Archbishop of Manila orders prayers for rain at Masses

Manila, Philippines, Feb 27, 2010 / 17:11 pm

Facing high temperatures and a lack of rain, Filipinos have increased their prayers that God resolve their country’s water crisis. The Archbishop of Manila has written a prayer to ask for rain that is to be inserted in to the daily and Sunday Prayers of the Faithful at Mass.

Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales’ action was a prayerful response to government authorities’ warning that the country is facing drought and water shortages because of the El Niño climate phenomenon.

“Our relief will come from nature. And so we implore the Master of all creation, God, our Father, at whose command the winds and the seas obey, to send us rain and ease drought,” Cardinal Rosales commented, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“Let us together storm heavens with our supplication, that God’s mercy be upon us and send us the rain we need,” he added.

The prayer he ordered to be recited after Communion before the Post-Communion prayer begins:

“God our loving Father, creator of our earth and of the universe, and all the wondrous elements of nature that sustain your living creatures, we humbly ask you to send us the rain that our country needs so badly at this time, to irrigate our fields, to stave off a power shortage, to provide water for our bodily health, and to refresh our parched lands.

“At your command the wind and the seas obey, raise your hand Almighty God to send us so that crisis may be averted.”

The prayer asks God to teach the faithful to be wise stewards of creation and asks for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Rose of Lima, and Filipino protomartyr St. Lorenzo Ruiz.

Cardinal Rosales is the third prelate in the country to order the prayer, after Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu and Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad. The order is called an “Oratio Imperata.”

In May last year the cardinal ordered the recitation of a prayer asking for the end of the H1N1 virus threat.