The Rogation Days and the Litanies

I mentioned on my Facebook page how happy I was that the Benedictus monthly Mass book for May included the Litany and Prayers for the Rogation Days, May 15, 16, and 17. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday, which in our diocese is celebrated on Sunday, are the Rogation Days. As the Fish Eaters website explains: 

"Rogation" comes from the Latin "rogare," which means "to ask," and Rogation Days are days during which we seek to ask God's mercy, appease His anger, avert the chastisements He makes manifest through natural disasters, and ask for His blessings, particularly with regard to farming, gardening, and other agricultural pursuits. They are set aside to remind us how radically dependent we are on God through His creation, and how prayer can help protect us from nature's often cruel ways. Hence, its mood is somber and beseeching; its liturgical color is purple. . . .

Pope St. Leo III -- the Pope who crowned Charlemagne on Christmas Day of 800 -- introduced these days of penance into Rome in 816, the year of his death, after which they became standard throughout the Roman Church.

The liturgy for the Rogation Days, during which the priest is vested in purple, begins with Psalm 43:26 --"Arise, O Lord, help us and redeem us for Thy name's sake" -- which is followed by the Litany of the Saints. At the Litany's "Sancta Maria," all stand and a procession begins, which in older times was (and still is in rural areas) usually around the boundaries of the parish, giving to the procession the name of "beating the bounds."

The Litany is followed by Psalm 69, a series of petitions, and the Mass, with readings from James 5:16-20 and Luke 11:5-14. Prayer for God's blessing of farmers' fields so that they yield a bountiful harvest is common.

I've prayed the Litanies these three days as a private devotion, and in thanksgiving for the rain drought-stricken Kansas received Sunday!!

As I was reading Illusions of Reform: Responses to Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy in Defense of the Traditional Latin Mass & the Faithful Who Attend It, I noticed a footnote (3) on page 184 in the article "Bible by the Pound" by Father Peter Miller, OSB. He recounts how the Ember Days, quarterly days of prayer and fasting, were thought by the reformers of the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council worthy of being retained, "but choosing their new dates was delegated to bishops' conferences, and none of the conferences ever got around to assigning dates, so a 1700-year old tradition disappeared." Father Miller tells the reader to look it up: it's in the Wikipedia article for Ember Days:

"In order that the Rogation Days and Ember Days may be adapted to the different regions and different needs of the faithful, the Conferences of Bishops should arrange the time and manner in which they are held. Consequently, concerning their duration, whether they are to last one or more days, or be repeated in the course of the year, norms are to be established by the competent authority, taking into consideration local needs. The Mass for each day of these celebrations should be chosen from among the Masses for Various Needs, and should be one which is more particularly appropriate to the purpose of the supplications."[12]

The Wikipedia article for Rogation Days demonstrates that we could have Rogation Days too:

The reform of the Liturgical Calendar for Roman Catholics in 1969 delegated the establishment of Rogation Days, along with Ember Days, to the episcopal conferences.[20] Their observance in the Latin Church subsequently declined, but the observance has revived somewhat since Pope John Paul II allowed Rogation days as a permitted, but not mandated, observance.[17] For those Catholics who continue to celebrate Mass according to the General Roman Calendar of 1960 or earlier, the Rogation Days are still kept, unless a higher ranking feast would occur on the day.[21]

As Father Miller comments in his footnote: "(Kind of embarrassing.)"

From this site, it looks like the Episcopal Church still observes these days:

Traditionally, these are the three days before Ascension Day on which the litany is sung (or recited) in procession as an act of intercession. They originated in Vienne, France, in the fifth century when Bishop Mamertus introduced days of fasting and prayer to ward off a threatened disaster. In England they were associated with the blessing of the fields at planting. The vicar “beat the bounds” of the parish, processing around the fields reciting psalms and the litany. In the United States they have been associated with rural life and with agriculture and fishing. The propers in the BCP {Book of Common Prayer] (pp. 207-208, 258-259, 930) have widened their scope to include commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation. The BCP also permits their celebration at other times to accommodate different regional growing seasons. The BOS [Book of Occasional Services] contains material for a Rogation procession, including petitions to be added to the Great Litany and the prayers of the people. The term is from the Latin rogatio, “asking.”

But once you know the tradition, and have access to the prayers, nothing--except your own lack of will or recollection--can stop you from praying the Litanies and the beautiful prayers!

Deo Gratias!

Rogation Days Before the Feast of the Ascension

Like Ember Days, the Rogation Days were taken out of the Catholic Church calendar after the Second Vatican Council. In a sad way, both of these omissions reflect our separation or alienation from nature. I've heard a commercial for a radio station's severe weather coverage that asks, "Don't you think the weather has just gotten out of control?" Out of whose control? We certainly do not have control of the weather--and even listening to that station's severe weather coverage does nothing to control it! As this site reminds us, and these Rogation Days before the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord would remind us, we are definitely not in control:

"Rogation" comes from the Latin "rogare," which means "to ask," and "Rogation Days" are days during which we seek to ask God's mercy, appease His anger, avert His chastisements manifest through natural disasters, and ask for His blessings, particularly with regard to farming, gardening, and other agricultural pursuits. They are set aside to remind us how radically dependent we are on Mother Earth, and how prayer can help protect us from nature's often cruel ways.

It is quite easy, especially for modern city folk, to sentimentalize nature and to forget how powerful, even savage, she can be. Time is spent focusing only on her lovelier aspects -- the beauty of snow, the smell of cedar, the glories of flowers -- as during Embertides -- but in an instant, the veneer of civilization we've built to keep nature under control so we can enjoy her without suffering at her hand can be swept away. Ash and fire raining down from great volcanoes, waters bursting through levees, mountainous tidal waves destroying miles of coastland and entire villages, meteors hurling to earth, tornadoes and hurricanes sweeping away all in their paths, droughts, floods, fires that rampage through forests and towns, avalanches of rocks or snow, killer plagues, the very earth shaking off human life and opening up beneath our feet, cataclysmic events forming mountains and islands, animals that prey on humans, lightning strikes -- these, too, are a part of the natural world. And though nature seems random and fickle, all that happens is either by God's active or passive Will, and all throughout Scripture He uses the elements to warn, punish, humble, and instruct us: earth swallowing up the rebellious, power-mad sons of Eliab; wind destroying Job's house; fire raining down on Sodom and Gomorrha; water destroying everyone but Noe and his family (Numbers 16, Job 1, Genesis 19, Genesis 6). We need to be humble before and respectful of nature, and be aware not to take her for granted or overstep our limits. But we need to be most especially humble before her Creator, Who wills her existence and doings at each instant, whether actively or passively.

As this website notes, as individuals, we can keep these minor Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday (except that we instead celebrate Ascension Sunday), by praying the Litany of Saints, exploring the boundaries of our parishes, blessing our own gardens, and praying for good weather, good harvests, and good stewardship of our natural resources--all the while remembering Who is really in control! As Gerard Manley Hopkins reminds us:

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.