If you like, you can download a very short Morning and Evening Prayer service booklet to use with these propers and sermon RIGHT HERE!
The Fifth Sunday after Easter,
commonly called Rogation Sunday
The fifth Sunday after Easter is commonly called Rogation Sunday from the words in the Gospel appointed for the day: "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give to you". (The Latin is 'Rogare' - to ask.) In the strictly biblical context, the chief thing to ask for is the spirit of God to enable us to be true children of God.
In the Western Catholic Churches, including the older Anglican traditions particularly before the Reformation and in some higher churches afterwards, processions to bless the crops and to include "beating the bounds", developed from the old Roman rites of "Robigalia" ("robigo": Latin for "rust" or "mould"), when prayers would be offered to the deity for crops to be spared from mildew.
Today the emphasis has shifted. Asking for God’s blessing on growing crops in fields and gardens, and on young lambs and calves remain. In the agricultural cycle, the main themes are seed sowing and the tending of the young plants and animals. This does not pre-suppose that all sowing takes place around Rogation. Sowing is done all the year round, as does the birth and rearing of the young. It is convenient to fix on one particular festival the time to remember these before God in a public way.
In the Northern Hemisphere, Rogation Sunday takes place in the springtime, when there is a renewing of the earth. In this country, it follows Easter, the season of resurrection. Renewal and resurrection therefore are also underlying themes of this occasion.
But, there is far more to the day than that. The real meaning is in rogare. If you don’t ask, you won’t get. You have to ask God in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for what you want so that you can get what you need. You have to ask. Then, once you get what you need, act of the gift and thank God for that gift.
Remember “Ask and ye shall receive.”
AOC Sunday Report
The AOC Sunday Report can be downloaded RIGHT HERE!
There are really great sermons today from Bishops Jerry and Roy, as well as Revs Jack and Bryan. You will enjoy them, they are easy reads and inspiring.
There are also a lot of people who would like your prayer; please take the time, start with Bob, Shamu and work out from there. Please take a bit of time out to pray for those guiding the world that they might not destroy our economies in the alleged name of safety.
There is a super week ahead, you will find it a lot easier going with God's help in the form of the Holy Ghost.
Have an EPIC week!
Godspeed,
Hap
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Descanso, CA
