ROGATIONTIDE

A REFLECTION FOR ROGATION SUNDAY

The Rogation Days were introduced about AD 470 by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne in France, and were eventually adopted elsewhere.  They comprise the three days following Rogation Sunday concluding with the Vigil of Ascension on Rogation Wednesday.

The word “Rogation” comes from the Latin “rogare”, meaning “to ask”, and was applied to this time of the liturgical year because the Gospel reading for today includes the passage “Ask and ye shall receive” (Gospel of St. John 16:24).  Today is often called Rogation Sunday as a result, and marks the start of a three-week period (ending on Trinity Sunday) when clergy did not solemnize marriages.  In England, Rogation Sunday is called Chestnut Sunday.

The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by fasting in preparation to celebrate the Ascension, and farmers often had their crops blessed by a priest at this time, which always occurs during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Violet vestments are worn at the Rogation Litany and its associated Mass, regardless of what color is worn at the ordinary liturgies of the day.  A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of “beating the bounds”, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the priest, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year.  These days were also known in England as Gang-days and Cross Week, and in Germany as Bittage, Bittwoche and Kreuzwoche.

The Litany of the Saints is obligatory on the three Rogation days for all those bound to the Divine Office.  For this reason, the days of Rogation are all known as the Days of the Lesser Litanies.  They have the name “lesser” to distinguish them from the “Greater Litanies” sung in procession on April 25, the Feast of St. Mark.  In fact, there is no difference in the text of the Greater and Lesser Litanies, and you will find them listed in your Missal as simply the Litany of the Saints.

During this time when we ask God for favors, there is no better time than to recite these Litanies and implore the saints to intercede for us at the throne of God.  This year especially, our poor world is in need of more prayers even than usual, so let’s make the sacrifice of a little time and, in the spirit of the Church, recite the Litany of the Saints on the next three Days of Rogation.