Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1913 — St. Augustine’s Church Notes. [ARTICLE]

St. Augustine’s Church Notes.

Next Sfinday, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the services at St. Augustine’s Gathollc church will be as follows: Early mass with a short instruction at 8 o’clock. The St. Rose Sodality will receive holy communion at this mass. Holy rosary, high mass and sermon at 10 o’clock. At 2:30 Christian doctrine, devotional exercises and benediction. Divine services each morning during week at 8 o’clock. During next week occur the fall Ember-days. The Ember-days are the first Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of each of the four seasons of the year, set apart as fast days by the church. According to the testimony of the church they originated in the time of the Apostles, who were inspired by the Holy Ghost to dedicate each season of the year to God by a few days of penance, or, as It were, to pay three days of interest every three months' on the graces received from God. The church has also commanded us to feast at the beginning of each of the four seasons of the year, because it is at this time that she ordains the priests and other servants of the church, which even the Apostles did with much prayer and fasting. Thus she desires that during the Ember-days Christians should fervently ask of God by prayer and fasting and other good works, worthy patsors and servants, on whom depends the welfare of the whole Christian flock; she desires that in the spring Ember-days we should ask God’s blessing for the fertility of the earth; in the summer for the preservation of the fruit of the field; in autumn when the harvest is ripe, and in winter when it is sheltered that we should offer to God by fasting and prayer a sacrifice of thanks, petitioning Him to assist us, that we may not use His gifts for our soul’s detriment, but that we refer all praise to Him, the formation of all good, and assist our neighbor according to our means.