The Church is charged not only with the salvation of souls, but with the sanctification of the world. This is a process we cannot expect ever to be complete before the Last Judgement, but it is something of which we must always be mindful. Nations can be sanctified by the baptism of their leaders; the land by processions and pilgrimages passing through it, and by the establishment of churches, shrines and religious communities; the day by the celebration of the Office or the Angelus; and the year by the feasts of the saints and the annual marking of events in the Life, Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord. Since the work of sanctification is best undertaken in a penitential spirit, one very ancient way of further sanctifying the year is the marking of the four seasons with special days of penance: the Ember Days.