Now that the rains have come, let us give thanks and praise and pray for the protection of people and the environment in their aftermath.
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales made this appeal as he ordered the lifting of obligatory prayer for more rains, Oratio Imperata Ad Petendam Pluviam, in churches and parishes of the Archdiocese of Manila.
The Archdiocesan Office on Communications said the cardinal issued the order to parish priests, rectors, chaplains and directors of schools last Tuesday to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, citing the pronouncement by the weather bureau that the dry spell has already ended as the rainy season officially started.
The Cardinal issued the prayer for rains last July 31 amid the looming dry spell that the weather bureau had forecast and the power and water shortage it could bring about.
Rosales said Filipinos should be thankful for positive and immediate response on the oratio imperata: “We thank our Blessed Mother, whose great Feast of the Assumption we celebrate today, for her constant intercession and protection. May she always guide us to the right path that leads to her Son, Jesus Christ.”
Still, he said Filipinos should continue to pray – this time for the protection of the environment from floods and landslides.
“I enjoin all the faithful to continue to pray, no longer for the coming of the rainy season for it has clearly commenced, but for enlightenment among us, on the proper care and protection of our environment. The floods and landslides are not all the result of too much rain. Most of these come because of the denudation of our forests, the silting of our rivers, the clogging of our esteros and waterways with non-biodegradable waste, and other harmful practices,” the cardinal appealed.
The Catholic dictionary defines oratio imperata as “an ordered prayer for a special intention besides the ones prescribed by ritual that the Pope or the bishop of a diocese might require to be said at Mass.”
It can be recalled the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin also issued a similar prayer in 1998 at the height of the El Niño phenomenon.