An ancient observance of the Roman Church, kept four times a year to sanctify the seasons, to give thanks for the harvest and human labour, and to pray for the clergy to be ordained at those times; in the older calendar they fell after St Lucy in December, in the first week of Lent, after Pentecost, and after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September. The 1969 reform of the calendar left the regulation of Ember and Rogation Days to the conferences of bishops, and the 1983 Code no longer imposes their fasting rules; in the United States they are not officially observed, though many Catholics and communities keep them privately as a rhythm of penance and thanksgiving.

Keep the three days — Wednesday, Friday and Saturday — of each Embertide as days of moderation and prayer: a simpler table, abstinence from meat, and time given to prayer rather than only food withheld. Take up the traditional intentions explicitly: on the Wednesday, thanksgiving for the harvest and for honest work; on the Friday, penance for your own sins and those of the Church; on the Saturday, prayer for those to be ordained and for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Since the observance is now voluntary in most places, agree on what you will do beforehand, and check your diocese's own practice before treating the days as obligatory.

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