THEOLOGICAL CLUE

This Sunday, as the Fifth Sunday after Easter, was known as Rogate Sunday, or Rogation Sunday, which signaled the approach to the three special days of supplication and prayer that preceded the Ascension of our Lord. In most non-Roman Churches, this Sunday became a day for prayers that had, in the minds of most people, only a limited connection with Easter; Rogation Day was a time given over to particular and pointed prayers for the fields that had been planted in the hope of an abundant harvest. Now, as the Sixth Sunday ofEaster, the rogation emphasis has disappeared entirely from the propers; Rogation Sunday, as it was observed, no longer exists in the liturgy of the church. But rogation practices, which, of course, are good in themselves, are well established in some r…