Minor Rogation Days and Procession at the Seminary

The priests and seminarians of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary prepare themselves each year for the approaching Feasts of the Ascension and, ten days hence, Pentecost – birthday of the Church – with the solemnities of the Minor Rogation Days.

The Rogation Days are a traditional time of prayer and fasting for several intentions:

  • To appease God’s anger at our transgressions.
  • To ask for protection from disasters.
  • To beseech God to bless us with a fruitful harvest.

Rogation derives from the Latin rogare, which means to entreat or request, and comes from the Gospel of the fifth Sunday of Easter, wherein Saint John mentions Our Lord’s words, “…Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full.” The fifth Sunday of Easter is often thus referred to as Rogation Sunday.

Besides the special Masses in observance of the Rogation Days, the seminarians made the traditional procession around the grounds of the seminary.  In past centuries, especially in England, such a procession was made around the bounds of a parish territory in order to beseech God to bless, in a special way, that parish. Enjoy images from Denton.

May 28, 2013