The Oratio Imperata

PRAYER.  A newly married couple leads a thanksgiving prayer every night with some neighbors thanking God for sparing Cebu from the kind of floods happening in Luzon and Metro Manila. “We have every reason to be thankful to the Lord,” the couple always reminds those taking part in the nightly thanksgiving prayer.

ORATIO IMPERATA. The thanksgiving prayer starts with the recitation of the Oratio Imperata, a universal Catholic church prayer said in times of calamities, deluge, pestilence, etc. The original was in Latin but has been translated into English.

SUPPLICATIONS. Among the supplications in the Oratio Imperata says: “Lord, global warming is upon us. Typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions occur in increasing number. We turn to you our loving Father and beg for forgiveness.”