Rogation days in the lead up to the feast of the Ascension

Monday to Wednesday this week are 'rogation', or 'asking' days.

Rogation days in history

Traditionally these are days of prayer (particularly in the form of a procession accompanied by a sung litany of the saints), and fasting.

The three 'minor' rogation days before Ascension date back to the fifth century, instituted originally by Bishop Mammertus of Vienne (c470).  The practice quickly spread throughout Gaul and Burgundy - the Council of Orleans in 510 ordered their use for example.  Rogation days were not adopted in Rome, though, until the early ninth century.

Their key purpose is to appease God's anger at man's transgressions, to ask protection in calamities, and to obtain a good and bountiful harvest.

Rogation days in the Office

You can find the litany and prayers appropriately used with them in the Monastic Diurnal at pg (200) and the full chants in the Processionale Monasticum.  If said privately, it is usually done after Lauds.

In earlier versions of the Monastic Office, the Rogations were marked as follows:

• On Monday  there were three readings at Matins (from St Ambrose on the value of prayer at set times, and always) and a collect specific to the rogation day (set out below), I Vespers was of the votive office of St Benedict;
• On Tuesday the Votive Office of St Benedict was said; and
• On Wednesday the Office had three readings (from St Augustine) and a special collect.

In the 1962 monastic version, though, only the Wednesday readings and collect have survived (under the rubric of the Vigil of the Ascension).  I can only presume that this is one of several unfortunate early manifestations in the Office of the modern resurgence of the heresies of presumed universal salvation (we all go to heaven; there is no-one hell) and rejection of the value of intercessory prayer.

The Monday readings in particular though, are rather lovely and important ones, and so I have put up them up on the Lectio Divina Notes Blog for your consideration.

Orémus Praesta quaesumus omnipotens Deus: ut qui in afflictione nostra de tua pietate confidimus; contra adversa omnia tua semper protectione muniamur. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

24 Let us pray. Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who in our tribulation are yet of good cheer because of thy loving-kindness, may find thee mighty to save from all dangers. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

St Honoratus of Arles (May 5)

Saint Honorat or Saint Honoré (c. 350 – January 6, 429) was an early Archbishop of Arles, who was also an Abbot of Lérins Abbey.

It is believed that he was born in the north of Gaul and that he belonged to a consular Roman family. Honoratus received an outstanding education. Converted to Christianity with his brother Venantius, he embarked with him from Marseilles about 368, under the guidance of a holy person named Caprasius, to visit the holy places of Palestine and the lauræ of Syria and Egypt. But the death of Venantius, occurring suddenly at Methone, Achaia, prevented the pious travellers from going further.

They returned to Gaul through Italy, and, after having stopped at Rome, Honoratus went on into Provence and, encouraged by Leontius, bishop of Fréjus, took up his abode in the wild Lérins Island today called the Île Saint-Honorat, with the intention of living there in solitude.

Numerous disciples soon gathered around Honoratus, including Lupus of Troyes, Eucherius of Lyon, and Hilary of Arles. Thus was founded the Monastery of Lérins, which has enjoyed so great a celebrity status and which was, during the 5th and 6th centuries, a nursery for illustrious bishops and remarkable ecclesiastical writers. His Rule of Life was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pachomius. It is believed St. Patrick trained there for his missionary work in Ireland.

St Honoratus's reputation for sanctity throughout the southeastern portion of Gaul was such that in 426 after the assassination of Patroclus, Archbishop of Arles, he was summoned from his solitude to succeed to the government of the diocese, which the Arian and Manichaean heresies had greatly disturbed. He appears to have succeeded in re-establishing order and orthodoxy.

St John Cassian, who had visited his monastery, dedicated to him several of his Conferences.

St Catherine of Siena (April 30)

St Catherine rates only a memorial in the 1963 calendar, a grave injustice in my view for this important doctor of the Church.

In any case, here are the readings for her feast from Matins in the Roman Office from Divinum Officium:

This Katharine was a maiden of Sienna, and was born of godly parents, (in the year 1347.) She took the habit of the Third Order of St Dominick. Her fasts were most severe, and the austerity of her life wonderful. It was discovered that on some occasions she took no food at all from Ash Wednesday till Ascension Day, receiving all needful strength by taking the Holy Communion. She was engaged oftentimes in a wrestling with devils, and was sorely tried by them with divers assaults : she was consumed by fevers, and suffered likewise from other diseases. Great and holy was the name of Katharine, and sick folk, and such as were vexed with evil spirits, were brought to her from all quarters. Through the Name of Christ, she had command over sickness and fever, and forced the foul spirits to leave the bodies of the tormented.

While she dwelt at Pisa, on a certain Lord's Day, after she had received the Living Bread Which came down from heaven, she was in the spirit; and saw the Lord nailed to the Cross advancing towards her. There was a great light round about Him, and five rays of light streaming from the five marks of the Wounds in His Feet, and Hands, and Side, which smote her upon the five corresponding places in her body. When Katharine perceived this vision, she besought the Lord that no marks might become manifest upon her flesh, and straightway the five beams of light changed from the colour of blood into that of gold, and touched in the form of pure light her feet, and hands, and side. At this moment the agony which she felt was so piercing, that she believed that if God had not lessened it, she would have died. Thus the Lord in His great love for her, gave her this great grace, in a new and twofold manner, namely, that she felt all the pain of the wounds, but without there being any bloody marks to meet the gaze of men. This was the account given by the handmaiden of God to her Confessor, Raymund, and it is for this reason that when the godly wishes of the faithful lead them to make pictures of the blessed Katharine, they paint her with golden rays of light proceeding from those five places in her body which correspond to the five places wherein our Lord was wounded by the nails and spear.

While she dwelt at Pisa, on a certain Lord's Day, after she had received the Living Bread Which came down from heaven, she was in the spirit; and saw the Lord nailed to the Cross advancing towards her. There was a great light round about Him, and five rays of light streaming from the five marks of the Wounds in His Feet, and Hands, and Side, which smote her upon the five corresponding places in her body. When Katharine perceived this vision, she besought the Lord that no marks might become manifest upon her flesh, and straightway the five beams of light changed from the colour of blood into that of gold, and touched in the form of pure light her feet, and hands, and side. At this moment the agony which she felt was so piercing, that she believed that if God had not lessened it, she would have died. Thus the Lord in His great love for her, gave her this great grace, in a new and twofold manner, namely, that she felt all the pain of the wounds, but without there being any bloody marks to meet the gaze of men. This was the account given by the handmaiden of God to her Confessor, Raymund, and it is for this reason that when the godly wishes of the faithful lead them to make pictures of the blessed Katharine, they paint her with golden rays of light proceeding from those five places in her body which correspond to the five places wherein our Lord was wounded by the nails and spear.

And if you would, please  say a prayer for me on my name day!

Getting ready for Lent 2018

This week marks the start of Lent, with Ash Wednesday, so it is time to start preparing if you haven't already.

The Office from Ash Wednesday to the Saturday before the first Sunday of Lent

Although Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, this period was something of a later add-on to Lent to make up the correct number of days (given that Sundays are not counted for fasting and other purposes).

The liturgy does intensify, with special canticle antiphons each day at both Lauds and Vespers, and two collects each day (the one listed as for Lauds is also used at Matins and Terce to None; the other is for Vespers) but the rest of the Office at Lauds to Vespers remains that of  'throughout the year'.

This is, though, a good time to start practicing the Office hymns for Lent, and read through the rubrics for Lent.

The Rule on the observance of Lent

This is a good time, I think, to reread Chapter 49 of the Rule of St Benedict, on the observance of Lent.  Take a look also at chapters 41 and 48.

I've also written a couple of posts drawing out its application which you can find here:

• on sacred reading during Lent (read a book right through);
• refrain from sin and apply ourselves to prayer;
• fasting and abstinence.

Suggestions for something extra by way of prayer...

If you are looking for something extra by way of prayer for Lent, consider these suggestions:

• add an extra hour of the Office to your normal prayer regime;
• read through the Matins readings each day.  The are generally patristic readings on the Gospel used at the EF Mass of the day, and you can find them on the Lectio Divina Notes Blog;
• pray the penitential psalms.  If you would like to explore them in more depth, you can follow my Lenten series on them;
• pray the Gradual psalms.  Again I have previously provided notes on these in a Lenten series;
• pray Psalm 118.  The link takes to you to my notes on them, with a post for each day of Lent;
• work through the psalms of Holy Week Tenebrae.

From the martyrology: Conversion of St Paul; St Poppo OSB (Jan 25)

1467 Polish

Today in the Extraordinary Form, Ordinary Form and traditional Benedictine Office we celebrate the famous conversion of St Paul:

"The conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, which occurred in the second year after the Ascension of our Lord."

Bamberg, Church of SS Peter and George

The martyrology also mentions, however, St Poppo, an eleventh century monastic reformer:

"At Marchiennes in France, St. Poppo, priest and abbot, renowned for his miracles."

St Poppo had a colourful life, as the Catholic Encyclopedia chronicles:

"Abbot, born 977; died at Marchiennes, 25 January, 1048. He belonged to a noble family of Flanders; his parents were Tizekinus and Adalwif. About the year 1000 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with two others of his countrymen. Soon after this he also went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He was about to marry a lady of noble family, when an impressive experience led him to seek another mode of life. As he was journeying late at night a flame burst forth over his head and his lance radiated a brilliant light. He believed this to be an illumination of the Holy Spirit, and soon after, 1005, he entered the monastery of St. Thierry at Reims."

He was appointed to head a number of monasteries to aid their reform in the spirit of Cluny, working under the guidance of St Richard of Saint-Vannes.

SS Timothy and Suranus, Abbot (Jan 24)

Today in the Office we celebrate in the Office the feast of St Timothy, of whom the martyrology says:

"At Ephesus, St. Timothy, disciple of the apostle St. Paul, who ordained him bishop of that city.  After many labours for Christ, he was stoned for rebuking those who offered sacrifices to Diana, and shortly after went peacefully to his rest in the Lord."

But also mentioned is St Suranus:

"Also, blessed Suranus, abbot, who lived in the time of the Lombards."

The saint is mentioned in Book I of St Gregory's Dialogues:

"At such time as I yet lived in the Monastery, I understood by the relation of certain religious men, that in the time of the Lombards, in this very province called Sura and not far off, there was an holy Abbot called Suranus, who bestowed upon certain prisoners, which had escaped their hands, all such things as he had in his Monastery: and when he had given away in alms all his own apparel, and whatsoever he could find either in the monks' cells or in the yards, and nothing was left: suddenly the Lombards came thither, took him prisoner, and demanded where his gold was: and when he told them that he had nothing, they carried him to an hill hard by, where there was a mighty great wood in which a certain prisoner that ran away from them had hid himself in an hollow tree. There one of the Lombards, drawing out his sword, slew the foresaid venerable Abbot, whose body as it fell to the ground, suddenly all the hill together with the wood did shake, as though the earth by that trembling had said, that it could not bear the weight of his holiness and virtue."

St Agnes (January 21)



Zenobi Strozzi, c1448-9

From the 1962 Roman Martyrology:

"At Rome, the passion of St. Agnes, virgin, who under Symphronius, governor of the city, was thrown into the fire, but after it was extinguished by her prayers, she was slain with the sword.  Of her, St. Jerome writes: "Agnes is praised in the writings and by the tongues of all nations, especially in the churches.  She overcame the weakness of her age, conquered the cruelty of the tyrant, and consecrated her chastity by martyrdom."