Tomorrow marks a special day in the Christian calendar known as Rogation Sunday. Rogation means “asking” (derives from the Latin rogare). The four days before Ascension Day (May 29th this year) are marked as rogation days.
In Agrarian societies many Christians once gathered together on these days to ask God for a blessing upon the crops that were being sown. There would have been prayers for rain and a good harvest, usually said while marching around the boundary lines of the church property. Families too would often take opportunity to recite prayers while walking around their homes and fields, stopping in corners and at the main entrance, asking for God’s blessing upon the home and family.
A prayer might go something like this:
Lord the earth belongs to You and all the fullness of it, and although we are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth ever looking for that city not made by human hands, still You have granted to a haven of Your safety to be our dwelling upon earth; therefore let Your gracious favor rest upon our lands and fields that they might bring forth their abundance in due season so that we might lack for no good thing according to the promises which You have given to us in Your Son; and grant to us thankful hearts that might always acknowledge in both word and deed the marvelous love that You have set upon us for His Name’s sake. Amen.
