The John-Henry Westen Show - December 14, 2021


Ember Week special： 'Some demons are only cast out by prayer and fasting'

Topics
Ember Days tradition prayer and fasting demons ember days
Hosted by
John-Henry Westen
Mentioned
Gospel Roman St. Paul Apostles Gospels Easter Advent Parler
Massive demonstrations as huge fines and jail coming for unvaxxed Austrians Ontario Catholic hospital invokes Pope Francis to deny Catholic nurse religious exemption for COVID jab

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

146.55

Word count

2,123

Sentence count

142

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

This week, starting Wednesday, December 15th, we have the opportunity to observe an ancient Roman practice that goes back to the apostles themselves, and we can offer God something special in a united, communal way. In the traditional Roman calendar, the third week of Advent is called Ember Week, and the days of this week are traditionally the days called the Ember Days.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This week, starting Wednesday, December 15th, we have the opportunity to observe an ancient
00:00:06.420 Roman practice that goes back to the apostles themselves.
00:00:10.960 And we can offer God something special in a united, communal way.
00:00:16.720 You know how sometimes we need motivation to do something?
00:00:21.040 How even though you know it's what you should be doing, it helps to have friends do it with
00:00:27.000 you to supply that sort of needed push?
00:00:31.360 Let's do this together, my friends.
00:00:33.940 This is the John Henry Weston Show.
00:00:35.900 Stay tuned.
00:00:54.520 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
00:00:57.000 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
00:01:01.940 Amen.
00:01:05.020 In the traditional Roman calendar, this week, the third week of Advent is called Ember Week.
00:01:12.740 And the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are traditionally the days called
00:01:17.860 the Ember Days.
00:01:19.760 But it's got nothing to do with embers from a fire.
00:01:23.460 It comes from the Latin phrase meaning four times, or we could see it as the four seasons.
00:01:29.900 There are four of these Ember Weeks throughout the year.
00:01:33.440 One in Advent for winter, Lent for spring, the Pentecost octave for summer, and one in September
00:01:39.800 for autumn.
00:01:40.900 They are all about doing a very challenging thing for us.
00:01:45.340 At least very challenging for me.
00:01:47.680 They're about fasting.
00:01:48.920 I'm always amazed when I see the length to which people go for health or fitness, the
00:01:55.200 rigorous dieting, fasting, exercising, pushing oneself to the limits.
00:02:00.340 We need to have at least some of that same determination to achieve our eternal health, or our spiritual fitness, if you will.
00:02:11.120 Ember Days are days of fast and abstinence.
00:02:14.900 They used to be obligatory for the whole of the Latin Church, and they have a very particular purpose.
00:02:21.480 St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that in general, fasting is directed to two things.
00:02:27.020 The deletion of sin and the raising of the mind to heavenly things.
00:02:33.200 Fasting is for our own good.
00:02:35.320 And for this reason, he says that we need to have periods of fasting at the times most appropriate to penance and to raising our minds to God.
00:02:45.040 That makes sense, doesn't it?
00:02:47.200 But how can we do this with only two fasting days a year, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday?
00:02:52.320 Well, until 1966, the whole Catholic world had many more obligatory fasting days.
00:03:00.960 They came in three distinct types.
00:03:04.080 The whole of Lent was a time of fasting because that's, of course, the supreme time of penance and preparation for Easter, the Feast of Feasts.
00:03:12.280 And it was like that also for vigils, the days before certain major feasts were also days of fast, so preparing us to celebrate and raising our minds to God.
00:03:23.780 But the last group of these four sets of, were these four sets of Ember Days, which divide the year into quarters.
00:03:32.500 These Ember Days go very far back indeed.
00:03:36.140 In fact, they're traditionally linked with the stages of the agricultural cycle.
00:03:40.560 The ancient Romans had religious ceremonies based around their agriculture.
00:03:45.400 They had June rites for a good harvest.
00:03:47.720 Autumn were for good wine vintage.
00:03:50.200 Decembers were for the seeding.
00:03:52.860 Now, we all know that the Church tries, where possible, to sanctify the traditions of those that the Church converts.
00:04:01.440 Remember St. Paul and the altar of the unknown God.
00:04:05.240 So, what could be more fitting than this Roman tradition?
00:04:09.860 Now, by this cycle of fasts, the Church has us thank God for gifts of nature, she teaches us to use them moderately,
00:04:18.520 and the Church has us reflect on the season that has just passed and the one that is now to come.
00:04:25.580 In fact, St. Leo the Great and several other ancient writers believe that these Ember Days go back to the Apostles themselves.
00:04:33.300 And given that they are so quintessentially Roman, perhaps they specifically come from St. Peter.
00:04:40.840 But so few of us are involved in agriculture today.
00:04:45.420 So, what relevance could they possibly have for us?
00:04:49.120 Well, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians about redeeming the time.
00:04:53.540 He said,
00:04:54.440 See to it, therefore, brethren, that you walk with care, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
00:05:04.760 Therefore do not become foolish, but understand what is the will of God, and be not drunk with wine, for in that is debauchery.
00:05:12.860 But ye be ye filled with the Holy Spirit.
00:05:17.020 Those are powerful words for us today, both in the run-up to Christmas, of course, with all the parties and excess, and also in this terrible crisis in the world.
00:05:28.960 Redeeming the times because the days are evil, said St. Paul.
00:05:33.260 How can we redeem the time?
00:05:35.300 Well, St. Thomas tells us to see each of the three Ember Days, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, as relating to the three months in each season.
00:05:46.160 Many businesses, in fact, have quarterly reviews, where they look back over how things have gone, and then look forward forecasting for the next quarter.
00:05:55.920 And we could see the Ember Days like this.
00:05:58.260 We, too, can do our quarterly review, this time examining our own spiritual progress in October, November, and December.
00:06:06.520 And then we could do penance for the sins of each month, or we could gratefully call to mind the graces and good things God's done for us in each of those months.
00:06:17.240 An Ember Week quarterly review is an opportunity for us to look back over the last season.
00:06:23.100 It is exactly what successful businesses do.
00:06:26.880 And so we can go on in the future as well and ask ourselves what we can do in the next three months, praying for the graces that we need in January, February, March.
00:06:38.560 Who knows what we will need in those times, what God might think to grant us in those times.
00:06:46.180 We need to know what to ask for, but we don't, because we don't know the future, but God does.
00:06:52.420 God alone knows what's coming in these next few months, what they hold for us, what the world, in fact, has in store for us.
00:07:00.600 But it would be wise, therefore, for us to do penance and ask for what we need to persevere in the time ahead.
00:07:08.900 The saints and fathers of the Church often tell us that we cannot overcome serious struggles without serious prayer and fasting.
00:07:17.220 This is because, in the words of St. Augustine, fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one's flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity.
00:07:38.440 Enter again into yourself.
00:07:40.780 This is our main duty, to cure ourselves, with God's grace, from the afflictions of sin.
00:07:48.980 Have you ever noticed that with a full meal and plenty of dessert and perhaps good wine, temptations to sin become stronger?
00:07:58.040 And that when we do engage in a bit of fasting or self-denial, those temptations, the same temptations, are much more easily swept away.
00:08:10.060 I've noticed that.
00:08:11.880 But in addition to our own self-control, there are other things that need cures too, not the least of which the evils afflicting our society currently.
00:08:22.580 In the Gospels, there's the story of the man who fell at Jesus' feet and begged for help.
00:08:30.300 He said, Lord, have pity on my son.
00:08:33.160 His son was afflicted by an evil spirit and he tried to make the son hurt himself, throw himself in the fire, cut himself, even kill himself.
00:08:41.160 And the man says to Jesus, I brought him to your disciples.
00:08:45.260 But the distraught father adds, and they could not cure him.
00:08:48.220 Now, the Lord, of course, cures his son with a word, but afterwards his disciples come to him and ask him why they weren't able to cure the son.
00:08:57.820 And Jesus' reply is this, because of your unbelief, he said, if you have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you.
00:09:06.200 But he added this, this kind, speaking of this kind of demon, is not cast out except by prayer and fasting.
00:09:15.320 Now, here's something very interesting.
00:09:17.540 What's going on in our world today?
00:09:19.420 As we know, it appears as if a dark, demonic force is driving our world to destroy itself, just like the boy in the Gospel.
00:09:29.100 Be it through abortion, euthanasia, blasphemy, heresy, or this satanic tyranny of the Great Reset Revolution we see all around us today.
00:09:36.560 Those purporting to be our shepherds, those, by the way, who relax the fasting of the Church, they are like the apostles in the Gospel.
00:09:46.500 They seem unable to help us.
00:09:48.840 Could our Lord not also condemn their unbelief as well? 0.99
00:09:52.540 And like the boy's father in the Gospel, perhaps we can hear our Lord saying to us,
00:09:59.420 If you can believe, all things are possible.
00:10:02.980 And perhaps we are tempted to cry out with that poor father,
00:10:07.540 I do believe, Lord.
00:10:09.820 Help my unbelief.
00:10:12.120 Is it not worth picking up the tools that Christ commanded us, prayer and fasting,
00:10:17.500 as means to overcome these difficulties?
00:10:20.740 Perhaps then Christ will have pity on us, and will rebuke these demons.
00:10:26.500 And then like that boy, the world will fall down as if dead.
00:10:30.360 Because that's what happened to the boy.
00:10:31.840 But what did Jesus do then?
00:10:33.880 Taking him by the hand, he lifted him up, and he arose.
00:10:38.420 Prayer and fasting.
00:10:41.060 In all things, of course, there has to be common sense and moderation.
00:10:44.760 We're not talking about starving yourself to death.
00:10:46.580 We're talking about three days, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
00:10:49.660 But what better start could we make than by observing the practices that our own grandparents
00:10:56.800 observed not so long ago, and conforming ourselves to the traditional rhythm of the church's fast?
00:11:03.660 In fact, these are not some bygone practice.
00:11:07.300 Even today, the ordinariate, the Anglican ordinariate, has these ember days in their calendar.
00:11:13.560 Much longer ago, Advent was a time of greater penance.
00:11:18.600 And seeing as the penitential preparation for Christmas is now so mild,
00:11:23.340 we could be even more fervent in observing the fast of these ember days.
00:11:28.920 It's only three days.
00:11:30.820 Tomorrow, Wednesday, this Friday and Saturday.
00:11:33.980 So, for Christmas, for the next three months, and for whatever it is that lies ahead,
00:11:41.580 let's prepare for these things by observing these three fast days on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
00:11:48.660 It would help me to do them by knowing that you're doing them with me.
00:11:53.080 And there's a special value in doing things together,
00:11:56.540 especially when they are according to the practice of the church.
00:11:59.560 St. Francis de Sales says,
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