Mother's Day Rogation Sunday

Today is Mother's Day, and a low-key time for me, now that my daughter is a mother and I am a grandmother!

And it's also Rogation-tide, beginning on the Sunday five weeks after Easter and continuing 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.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal query

2. Mother Meditation

3. Monthly journal brainstorm

4. Brainstorm my summer

5. Cleansing 

6. Beat the bounds

7. Bless my garden

8. Make Rammalation Bisquits

1. Journal query: 

What do I really want for Mother’s Day?

 

Plan three things to do for myself today to honor my role as a mother, and to bring myself peace and joy:

1. Meditate on, and honor my mother
2. See both my children
3. Make dream plans for family and kid time this summer

2. Mother Meditation:

I have some time today to pause and think about my Mom and all she has been, and is to me now. I'd like to bring the two images of her - the sharp-minded young mother and the vaguer old woman - together in my head.

Let an image of my mother - when she was young - come to mind. Just hold the image of her, and observe her - her 
eyes, expression, posture. Imagine her with a smile on her face, ready to be with me. Give her a hug and tell her I love her. 

PAUSE…

Keep one hand on that image of mom, and let an image of my mother now - in her old age - come to mind. Just hold the image of her, and observe her - her eyes, expression, posture. Imagine her with a smile on her face, ready to be with me. Give her a hug and tell her I love her.

 

PAUSE... Now gather the two Moms together into a hug and just feel the love.

3. Monthly journal brainstorm:

Every month just after the third quarter moon, I take some days to be quiet and contemplative and prepare for the next phase of my life. At the new moon (on Friday) I will transition from one focus to another, and a whole new field of opportunity. This week I'll take time to write down my goals, dreams, and exciting ideas for the next 30-days. This exercise has three parts: 

• Brainstorm goals, dreams, and exciting ideas without judgement - include at least a few crazy, improbable notions;
• Reflect on the next month of my life, and what my best month would look like, moving me in the direction of my most important reasons for living; 
• Then take time to weigh the possibilities.

4. Brainstorm my summer:

Today I'm going to focus on what my summer might look like - care-taking, special kid time, community connections, travel, family time and a birthday party. It's only a vague dream because THIS summer is cannot be known. 

5. Cleansing: 

Every month just after the third quarter moon, I think about things I'd like to clear and clean, and how I might release trapped energy, habits, burdens, and excess possessions of all kinds. 

Moving towards this next new moon, I want to release two thing:

• My need to plan and control the future.
• Junk in the studio - so I can USE it.

Today I will use water to cleanse in two ways - first, I'll write what I want to release on two sticks and throw them into the creek, and second, I'll soak in the hot tub and let my pre-conceptions go.

6. 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 the earth and those who work to feed me.

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 again - shrinking in as I age.

Now they extend an irregular 7 blocks by 8 blocks, with our house at the northwest corner, our neighborhood store to the north, our neighborhood park to the east, and the fairgrounds and creek bordering the south.

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. 

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.

7. 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.

8. 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.