The Fifth Sunday after Easter

Rogation Sunday 
Augustine on Pslam CXXXII
Rogation Sunday Home

O LORD, from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Source: Sacramentary of Gelasius [ca 464 AD]. The collect refers to James 1:17 which is appointed for the 4th Sunday after Easter. Known as Rogation Sunday for the Latin "Rogare" means to ask, (earnestly petition), and the Gospel says, "ask, and ye shall receive." The three days following this Sunday are Rogation Days with prayer and fasting good crops and industry. This Sunday in latter times was also when folk in England would go out in procession around the parish boundaries and pray for protection.

, Psalm 146, 147 | 132, 133, 134; St. James i. 22, St. John xvi. 23 

Homily of Augustine on Psalm CXXXII 


I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. 

Comment

Augustine wrote:

How many thousands believed, my brethren, when they laid down the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet! But what saith Scripture of them? Surely they are become a temple of God; not only each respectively a temple of God, but also all a temple of God together. They have therefore become a place for the Lord. And that ye may know that one place is made for the Lord in all, Scripture saith, They were of one heart and one soul toward God.  But many, so as not to make a place for the Lord, seek their own things, love their own things, delight in their own power, are greedy for their private interests. Whereas he who wisheth to make a place for the Lord, should rejoice not in his private, but the common good.... Let us therefore, brethren, abstain from the possession of private property; or from the love of it, if we may not from its possession; and we make a place for the Lord. It is too much for me, saith some one. But consider who thou art, who art about to make a place for the Lord. 

Today's psalm is about David's desire to build a permanent tabernacle for the Lord.  We know that God had made his presence felt with his people in the beginning in the Tabernacle that they carried with them wherever they went.  David sought to give him a permanent house, and his son Solomon built the 1st Temple.  But God was not to be tethered to Jerusalem.

Our Lord prophesied that the 2nd Temple of Herod would be torn down, and that in three days be rebuilt in his person. That prophesy came to pass in his bodily resurrection after three days, and the total destruction of the Temple a generation later.  He promised to have the Father send another Comforter in his place, to abide with his people throughout the world.

 Who were they, and who are they who know God, in whom he abides? Those whom he has elected; who by faith have accepted Jesus as the Christ and follow him.  He is not in the Jerusalem Temple, nor in your Church buildings, but rather in the hearts of his chosen. And yet, where two are three are gathered together in his name, he is in the midst of them in a special way.

Make a spacious place in your heart for the Lord. Seek him often in his Word. Learn at his feet. Put aside those material things in this life that keep you from the worship of God, and gather with your brethren to worship his holy name: Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Finis

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Released by Primus Pilus
Legio Christi-Ecclesia Militans
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another" [St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14:19]

* ORDO CENTURIONUM * IN HOC SIGNO VINCES * TIME DEUM ET OPERARE IUSTITIAM