Rainy days and Sundays

As I grew up in a Midwestern U.S. farming community, I learned to expect a special prayer for spring rain on Rogate Sunday, the fifth Sunday after Easter. This seemed just common sense, since April to May was the time for tillage and planting of spring crops. Many years later I learned this was a vestige of a tradition dating back to 470 A.D. Days of penitence and prayer, including a procession outside the church, were historically observed on April 25 (St. Mark’s Day on the historic church calendar), and on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord.

These were called Rogation Days and, like Rogate Sunday, the name is derived from the Latin verb rogare, which means to ask or pray. The appointed Gospel reading for the last Sunday before Ascension is John 16:23-30, in which Jesus tells His disciples (verse 23), “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” There are two Greek words translated as “ask” in the passage. The first, ἐρωτάω, in context, means “to ask a question”, while the second, αἰτέω, means “to petition or request”. “In that day”, after Jesus has ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit will answer our questions of faith through the inspired Scriptures while we may petition the Father for all of our material and spiritual needs in the name of Jesus. See my May 22, 2022 sermon.

The farmer’s prayer typically is for just enough rain at just the right time to assure a bountiful harvest. In Venezuela the Rogate Sunday petition often is to hold off a little on the rain. Venezuela is located just north of the Equator, so daily temperatures vary only slightly throughout the year. As a rule, it is cooler in the mountains (many mountain towns have both the altitude and daily high temperature posted on the city limit sign) and hotter in the lowlands. However, there is a dry season (which usually runs from mid-December to mid-April) and a rainy season (usually, from late April to mid-November). Average yearly rainfall amounts in the lowlands and plains range from a semiarid 430 millimeters (17 inches) in the western part of the Caribbean coastal areas to more than 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) in the Orinoco Delta. We live on the western plains, where there difference between the dry and rainy seasons is especially sharp. During the rainy season, the prairie turns into a network of wetlands and the cowboys who work the region’s large ranches often wear rubber-soled boots.

April and May of this year have proved true to form for us, with many days of torrential rain and strong winds. More frequent, prolonged power outages probably are a result of this and we are grateful for our solar panels and a pedal-powered emergency backup system, courtesy of K-Tor.

Mother’s Day and the gift of life

In Venezuela, Mother’s Day is a secular holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May, as it is in the United States. This year’s date, May 8, coincided with the third Sunday after Easter. The appointed Gospel reading, John 16:16-22, was quite appropriate for the occasion.

Jesus says in verses 20-22, in reference to His death, resurrection and ascension: “ Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Many prophetic texts of the Old Testament also compare the tribulations that the people of God must endure before the arrival of the Messiah to the pain followed by joy of childbirth: Micah 4:9-10; Jeremiah 13:21; Isaiah 21:2-3; 26:16-21; 66:7-14). Read the sermon text in English here.

Friday, May 27, was the day after the actual Ascension Day (40 days after Easter, but we celebrated the Ascension on Sunday, May 29). That is when we began, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, a series of consultations with pregnant women of the community, offering them moral support and advice. An opening devotion is my responsiblity, and I began with prayer on meditation on classic pro-natalist texts. That is to say, texts which explain that children are a blessing from God, life begins at conception and all human life is precious to God at all states of development.

The Lord says to the prophet in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Likewise, Psalm 139:13-14, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Our lives belong to God by the order of creation. As He directly formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, He gives the gift of life to all people using human parents as His instruments. That is why the first of all commandments in Scripture is “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:27). Marriage was instituted by God before the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, and procreation was to result from God’s blessing.

Every new life also belongs to God by the order of redemption, because Christ died for the sins of all human beings. St. Paul writes in Galatians 1:15, “But when God who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.” Before the Lord appeared to the former persecutor of Christians on the road to Damascus, He had ordained his birth and influenced his entire life, his education, his intellectual development in such a manner as to enable him later to become a chosen instrument.

Finally, we have St. Luke’s account of the Visitation, when Mary, who had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, came to the house of Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is it granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:42-44). The evangelist says that it was the Holy Spirit that moved Elizabeth to prophecy that Mary’s child, already growing in her womb, would be delivered as a healthy baby and would deliver the entire world from sin. And her unborn child shared in her joy.

O Author of life, who did not reject our first parents in their disobedience, but gave them the hope of salvation in Eve’s Offspring. Turn the hearts of all who believe they hold the power of life and death, and who trust in the choices of the sinful heart over the promises of God. Bring them into the knowledge of what is good, that they may know the profound value of all human life, which You have created and redeemed, and the everlasting truth of salvation in the Offspring who has crushed Satan’s head forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Welcome and farewell

One month ago I said that by Rogate Sunday (the fifth Sunday after Easter, which was May 6 this year) we either would be continuing to pray for rain or giving thanks for having received spring rains to recharge our well. ]ndeed, praise be to God that it was the second possibility that came true.

Better yet, on that Sunday we baptized Emmanuel David Sanchez and received into communicant membership Genesis Marquina. Emmanuel David is the son of Eleno Sanchez and Luz Maria’s daughter, Sarai, making him her twelfth grandchild. His baptismal verse was Colosenses 2:12. *Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Baptism is the visible means by which the Lord works regeneration in our hearts. Buried with Christ and dead to sin, we now, through the effective working of the word in Baptism, become partakers also of Christ’s resurrection: We are raised with Him by the same divine power by which God raised up Jesus from the dead. The casual comparison between circumcision and Baptism in this entire passage (Colossians 2:6-15) affords a very strong argument in favor of infant baptism; for the rite of circumcision, as practiced by the Jews, had to take place on the eighth day, and baptism is spoken of as being parallel to circumcision.

In fact, Genesis as one of the first to be baptized at our mission on June 29, 2008. Through baptism Genesis was adopted into God’s family, the church, by water and the Word, through a promise made good by the blood of Christ. Now she has entered fully into the communion of Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament of the altar for the strengthening of the faith created in her at baptism. This is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit as I noted in the sermon. Her confirmation verse: John 10:27-28. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The Lord here gives us a guarantee against ourselves, against our own weakness and doubt. There are so many factors which tend to stifle faith in our hearts, to make us doubt the sincerity of God’s promises toward us, but this word of Christ must overcome all doubt most effectively.

So Rogate Sunday was a joyous day. But it also was a sad one, as we prayed that the Lord might protect them from material and spiritual danger, Luz Maria's daughter, Yepci Anahis Santana, and her children, Aaron, Oriana and Elias, in their travel to Peru. Like many Venezuelans, they will seek a brighter future in another country, Luz Maria's daughter, Wuendy Santana, has liived in Canada since 2010. Another daughter, Charli Rocio Santana Henrriquez, has lived in Ecuador for a little more than two years, as has Luz Maria's brother, Robert Henriquez Rivero. A niece, Romina Castillo, just left for Ecuador with her family, and another niece, Gabriela, now lives in Spain. So we prayed for them and the millions of other Venezuelans who have fled their homeland.

We ask that you, too, remember us and all Venezuelans in your prayers.

Praying for rain

Sharing water with neighbors.

A blessed Eastertide to all! We have made it through Lent, the season of special emphasis on reflection, fasting and repentance; relived the drama of Christ’s suffering and death during Holy Week; and celebrated His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. The next festival day in the church year rightfully is Ascension Day, which this year we will observe on Sunday, May 13. However, this year we await with special anticipation, the preceding Sunday, May 6.

The fifth Sunday in the Easter season is known as Rogate Sunday. Rogate comes from the Latin rogare, meaning “to ask” or “to pray.” The key verse in the appointed Gospel reading, John 16:23-33, says this: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. " Here Jesus reveals to His disciples that after He has been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He will be the one Mediator between God and man. He promises that all prayers addressed to the Father in His name will be heard and answered.

We hope for heavier rains.

 It also so happens that in most parts of the world, Rogate Sunday falls during the period when farmers hope for plenty of rain for a bountiful harvest of spring crops. Due to crop failures in fifth-century France, Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, introduced the custom of penitential processions for this purpose, not just on Sunday, but also on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day (the fortieth day after Easter, because that’s how long the risen Christ appeared to believers in visible form before His Ascension). These were called the Rogation Days as the custom spread from France throughout western Christendom. Nowadays, in an increasingly urban society, the observance of Rogation Days has been largely forgotten, but if, like me, you grew up in the rural midwestern United States, you may remember Rogate Sunday as the Sunday especially dedicated to agricultural concerns.

Light evening rain.

Now Venezuela lies north of the equator, so there technically are four seasons as there is the same progression of increasing and decreasing daylight hours. But the variation is less extreme than in, say, the Dakotas or northern Minnesota. Daytime high temperatures remain between 80 and 90 degrees F. and the only way you can tell it’s supposed to be mid-winter in January, for example, is that the temperature drops to 60 degrees in the wee hours of the morning. That’s here on the plains. Up in the mountains, the temperature may drop below freezing and never get far above 70 degrees F. So it is said there really are only two seasons in Venezuela, the rainy season and the dry season.

Wating for water.

The heavy rainfall usually starts in April and this year we are looking forward to it. The reason is that the public water system in our community is off-line and may stay that way for the foreseeable future. We are relying on the well on our property to supply water not just for our home, preschool, livestock, and fruit and vegetable crops, but also for neighbors who have no wells of their own. So far we have been able to meet the demand by being frugal in our use of water, but the water level in the wells keeps dropping. We really could use timely rains to recharge the well. By the fifth Sunday in Easter, either we will be giving thanks or renewing our prayers for rain.

Oh, God, most merciful Father, we beseech Thee to open the windows of heaven, and send fruitful rains upon us, to revive the earth, and refresh the fruits thereof. Graciously hear our prayer in this our necessity that we may praise and glorify Thy name forever; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.