whose merits and prayers we believe that we shall be aided, so that we may please our merciful God in our fasting and prayer.

For the Fourth Sunday of September from Ambrose’s Book upon Elijah and Fasting (Ch. 9):

It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law. _{Prov. xxxi. 5.}  The rulers drank wine even unto drunkenness, who planned to deliver themselves into the hand of Holofernes, captain of the host of the King of the Assyrians but the woman Judith drank not, who fasted all the days of her widowhood, saving the solemn Feast-days.  She went forth in the harness of this abstinence, and over-reached the whole army of the Assyrians.  By the clear thought of her soberness she took away the head of Holofernes, kept her chastity, and carried off the victory.

Armed with fasting, she entered the camp of the strangers.   He lay soaked in wine, so that he could not feel the blow that slew him.  And thus, the fast of one woman overthrew the countless armies of the Assyrians.  Esther also became fairer by fasting for the Lord gave favour unto her for her soberness.  She delivered all her nation, that is, the whole people of the Jews, from the fierceness of persecution, so that she brought down the king himself under her will.

Thus also [Esther] who fasted three days, and washed her body with water, found greater favour, and obtained vengeance, whereas Haman, who boasted himself at the king’s table, paid the penalty of his drunkenness, even while yet he was in his cups.  Fasting, therefore, is a sacrifice of reconciliation, a means of strength, whereby in the might of grace, women wax manful.  Fasting knoweth not usury, nor the gain of the usurer the faster’s table smelleth not of usury, but the fast itself giveth favour to them that sit at meat.  A banquet is all the pleasanter after hunger, whereas by constant use it becometh unattractive, and when it is long carried on cometh to be lightly esteemed.  Fasting is a good sauce for meat.  The keener the appetite, the more toothsome the food.

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. The old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Ember Days.”
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., s.v. “New Year’s Day.”
4. Whitaker’s Words, s.vv. “Septem” and “Decem.”
5. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, vol. 1 (Advent). Trans. Shepherd, Laurence. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto
   Publications, 2000), pp. 218-221.
6. Ibid., p. 219.
7. In the changes made by Pope John XXIII in 1960, Sunday Matins was reduced to one nocturn and the readings of the second nocturns omitted.  With respect to the matter at hand, it seems to be a great loss that the Autumn Ember Day sermon of Leo, which testifies to the antiquity of the Ember Days, is no longer part of the Church’s official liturgy.
8. The old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Ember Days.”
9. The translations are taken from the Divinum Officium Project with modifications in some places.

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

I am planning, God willing, to do a series of articles on how the traditional Roman Liturgy aligns with the cycle of Jewish feasts. Having done extensive research, but not knowing where to begin, I informally consulted with some of my brother priests at our last general meeting. One of them said, “What’s a lunar calendar?” So I think that is a good place to start. At the end of this series of articles, it is hoped that people will see what a work of art the ancient Roman liturgy is, not only the Mass, but even the Divine Office. We will also see the continuity between the practice of religion before Christ and after His coming in the flesh. It is like a beautiful symphony that changes keys, but maintains the same harmony. Miracles have been described in this way, as God modulating the cosmic music, rather than violently manipulating His creation. We often speak of the New Testament being hidden within the Old. It appears that the liturgy of the old Covenant is also hidden within the new.

Every Catholic is well aware of the fact that the date of Easter moves around the calendar every year. Not every Catholic knows why. When I was a little boy in Catholic school, Fr. Mike Foley, then a young priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, taught us the answer to this (perhaps in the fifth or sixth grade), by asking us a question, and promising that if any student knew the answer, that he or she would be exempt from religion class until graduation. Of course, none of us knew the correct answer: that Easter Sunday is always the Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring (formally known as the vernal equinox, but we were only kids, so he spared us the additional astronomy lesson). The Church defines the equinox as March 21 for purposes of unity and consistency, even though the actual equinox can move a bit. So to simplify, we can simply say that the Church has decided that Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon after March 21.

The reason for this is that the crucifixion of our Lord occurred during the feast of the Unleavened Bread, which was observed for seven days after Passover. The feasts of the Jewish religion are all defined by lunar occurrences, specifically counting days after the new moon (when the first sliver of the crescent moon is just visible after the sun sets). The full moon will occur about 14 days after that new moon sighting, and it did need to be seen by human eyes, so the lunar calendar in antiquity was called “observational.” The location that eventually became the standard place of observation for the Jews was naturally Jerusalem. Two witnesses had to come forward to the priests, who would then question them on what precisely they saw (where, how high in the sky, how the moon was oriented) and if their answers were satisfactory, the new moon was declared and the trumpet blown, signifying that the month had begun. The beginning of the month was called “Rosh Hodesh” (the “head of the month”) as we analogously say “Rosh Hashanah” for the Jewish new year. Technically, “hodesh” simply means “newness” in Hebrew.

In fact, in the early church, there was a controversy surrounding the date of Easter, with some insisting that Easter be always celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month (called Nisan), no matter what day of the week it happened to be, and others saying that it should always be celebrated on a Sunday, the first day of the week, as this was the day our Lord rose from the dead. There are mystical and theological reasons for both positions, but ultimately the second opinion prevailed, and we now celebrate Easter as we do. The discrepancy between the Western celebration of Easter and the Orthodox Easter has nothing to do with the moon, but rather has to do with the fact that the Orthodox continue to use the Julian calendar, which has a drift of three solar days every 400 years, an error that was corrected—quite well, incidentally—by the reform of the calendar under Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. For this reason, the date of Easter on the Orthodox calendar will continue to fall later and later as centuries go by.

* * *

The Hebrew lunar calendar has twelve months, each month having either 29 or 30 days. It takes the moon about 27.3 days to revolve around the earth, but the earth meanwhile is moving around the sun at the same time, and so the observed lunar cycle turns out to be about 29.5 days. The months are as follows:

The names of the months are taken from the Babylonians, whose astronomers perfected the lunar calendar and the cycles of lunations. The names given in parentheses are the older Canaanite names, which appear in the Old Testament occasionally. This gives us a total of 354 days, assuming an even pattern of alternating 29- and 30-day months. However, because the solar year is 365 days, we are presented with a problem, since after a few years the first month of spring would be so early that there would be no grain to harvest yet, and since Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread were tied to the growing season, something would have to be done. In order to correct the error in the drifting apart of the cycles of the sun and the moon, the priests would declare a “leap month” after Adar, which they simply called Adar II or Va’Adar (literally “And Adar”). This would then realign the cycle of the sun and moon enough so as not to disrupt society. Later, after the Sanhedrin was disbanded in the fourth century, the rabbis adopted what is called the Metonic cycle, known to the Greeks as well as the Babylonians, by which direct observation of the moon was no longer necessary. A 19-year cycle is used, with a regular pattern of leap months and two months whose length can vary from 29 to 30 days from year to year depending on what is needed to keep everything aligned. This system remains in use to this day.

Before turning to the Christian feasts, a brief general overview of the Hebrew feasts will be helpful. There are other observances which we will look at later as they come up, but the major holidays are enumerated in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23 (RSV2 Catholic Edition):

“The Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, The appointed feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed feasts, are these. Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.” (Lev 23:1-3)

This observance is so frequent that it is often forgotten, in the same way that we don’t think much of Sunday when it rolls around every week—unless, of course, you are a priest, then your whole life revolves around it. We will see the phrase “holy convocation” (miqra’ qodesh) come up repeatedly. The term is aptly rendered, as it is literally a “calling of holiness.” The original Christian feast was simply the observance of the new weekly day of rest, Sunday, the day of the Resurrection.

“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the Lord’s Passover.  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.  But you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord seven days; on the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.” (Lev 24:4-8)

Here Passover and the associated feast of Unleavened Bread are described. These roughly correspond to our Holy Thursday and Good Friday (the 14th and 15th days of the month, if the synoptic gospel narrative has any value) and the week of Easter. But there is one additional action that must be taken around this time:

“And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the cereal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, to be offered by fire to the Lord, a pleasing odor; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.  And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (Lev 23:9-14)

There are two different traditions (Rabbinic and Sadducean/Karaite) on how to determine what “the day after the sabbath” means. The way that ends up determining the Christian calendar is to have this day be the day after the Sabbath that falls within the week of Passover. In our case, that would be Easter Sunday itself, as Holy Saturday was the Sabbath within that feast. This means that Pentecost would always fall on a Sunday in this arrangement, no matter what day Passover falls on. Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday are thus the 16th and 17th days of Nisan respectively. It is interesting that the arrangement followed is that of the Sadducees, who were also in power at the time of Christ. The other interpretation gained traction after they lost their influence, but theirs is considered the more literal reading of the sacred text, and the Karaites have continued that tradition, as the modern Torah-thumping fundamentalists.

“And you shall count from the day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven, as first fruits to the Lord.  And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their cereal offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.  And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall make proclamation on the same day; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work: it is a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 23:15-22)

This corresponds to our feast of Pentecost, which comes from a Greek word that simply means “fiftieth.” No further comment is necessary, but it is helpful to keep in mind that it is an additional feast of the harvest in the spring.

“And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.” (Lev 23:23-25)

This is the civil new year, which begins in the fall. As we look at the calendar we see a certain symmetry between the fall and the spring, between Nisan and Tishri especially. This is easily seen if the table above is referred to. In this case, however, the first day of the month is also a solemn day of rest, while the first day of Nisan is not.

“And the Lord said to Moses, On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves; on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your sabbath.” (Lev 23:26-32)

This introduces another important principle in Hebrew timekeeping: feasts and religious observances always begin at sunset and end at sunset, even though the beginning of the day was still considered sunrise. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was a single day of reparation for sin. The term “afflict your souls” is a technical term referring to fasting.

“And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the feast of booths to the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. Seven days you shall present offerings by fire to the Lord; on the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work.

“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord offerings by fire, burnt offerings and cereal offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day;  besides the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and besides all your votive offerings, and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.  You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord seven days in the year; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the sons of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.  Thus Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.” (Lev 23:33-44)

This feast, variously called “Booths,” “Tabernacles,” or the Hebrew name “Succoth,” is in a sense the fall version of the spring feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, both of which occur on the full moon of the month.

By now, the reader probably needs a break to allow these ideas to settle in before we start to examine the traditional Roman liturgical year in greater detail. I am aware that “everyone knows” that the Ember Days in September relate to these last three observances in the month of Tishri, namely, The New Year, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles. I invite you to take an altar missal (or most any vernacular hand missal), take an ordinary calendar, find Pentecost Sunday, write “7 Sivan” in the space, and then count the weeks between Pentecost Sunday (which we define as 7 Sivan, 7 weeks after 17 Nisan, Easter) and 10 Tishri, the day of atonement. Suppose Sivan has 29 days, and then they alternate: Tammuz would have 30 days, Av 29 days, Elul 30 days. Since it is an even number of months, it could just as easily go 30, 29, 30, 29, but as we will see later, Sivan must have 29 days in this idealized calendar for a very important reason. You will find that 10 Tishri falls on a Tuesday within a certain week after Pentecost. It will in fact be the week of the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. After doing this, open your missal and see what comes immediately after that Sunday in in the missal. Then look two Sundays after that (22 Tishri), which would be the eighth day of Succoth, the day of “solemn convocation” (i.e. “calling of holiness”), make note of the gospel reading, and know that God has not abandoned His people. More on the month of Tishri (i.e. the sixteenth through twentieth Sundays after Pentecost) is on the way.