Wednesday of the First Week in Lent.

Wednesday of Ember Week in Lent.

Station at St. Mary Major.
(S. Maria Maggiore.)

St. Mary Major or the Liberian Basilica
The spring Ember Week coincides with the first week of Lent.
It was instituted for the purpose of consecrating to God the new season
and by fasting and prayer to draw down heavenly graces on those
who on Saturday are to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.


The ordinations of the month of March do not date from the earliest times.
The first mention of them occurs in a letter from Pope Gelasius I (492-496 A.D.).
A little earlier than that,
during the reign of Pope Leo the Great (440 - 461)
they were allowed on the first day of Easter.

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Oremus.
Flectamus genua.
Levate.
Preces nostras, quaesumus, Domine clementer exaudi:
et contra cuncta nobis adversantia,
dextram tuae majestatis extende.
Per Dominum.

Oremus.
Devotionem populi tui, quaesumus, Domine, benignus intende:
ut, qui per abstinentiam macerantur in corpore,
per fructum boni operis reficiantur in mente.
Per Dominum.

Let us pray.
Let us kneel.
Arise.
Mercifully hear our prayers, we beseech Thee, O Lord:
amd stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty
against all our adversaries.
Through our Lord.

Let us pray.
Favourably look down, O Lord, we beseech Thee,
upon the devotion of Thy people:
that they, who are mortified in body by abstinence,
may be refreshed in mind through the fruit of good works.
Through our Lord.