Happy Rogation Sunday and a blessed Mothers Day!
You can download the AOC Sunday Report RIGHT HERE!
Today we have special sermons from Bishops Jerry and Roy, as well as Revs Jack and Bryan. You will enjoy each, they are quite different. Rev Jack's sermon can also be viewed RIGHT HERE.
There are a lot of people who need your prayer, today is no exception. Please start with Jim, Shamu and Mrs. Kay and work out from there.
This is the Fifth Sunday after Easter; the Easter season is five Sundays, the last of which, the Fifth Sunday after Easter, is commonly called Rogation Sunday. Like every day, today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, “Christ the Lord IS Risen today!” It is also Mothers Day, when we recognize our mothers and those who have gone before and on whose shoulders we have risen. This, by rights, should be every day.
On Mothers
On this Mother’s Day, it is very easy for us to look back at our mother’s life and think of all the things we like about our mother. We like, it is all about our mother and what she did for us. The pivotal thought seems to be us. It is not about us, our / us is merely an adjective to describe a particular mother. For motherhood is about self-sacrifice. Putting the child’s welfare above that of the mother.
The love of the mother for her children comes with a price; yet the price paid is not without return. The last words of almost all soldiers who die in battle are either “Mom” or “Jesus.” There is a lesson all in of itself.
What did your mom choose? An extra child or an extra home or trailer? Your schooling, or her vacation without you? Dental work for you or a new car for her? Shoes for you or a fancy dress for her?
Jesus commanded us to follow Him, He who put our lives before His. Who on this earth does this more consistently than mothers?
Saint James tells us in his Epistle, “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” Who on this earth does this more consistently than mothers?
As Christians we need to uphold and recognize the example of sacrifice in motherhood so we might understand the sacrifice made by God on our behalf in Jesus’ death for our sin.
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.”
There is superb, nay EPIC week ahead, but without the help of that Third God Guy, the Holy Ghost, you will not even come close to seeing what should be plain before your eyes.
Have a wonderful week.
Godspeed,
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Descanso, California
United States of America
