As you sweat and toil out in the field or spring vegetable garden you glance heavenward and pray for God’s mercy that you will have an abundant crop to send to market or bask in pride while dishing up your homemade vegetables at dinnertime.
The church had devoted special prayers for this with Rogation Days, lesser-known days of penitence in which the faithful ask for God’s blessing for an abundant crop.
Tied into spring planting, Rogation Days kick off with the Major Rogation on April 25, which is also the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist. However, the two days have no connection.
If the feast of St. Mark is transferred, unless the April 25 falls on Easter Sunday, the Rogation Days start. There are also three Minor Rogation days which fall three days before the feast of Ascension Thursday.
Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the church instituted the feast to “appease God’s anger at man’s transgressions, to ask for protection in calamities and to ask for a bountiful harvest.” The word rogation itself means “to ask.”
Many believe the church introduced the Rogation Days to replace the feast of Robigalia, in which the Roman pagans directed their prayers to the gods for good weather and abundant harvests.
Rogation Days included a procession, in which the congregation would begin with reciting the Litany of Saints at church. After beginning with petitioning the Blessed Mother for her intercession, the faithful would continue the rest of the litany while walking throughout the parish’s boundaries. If needed, they would repeat it and supplement it with some of the penitential or gradual Psalms.
Local bishops were given the authority to adapt the custom to their region after Vatican II, when the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship published General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar in 1969.
Though Rogation Days are no longer on the liturgical calendar, some parishes, particularly in rural areas of the world, still choose to participate in the custom.
If you can’t take part in a procession you can still participate by reciting the Litany of Saints. And if your parish boundaries extend too far, take a stroll on a portion of it.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has a section devoted to the prayers of Rogation Days on their website under “Prayers to Care for Creation.” This includes resource of prayers that can be used, including a prayer service that can even be led by a lay person in the absence of a priest.
Especially because we are still in Eastertide, strict fasting is not necessary if observing Rogation Days. But you might pray the Litany of Saints and do some act of penitence and sacrifice for extra graces. Then finish it off by attending daily Mass.
And when you are at the grocery store give thanks for the farmers’ work while visiting the produce section. If you are a gardener and if all goes well, smile, say a prayer of thanks and pass the butter, salt and pepper as you enjoy your own home-grown bounty.