A Catholic missionary community in the United States has revived the ancient practice of Ember Days as days of fasting and prayer for vocations, and three years after adopting the initiative, the number of men in formation has grown from seven to 18.
This is the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), whose general chapter of the clerical branch decided in 2023 to dedicate the twelve Ember Days distributed throughout the year to praying specifically for new vocations.
Father Dave Brokke, a SOLT priest and currently the community’s director of vocations, explained to EWTN News that previously they would usually receive one or two new candidates per year. In the first year after beginning this practice, nine entered.
“We have seen many good fruits,” the priest summarizes.
Twelve days a year of fasting and prayer for vocations
The Four Ember Days constitute an ancient practice of the Roman liturgical calendar distributed across four moments of the year, traditionally associated with the seasons and agricultural cycles.
Each one comprises a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, totaling twelve annual days of prayer and penance.
Their celebration was historically linked to giving thanks for the fruits of the earth and asking for God’s blessing on the harvests. This dimension also acquired a eucharistic meaning through the wheat and the vine, from which bread and wine come.
Over time, the Ember Days also became especially associated with priestly vocations. For centuries it was customary to confer holy orders on their Saturdays.
Brokke connects both meanings with Christ’s words about the harvest and the laborers:
“Jesus said: ‘Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.’”
The community decided to recover precisely this vocational dimension.
The September Ember Days begin this Wednesday
The next ones correspond to the September Ember Days and will take place on Wednesday, September 16, Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19.
Traditionally, the four periods could be remembered by a simple formula: the Ember Days after the beginning of Lent, those following Pentecost, those linked to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September, and those near the feast of Saint Lucy in December.
Brokke explains that SOLT did not focus especially on the ancient agricultural meaning when it considered reviving the practice, but rather on its historical connection to vocations.
The intention was to add a concrete penitential practice to the community’s daily prayer:
“To dedicate at least twelve days a year to fasting and prayer and to do so more intentionally.”
An ancient practice that no longer requires fasting
The observance of the Ember Days underwent significant changes with the reform of the liturgical calendar.
The Church’s norms on the liturgical year maintain the Ember Days and Rogation Days as occasions on which the faithful may ask the Lord for various human needs, although their specific determination was entrusted to the episcopal conferences.
In the United States, the application of these days corresponds to each diocesan bishop.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expressly states that the Ember Days no longer entail an obligation of fasting and abstinence.
However, the U.S. episcopate did not rule out the penitential practice. In its statement on penance and abstinence, it recalled the ancient idea of “a fast before a feast” and encouraged the faithful to prepare voluntarily for the Church’s celebrations through self-denial, penitential prayer, and fasting.
SOLT has chosen precisely to recover that penitential component voluntarily.
From seven to 18 men in formation
The data provided by the community shows an increase in candidates since the initiative began.
According to Brokke, in 2023 there were seven men in formation and currently there are 18.
Until then, the community received approximately one or two new candidates each year. During the first year of the new initiative, there were nine.
The priest recalls that already during the first September Ember Days, two events occurred that the community linked to its prayer for vocations.
A young man traveled from a mission in Honduras to SOLT’s mission in Belize and expressed his interest in joining the society there. He is currently a novice.
That same Saturday, 27 young men from Franciscan University of Steubenville participated in a priestly discernment program to learn about the community. The man who led that group is now an aspirant of SOLT.
The coincidence took on additional meaning for the religious when they reviewed the ancient Ember Day prayers.
Brokke explains that they discovered that the prayer for vocations that SOLT had prayed daily since the community’s founding came precisely from one of the ancient Ember Day prayers for vocations.
A missionary society born in the United States
The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity brings together priests, brothers, religious sisters, and lay faithful who carry out their apostolate together.
Its activity is directed especially to places with less pastoral attention and to communities in need. The society itself states that its apostolic and missionary life constitutes a central element of its identity.
Father Dave Brokke, ordained a priest in 2020, currently serves as director of vocations for the U.S. region of SOLT.
Three years after the chapter of its clerical branch decided to revive the Ember Days to pray specifically for vocations, the community has grown from seven to 18 men in formation.
Brokke avoids presenting that growth as the automatic result of a formula. He interprets it in light of the Church’s prayer and the communion of its members:
“There is the Mystical Body of Christ and we are all connected. The Lord will use it, as He uses everything, and nothing is wasted.”