ROGATIONTIDE

 A REFLECTION ON ROGATION SUNDAY

Rogationtide is the name given to the days leading up to Ascension Day, and is traditionally a period of fasting and prayer to prepare for the feastday.  It begins today on Rogation Sunday, on which the Gospel of St. John reminds us to “Ask and ye shall receive,” thus giving us the name of the season: the word “Rogation” comes from the Latin “rogare”, meaning “to ask”. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Litany of the Saints is recited by the clergy as part of their Office, and in the larger parishes processions are made through the fields, chanting the Litany of the Saints and blessing the crops.  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. The Rogation Days were introduced about AD 470 by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne in France, and were eventually adopted elsewhere.

In England, Rogation Sunday is called Chestnut Sunday, while the week as a whole was known as Gang-days or Cross Week.  In Germany, the season was referred to as Bittage, Bittwoche or Kreuzwoche.  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.  

It's important this week not only to pray as usual, but to dwell a little on the reasons why we pray.  The four chief ways we pray are by adoring, confessing our sins, giving thanks, and supplication.  It is on this last form of prayer that we focus in Rogationtide, the prayers of supplication that we make to God, asking him for our various needs.  We should make it a point at this time to pray especially for the Supreme Court of the United States as it makes its definitive ruling on Roe v. Wade. We should include in our prayers a special request for the safety of the Justices who will no doubt be the object of violence and persecution by the Marxist mobs, and that law and order will prevail over anarchy.

Of course, we each have our own needs, and we must pray for them also, confident in the knowledge that God cannot fail to answer our prayers if we’re praying for something we truly need, as opposed to something we merely want.  As our blessed Lord prepared his Apostles for his Ascension into heaven, he made sure they knew that the coming of the Holy Ghost would strengthen them in their faith.  This had been somewhat lacking in the recent past when they fled from Gethsemane and hid themselves from the mob.  But they would go on to spread the Gospel fearlessly throughout the known world, and end up being willing martyrs for Christ.  Even St. Peter, who in Jerusalem had denied our Lord three times only to flee the persecution in Rome at the end of his life, finally turned around and walked to his victory on the cross.  Our faith that our prayers are answered will give us the same fortitude and perseverance to save our souls and achieve the same victory as St. Peter and the other Apostles.  It’s Rogationtide, so let’s ask, that we might receive.