Today is Ember Wednesday of Advent.
The Church commemorates today the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Angel Gabriel. The Feast of the Annunciation, which celebrates the Incarnation of Our Lord in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is kept on March 25, but the Church brings this event before the eyes of the faithful today as a preparation for the birth of the Him Whom the Blessed Virgin conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost.
In 1962, Ember Wednesdays were days of partial abstinence and fasting.