Rogation Sunday and Third Quarter Moon

Rogation-tide begins on the Sunday five weeks after Easter and continues for four more days, through Ascension Day on Thursday. 

Rogation is an early Christian tradition of singing psalms and chanting prayers of petition for God's protection on crops, beasts and people. Since medieval days, parishioners in Britain would walk around the parish boundaries, bearing a cross and banners, and asking for God to bless the crops, livestock, and fishing holes. The procession was called 'beating the bounds'; it helped everyone to remember the parish boundaries, in the time before maps were commonplace.

These boundary walks were also known as ‘gang days’ from the Anglo Saxon word ‘gangen’- to go. The parish would bond together as a community, offer charity to poor people they met along the way, and the priest would stop to preach at each prominent tree or landmark.

Now Rogation-tide is celebrated more as a time to honor the gift of creation of the land and waters, to offer thanksgiving for the labors on land and water that feed us, and to pray for stewardship of the earth.

This is also the May Third Quarter Moon: This waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

 

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan for next month

2. Evaluation House

3. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit

4. Beat the bounds

5. Bless my garden

6. Make Rammalation Biscuits:

1. Renewal plan for next month:

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. Today's waning half moon is my opportunity to review how I'm doing, and make note of new ideas for the month ahead.

Renewal plan this next month: 

5 am - Read and journal; dig deeper + neck stretches

5:30 - Dawn prayer and offering (seeds)

8 am - Garden Project team review

9 am - Self-Expression: Crativism

10 am - Awareness walk/ trash collection/Audio book

11:15 am - Gardening and prayers

2 pm - Longer nap if possible

3 pm - Art and nature play

2. Evaluation House:

Today I get to reflect back on the whole lunar cycle that I've just passed through. I review the intentions I set at the new moon and draw a house with 2 rooms: 

• A room for celebration of all I have accomplished already this month.
• A room for discerning what to do with the unfinished parts (Some of these I will finish in the next couple days, some I will save for next month, and some I will release because they have become irrelevant or didn't go as planned.)

3. Read (and Practice) the Happiness Habit:

I'm reading a book called "Happiness is a Habit: Simple Daily Rituals that Increase Energy, Improve Well-being, and Add Joy to Every Day", by Michele Phillips.

Habit 16 is Let Life Touch You. "Most people feel they deserve to feel happy all the time, and they don't like dealing with uncomfortable emotions. ... How can you know your highs if you never allow yourself to feel your lows?" She suggests that you tune in to your emotions and identify how they make your body feel, then take three deep breaths to honor whatever it is you are feeling.

Toddlers, you know, are very free with their uncomfortable emotions. My daughter introduced me to this little song they use with their toddler, to the tune of If Your Happy and You Know it:

"If I want to feel happy I just breathe (deep breathe). If I want to feel happy I just breathe (deep breathe). If the anger starts to grow, I just breathe in through my nose. If I want to feel happy I just breathe (deep breathe)."

Amazingly, more often than not, when we sing this song he stops his tantrum and listens, gets still, and takes at least one deep breath. The gift of this song is that we are both made aware of our stress, and both able to breathe and calm ourselves together.

Habit 17 is Pay Attention to the Now. "Remember the gift in goal setting is not achieving the goal but who you become in the process. It is the process of being. Living for now and realizing that now is all you have." Again she recommends taking a deep breath, as a way to be aware of the now and center yourself - to use your senses while you breathe to notice the sights, sounds, and feelings.

4. Beat the bounds:

Hawthorn tree in our front yard.

A parish is church territory, but I use it to mean the land that I feel responsible for, my home-neighborhood. This is my annual chance to look at my neighborhood and my community with open eyes, and consider how I can help to support those who work to feed me, and how I can be a better steward of the land.

It's especially important to me now, as I work on climate justice, to regain a sense of responsibility for my parish.

Sadie (looking anxious) in front of our neighborhood store, with a large black walnut tree.

The bounds of my "parish" have changed in recent years, as my children have moved nearby. Now they extend an irregular 7 blocks by 15 blocks, with our house at the northwest corner, our neighborhood store to the north, our neighborhood park and my son's apartment to the east, and my daughter's home at the southwest corner.

Beautiful tulip poplar at our park.

As I walk the bounds, I stop at "trees of importance" to say these prayers:

For rains and fruitful seasons, and your blessing upon the lands and waters, 

I pray to you, Oh God. 

Raggedy group of cedars at my son's place.

For all who work upon the earth and seas to bring forth food for all your creatures, I pray to you, Oh God. 

For all who care for the earth, the water, and the air, that the riches of your creation may abound from age to age, 

I pray to you, Oh God. 

Amen.

5. Bless my garden: 

When I get home from my boundary walk, I will go to my garden to ask blessings on my seeds, animals, trees, and beds-

Great Spirit, Creator of all things and Giver of all life, let your blessing be upon this garden, the animals and people who live here, and grant that we may serve. Amen.

6. Make Rammalation Biscuits:

While technically these are days of fasting, in England the tradition was to gather after the Rogation Procession to drink "ganging beer" and eat "rammalation biscuits." 

Unfortunately, no one knows what a rammalation biscuit really is - possibly a cookie to eat while you "perambulate”? I decided to make a classic English Digestive Biscuit, and they are very yummy. The recipe is here.