What? Rogation?

Blessing of the wheatfields and Artois. Jules Breton.

You may never have heard of Rogation Days unless you grew up in a farming or fishing community. They are very much a part of our heritage and speak to our modern lives as well.

They always fall on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the week of the Feast of the Ascension, which means they move around, depending on the date of Easter. Ascension Day is always 40 days after Easter so they are easy to find on the calendar.

When I was growing up, between the ages of 8 and 11, I was in a Church of England school which means that, on Ascension Day, we would all walk the mile or so to the Church for a service and then we allowed to go home for the rest of the day. A treat not afforded to our friends in non-Church schools. I think that has changed now, but for many years Ascension Day was a holiday, giving it s rightful place with Easter, Christmas and Pentecost in the great feasts of the Church.

I digress. The Rogation Days started as days of prayer and fasting for the fields to produce fruitful yield at harvest. On Ascension Day the whole village would turn out and the priest would “beat the bounds” of the Parish, thus, they believed, setting a sort of wall against the evil spirits of famine and bad weather.

This practice continues on many rural communities . In England urban Churches will still “beat the bounds” as a blessing, not so much for fields and crops, but for industry, retail and businesses which occupy space within their boundaries.

In Shelby it would be very difficult to “beat the bounds” as we really do not have parish boundaries and if we split the difference between us and the Churches in Gastonia and Rutherfordton we might spend several days walking around our area.

However, to pray God’s blessing on our places of work, on where we are each day whether we are at home or away, is a good thing. Perhaps today, also, pray for blessing on places where the garbage collectors, the grocery store employees and all those others who you will come into contact with work. Perhaps go even further, pray for places where those who grow the coffee, tend the children and harvest the tomatoes work. God’s blessing, raining down on factories and train stations, offices, homes and hospitals – now that is a great thing to pray for.

Calm in the Storm

Julian of Norwich by David Holgate at Norwich Cathedral

Julian of Norwich seems to be someone that people have either, heard of and know a lot about, or never heard of at all.

She lived in Norwich, England between 1346 and 1412. She became what was known as an anchoress, which means she lived in a simple room (cell) attached to a church in the city, you can still visit that cell today.

Julian was the first woman, whose work we have, to write in English. She had a series of visions in 1373 when she was laying, as she thought, on her deathbed. She expanded this writing about 20 years later into what we now have as “Revelations of Divine Love”.

She is best known for the phrase, “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” This was not some sort of vaguely insane statement which ignored the reality of life but, rather, an encompassing of the reality in which people live in an overwhelming trust in the mercy of God.

In a world with so many questions people want easy answers. Some find these in dogmatism, others write off religion as an excuse to live in a fairy-land devoid of reality. Julian would have found these things disturbing. Whilst some of her language and images are rather florid to the twenty-first century mind they are undergirded by a deep understanding of God being with her, reassuring her and pulling her back in even as she was in her darkest hour.

All shall be well in not a panacea, it is a tough statement of love - but in God’s mercy it is true - however that shall be.

Caroline+

btw, for those interested, Norwich is pronounced with the emphasis on the "no) which is said with short a "o". The wich is more like "idge". No witches!

Watching and Waiting

We wait for the new day, the Day of Jesus' Resurrection.

Saturday evening's service is one of the most magical of the year. In it we think about the story of God's promises to the children of Israel as we read through the Vigil readings. There are nine readings which might sound scary but it is the only time in the year when we can actually listen, at one time, to the story of those who God first chose and of God's creative love and care in the Old Covenant.

Then we move outside to kindle the Easter fire. This is a symbol of cleansing and the presence of God - remember the pillar of fire which led the Israelites through the wilderness. From this fire we light the Easter Candle - the Paschal candle, the Christ light. The church is ready, decorated for Easter and the light is given from person to person in candles. As we move from darkness to life, we see the light restored in the Church. We read the story of the Resurrection and sing loud hymns of praise.

It might seem odd to do this on Saturday night. Days in Jesus' culture ran from 6pm to 6pm and so 6pm on our Saturday is the new day in the Bible.

We start at 8pm because we need it to be dark. Leave about an hour and 45 minutes free for this service. It is longer than most of our services, but Easter is our greatest joy so it is worth it.