ROGATION PROCESSION AND MASS; TUESDAY 11th MAY
ROGATION PROCESSION AND MASS TUESDAY 11th MAY Tuesday is the Rogation Day of the eve of the Ascension – a day when traditional parishes embark upon the Rogation Mass and procession, giving thanks to God for our many blessings, (in days past giving thanks for the harvest) and seeking God’s blessing and protection from illness and misfortune, (historically, for protection against plague and famine). The history set out below of the Rogation processions is taken from Eamon Duffy, “The Stripping of the Altars, Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c. 1580.” (1), where he quotes George Herbert, writing in the 1630’s, as capturing the dimensions of the traditional Rogantide in the context of the “archetypal parish gatherings, the processions and especially the Rogantide processions”: ‘Particularly [the country Parson] loves procession, and maintains it, because there are contained therein four manifest advantages; first, a blessing of God for the fruits of the field; secondly, justic...