From the very beginning of faith and worship, people have
offered thanks, praise and prayers of request and intercession for the fruits
of the earth. Celebrations and rituals were established to recall us to our dependence
upon the bounties of the earth. These
celebrations remind us of our duties as stewards and caretakers of God’s
creation and caution against willful negligence and careless destruction of our
only source of sustenance. Our celebration of Rogation Days is one such rite
and begins this Sunday, the sixth after Easter. The word “ Rogation” is from the
same Latin root as “interrogate” and means “to ask.” Rogation Days—the four
days before Ascension Day—are days to ask God to bless the fruits of the earth
by which we subsist. (In the autumn, Rogation Days of planting and sowing are
mirrored by the Ember Days of harvesting and reaping.)
 |
| Beating the bounds on Rogation Days, blessing the earth, the fields, the farms |
While Rogation Days rituals are among the oldest in our
tradition, hearkening back to the Sarum Rite of the 5th century,
they are merely given a passing nod in today’s worship. As society moved from
an agrarian one to becoming more and more industrialized, the rituals
pertaining to localized farming and plantations grew less and less pertinent.
By the 1979 Book of Common Prayer,
Rogation Days rites and lectionary had been relegated to “occasional services” to
be used at the discretion of the parish priest.
To be fair, the developers of our current prayer book have included many
more prayers and thanksgivings for the natural order that speak to our more
global understanding of God’s creation and our roles as stewards.
In fact, the ancient lectionary for Rogation Sunday had
evolved out of the instruction for the newly baptized. The Epistle of James
focuses on the correct disposition one needs to hear the Word and the expectation
of doing the works of God. It was the
collect which connected the care and preservation of the fruits of the earth to
the expected behaviors of the newly baptized: “O Lord, from whom all good
things do come; grant to us, your humble servants that by your Holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good, and by your merciful guiding may
perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” The Gospel from John is
one that Jesus forewarns of his departure and that the Holy Spirit will come
upon them. So ultimately the message of
the lectionary is that now that we have received the learning, we are to
listen, think and do. Through us, God is working His purpose out.
We no longer use the ancient lectionary for Rogation Sunday.
Neither do we use the Rogation Days lectionary during the daily offices. But vestiges of the ancient rite remain in
some of the hymns we use that are designated for those four days. Hymn 534 in The Hymnal 1982 is called “Purpose”
and is the setting for the text by Arthur Ainger. The text was written for the boys of Eton
College, where Ainger was a popular schoolmaster, and subtly connects the
ancient Rogation lectionary of becoming messengers of God to the even more
ancient rites of asking for God’s blessings of earthly produce. This is
especially evident in the last stanza:
All
we can do is nothing worth,
Unless
God blesses the deed;
Vainly
we hope for the harvest-tide,
Till
God gives life to the seed;
Yet
nearer and nearer draws the time,
The
time that shall surely be,
When
the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
As
the waters cover the sea.
A hymn text by Edward White Benson set to the Vaughan
Williams adaptation of the folk tune “Kingsfold”
is another hymn specifically denoted for Rogation Days. The first stanza of hymn paraphrases the
preamble of the collect: "thou reignest and by thee come down henceforth the gifts of God." Yet this hymn addresses
more specifically the spirit of “ Rogation” in petitioning God for a bountiful
crop—the better to do God’s work!
As you progress through the days to Ascension Day next
Thursday, take a moment or two to remember the past traditions of Rogation Days
and consider the future and our roles in the husbandry of God’s bountiful
creation with the following collects:
MONDAY--Almighty God, Lord of
heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and
preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper
all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things
from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
TUESDAY--Almighty God, whose Son
Jesus Christ in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present
with your people where they work; make those who carry on the industries and
commerce of this land responsive to your will; and give us all a pride in what
we do, and a just return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
WEDNESDAY--O Merciful Creator,
whose hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us
always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the
account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and
reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment