Easter: May 27th

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Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 605), who was born in Rome and died in Canterbury, England, in 604. When Pope Gregory I heard that the pagans of Britain were disposed to accept the Catholic Faith, he sent the prior of St. Andrew, Augustine, and forty of his Benedictine brethren to England. Despite the great difficulties involved in the task assigned to him, Augustine and his monks obeyed. The success of their preaching was immediate. King Ethelbert was baptized on Pentecost Sunday, 596, and the greater part of the nobles and people soon followed his example. St. Augustine died as the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

Today continues the traditional observance of the Minor Rogation Days, which fall Monday through Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. Each of these days has a traditional Station Church.

Minor Rogation Days
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Ascension we commemorate the traditional dates for the Minor Rogation Days. These are days of prayer and formerly fasting, which take place every year on April 25th and the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, the former being known as the Major Rogation and the latter as the Minor Rogations. The word “rogation” has its origins in the Latin word rogare, which means to supplicate or ask, and the purpose of Rogation Days is to beg God for His mercy, to turn away His anger, and to ask Him to bless the produce of field and garden while protecting us from natural disasters. The Rogation Days no longer appear on the General Roman Calendar, but are celebrated according to the local conference of bishops.

In the ancient Church Rogation days were quite common; some recurred annually, others were introduced at times of particular need, e.g., averting war or pestilence. The practice of three Rogation days before the feast of Christ's Ascension originated in Gaul (modern France). The saintly bishop Mamertus of Vienne introduced these days of prayer and penance when catastrophe threatened the city and its neighborhood about the year 450 A.D. Quickly the custom spread, and eventually it was incorporated into the liturgy of the Western Church.

The celebration of Rogation Days consists in a procession followed by the Rogation Mass. In this procession we may sense the last remnant of the obsolete station processions observed by ancient Christians almost daily during Lent and during the first week after Easter. They would gather in a church known as the ecclesia collecta (hence the word "Collect") and from there walk in procession with the bishop and clergy to another church singing the Litany of the Saints and the Kyrie. The place of destination was known as the statio or station church, and holy Mass was celebrated there.

The four Rogation days have preserved the main elements of this venerable rite, an observance that we should respect and foster. For we should pray both perseveringly and in common, since special efficacy and power is attached to such prayer. Our prayer should not only be sincere and personal, we should also pray as units of a community, for to this type of prayer a special efficacy is attached. In the Rogation procession the Litany of the Saints is recited; it gives us an opportunity to call upon the entire Church triumphant to intercede in our behalf. The prayers concluding the Litany are usually beautiful and edifying.

What petitions will surely be answered?
Those which, according to Christ's words, are made in "the right spirit," and which are offered in the Name of Jesus, i.e., tend to further the kingdom of God. In the "Our Father" Christ has given us a summary of such petitions. Therefore, if our wishes are similar to those in the Lord's Prayer, we can assume that they will be heard. These petitions fall under three headings: God's kingdom, daily bread, sin. God will certainly grant petitions of this kind.
—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Rogation Days: Cross Days (Activity)
• Rogation Day Prayers (Prayer)
• Read more about the Rogation Days at Catholic Saints Info.
• For more see Rogation Days.

The Second Rogation Day is the Station at St. John Lateran.
If at all possible, we will take part in the in the Rogation procession and Mass today and tomorrow. In spirit we will observe the venerable liturgy at St. John Lateran, the church where baptisms were administered in ancient times. It may aid our piety to group our petitions on these three days. The first day we will devote to our personal needs; the second, to family and community; the third, to the needs of the universal Church. Not only at the morning liturgy but throughout the day we will continue to pour forth our pleading to God.

Reflections on the Nature of True Prayer.
In the Rogation liturgy we are reminded of what a great privilege it is to place our needs before God in prayer. The liturgical texts provide 1) instruction on the value and significance of prayer; 2) incentives and aids on how to pray fervently and perseveringly. We need but look at the beautiful Gospel triptych with Christ's words: "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives...," in the center panel flanked by the importunate friend and the pleading child. Petition is the key to the riches of God's fatherly heart, the key that opens up the treasures of divine mercy.

Yet if we are honest, we will be very ready to admit having had doubts concerning Christ's words just quoted. How often we asked in vain for some favor! What then are the qualities that our petition lacked? How must we pray in order to have our prayers heard? The answer may lie in the object for which we pray, in defects in our disposition, or in the spirit that animates us.

a) The object of prayer. The words of Christ are indeed general in character, they set no limit to the object of one's petition. Nevertheless, our Savior clearly stated that only such pleas will be answered which harmonize with the aims of the kingdom of God. He said: "If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

God will not give his children harmful gifts. The phrase "good things" is mystical and can perhaps be best explained as covering items that will serve our eternal goal. Certainly we may pray for material favorites, but on the condition that they will be "good things" for us. Sometimes God answers a prayer by granting the opposite to that which is asked; instead of a stone, a serpent, or scorpion, He blesses us with bread, eggs, or fish.

b) The second reason why our prayers may not be heard lies in our personal disposition, our lack of faith and love and humility. (1) Whenever Christ performed a miracle, He demanded faith as a prerequisite. On one occasion the apostles could not heal a possessed boy; to their queries Jesus said, "Because of your little faith; for amen I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Remove from here, and it will remove. And nothing will be impossible to you" (Mt 17:19). We need the faith that moves mountains. (2) A second obstacle is our lack of love. If we ourselves neither give nor forgive, we can expect no favors from God. In his epistle St. Peter makes a pertinent observation: "Husband, in like manner dwell with your wives considerately, paying honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel...that your prayers be not hindered" (1 Pt 3:7). Our prayers are "hindered" through lack of love for our neighbor. (3) Lack of humility likewise closes God's dispensing hand. We need only recall the story of the publican and the pharisee. The same parable also teaching us that past sin does not prevent prayers from being heard. God listens to the prayer of a humble sinner rather than to the effusions of a just but proud man.

c) Finally, the spirit with which one prays is important. Do you pray perseveringly, in union with others, submissive to God's will? (1) The two Gospel parables speak clearly of persevering, even importunate petition. God wants to hear our prayers. He does not, however, want us to dictate the time when He should respond. There is high pedagogical wisdom in that God does not reply at once to our prayers. Perseverance in pleading is good training spiritually, and it purifies our longing. One who is expecting further gifts will more easily be grateful for benefits already received. Old age had already come upon Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, before his petition was granted. (2) A special efficacy is attached to prayer made in common. "If two of you shall agree on earth about anything at all for which they ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in heaven" (Mt 18:19). (3) Lastly, our prayer must be rooted deeply in God's holy will. Of this there is no example more moving and convincing than that of Christ Himself during His agony on Mt. Olivet. His Father did not hear Him, did not remove the chalice from Him. And yet our Savior's prayer was answered. He was given strength to drink the chalice to its dregs.

Prayer does not imply the gratification of one's own will, rather that we submerge our wills in that of God. In prayer, in every act, we must leave behind our own pagan, egotistical selves and selflessly seek the good of God's kingdom. As long as prayer serves nothing more than one's own selfish interests, it will never be heard. However, once our hearts and minds are oriented to welfare of God's kingdom, then prayer will become the bond uniting us most intimately to God. Then we will realize what tremendous power it has.
—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Meditation for Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Minor Rogation Day: The need of prayer
1. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." This solemn promise was made by the Lord to those who pray. Confiding in this promise, we join in the rogation procession and the Mass.

2. "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." Thus we see how efficacious and how fruitful were the prayers of the just man Elias. And the Lord has also promised us in the Gospel: "Ask, and it shall be given you." How great, then, must be the intercessory power of the Church! How great must be the power of that prayer if all members of the Church and the saints in heaven lift their hands to the Father in supplication! The Church prays incessantly through her priests, through her religious, through the saints, through Mary, the most powerful of all intercessors, and through her Head, who is Christ Jesus. Christ is with the Father; He is also in our tabernacles, "always living to make intercession for us" (Heb. 7:25). We join our prayers to those of the Church, and we have the assurance: "Ask, and it shall be given you." We place our trust in the intercessory power of the Church, of which we are living members. We also place great confidence in the power of our prayer, because of the fact that we are supported and abetted by the prayers of many holy and God-fearing brothers and sisters in Christ. What a precious possession such prayers are! How we should prize and treasure them!

"Ask, and it shall be given you." What the Church wants today, above all else, is souls devoted to prayer. All of us in some way share a responsibility for our fellow Christians. God wishes the salvation of all men. But if this goal is to be realized. men must themselves desire salvation and work to obtain it. Moreover, men must will the salvation of their fellow men and work to accomplish it. Every man is master of his own destiny. But even so, each one of us is in some measure the master of the destiny of others. Modern science has taught us that we cannot split one atom without starting a chain reaction that destroys millions of other atoms. Much the same is true in the world of the spirit. We all contribute to the good fortune (or ill fortune), the salvation and eternal destiny, of our fellow men. Because we are all branches of the same living vine, Christ, our lives are intertwined. Necessarily, therefore, we can and do promote or hamper the progress of other branches of the vine. There is no such thing as a neutral position.

To a certain extent even the eternal salvation of our fellow men lies in our hands. This responsibility we discharge by means of our example and our prayers. By means of our prayers we prevent the just wrath of God from being visited upon His people. The sins of men in our day call out to heaven for vengeance. How frightful are the sins of unbelief! How horribly men revile God; how rashly they deny Him; how foolishly they blaspheme against Him and His Church! The world is drenched in sins of hatred—hatred between nations, hatred between social classes, hatred between individuals. For that reason we are admonished in today's Epistle: "Dearly beloved,…pray one for another that you may be saved....If any of you err from the truth and one convert him, he must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins."

To save souls through the power of prayer is the great occupation of the Church during the rogation days and at other times also. She prays that souls may be saved, and that is the purpose of our prayer also. We pray with the tenacity of the beggar mentioned in today's Gospel: "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." We must pray much, pray diligently, and pray without ceasing. "Ask, and it shall be given you."

3. We place too little trust in the promise that has been made to us and too little dependence on the value and the power of prayer. That is why our prayers lack confidence and zeal. And yet, precisely to those who possess zeal and confidence the promise has been made: "All things whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive" (Mark 11:24), and "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:22). Moreover, the closer our union with the Church, the more effective our prayers will be. This union with the Church will manifest itself in the firmness of our faith, in our obedience to her commands, in our devotion to her service, in our participation in her prayer, in our sharing of her sacrifice. Under these circumstances our prayers will have the quality that every effective prayer must have: they will be devout, zealous, unceasing, childlike, and persevering. Therefore pray with the Church.

"Ask, and it shall be given you." Today the liturgy associates his admonition with our reception of Holy Communion, for at that time we are most intimately bound to Christ the vine, to the other members of the community, and to the Church herself. At this most holy moment Christ, who has sacrificed Himself for us, prays with us and for us, together with the whole Church, to which He is intimately united; and we pray with Him and through Him. Then we shall receive, we shall find, it will be opened to us.
—Benedict Bauer, O.S.B, from The Light of the World, Vol II

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter, Tuesday of the Lesser Rogation Days,
Station with San Giovanni in Laterano (St. John Lateran)

The Station today is at St. John Lateran which is the seat of the Roman Pontiff, and the cathedral church for the Diocese of Rome. The official name of the basilica in Italian is Santissimo Salvatore e Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano. The Lateran is comprised of the Basilica, the Pontifical Palace and the Baptistry. The church is dedicated to the Christ the Savior. In the fifth century the titles of St. John Baptist and St. John the Evangelist were added. The Papal altar contains the wooden altar on which St. Peter is said to have celebrated Mass. This basilica is the mother of all churches and is the only church which has the title of Archbasilica.

The first Rogation Day we kept with our Mother. The second we celebrate with our Brother. In spirit we enter the Lateran Basilica dedicated to our Most Holy Savior, "The First-born among many brethren." In union with our eldest Brother we praise today "His Father and our Father, His God and our God. Especially this second rogation day should fill our souls with renewed awe and respect for the "Our Father" prayer so filled with love for the Father, so divine in origin, so embracing in content; a prayer sanctified by millions of Christ-branches, in particular by the holy martyrs who had it upon their lips while making the supreme sacrifice of their life for Him that taught.

For more on San Giovanni in Laterano, see:

• Churches of Rome
• Rome Art Lover
• Roman Churches
• Aleteia
• >Click here for a 360 degree virtual tour.
target="_blank">Station Church
• The Catholic Traveler

For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.