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Liturgy for Sundays and Main Feasts
Reflections on the Liturgy of the Day – from L’Année Liturgique, by Dom Prosper Guéranger
It seems strange that there should be anything like mourning during Paschal Time: and yet these three days are days of penance. A moment’s reflection, however, will show us that the institution of the Rogation days is a most appropriate one. True, our Saviour told us, before His Passion, that the children of the Bridegroom should not fast whilst the Bridegroom is with them: but is not sadness in keeping with these the last hours of Jesus’ presence on earth? Were not His Mother and disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of their having so soon to lose Him, whose company had been to them a foretaste of heaven?
Let us see how the liturgical year came to have inserted in its calendar these three days, during which holy Church, though radiant with the joy of Easter, seems to go back to her lenten observances. The Holy Ghost, who guides her in all things, willed that this completion of her paschal liturgy should owe its origin to a devotion peculiar to one of the most illustrious and venerable Churches of southern Gaul, the Church of Vienne.
The second half of the fifth century had but just commenced, when the country round Vienne, which had been recently conquered by the Burgundians, was visited with calamities of every kind. The people were struck with fear at these indications of God’s anger. St. Mamertus, who, at the time, was bishop of Vienne, prescribed three days’ public expiation, during which the faithful were to devote themselves to penance, and walk in procession chanting appropriate psalms. The three days preceding the Ascension were the ones chosen. Unknown to himself, the holy bishop was thus instituting a practice, which was afterwards to form part of the liturgy of the universal Church.
Alleluia.
Praise the Lord, for He is good: and His mercy endureth for ever.
Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened, alleluia.
We beseech thee, O Lord, mercifully receive our prayers; that while we partake of thy gifts in our affliction, the consolation we find may increase our love.
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Lesson of the Epistle of Saint James the Apostle. Ch. V.
Dearly beloved: Confess your sins one to another; and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much. Elias was a man passible like unto us: and with prayer he prayed that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. My brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him; he must know, that he who caused a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.
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The ceremony of Rogation Days, which means humble requests and prayers, was instituted in the year 469 by Saint Mamertus, the Bishop of Vienne in Dauphiné (France), during a period of storms, floods and earthquakes that struck the area. In order to put an end to these scourges and reassure his faithful, the holy bishop conceived the project of the Solemn Rogation Days, which consisted in a three-day fast with public prayers. The Rogations observance spread throughout Gaul during the 6th century. Rome adopted the custom towards the end of the 8th century, when they were given the name “Lesser Litanies,” as a counterpoint to the “Greater Litanies” reserved for the procession that took place on the feast of Saint Mark, April 25, for the blessing of seeds.
The Rogation Days refer to ceremonies during which the fields are blessed for the future harvest; they take place during the three days before Ascension Thursday. These ceremonies are made up of a long procession through the village and the surrounding fields, during which the priest and his parishioners recite the Litany of the Saints as an accompaniment to the blessings. On the occasion of the Rogations procession, the wayside crosses which used to exist at strategic points at the intersections of country roads in the parish served as repositories where the procession would make a halt.
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Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Luke, Ch. XL
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine has come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him: and he from within should answer and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet because of his importunity he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?
