Rogation Monday - For Fruitful Seasons

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.




When offering this prayer these days one's thoughts easily turn to the precariousness of "the harvests of the land and of the seas". One thinks of the meanspiritedness of those who would expel decent, law-abiding, hardworking trabajadores, workers, who willingly accept labor which many U.S. citizens, needing jobs, find repugnant and refuse to take on themselves. One thinks of well-groomed oil executives sitting before Congressional committees in expensive suits, arrogantly and totally unapologetic for obscene amounts of money earned even as their blatant carelessness regarding safety measures emerges as a major cause for one of the greatest ecological catastrophes in the Gulf of Mexico and, indeed, in our country's history. The untold losses and mushrooming and rippling social impact on fishermen and their families, and on the economy of New Orleans and others coastal towns and cities are unspeakable. May part of our prayer during these Rogation Days be for all Americans to regain their soul and their sense of oneness as a "nation under God": te rogamus, audi nos! Hear us, O God, we beseech You!