Petition days

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Procession at Hever, Kent

The days of prayer ( Latin rogationes or litaniae minores , small litanies ) are days of prayer and procession before the feast of the Ascension of Christ . The week in which the Rogation Days are is as Betwoche, Bittwoche transition week, or Cross week - because the processions on these days the cross was carried in front - called. The days of supplication were given the name litaniae because the processions began with the singing of the All Saints' Litany and were accompanied by fervent supplication.

In the evangelical order of worship, the 5th Sunday after Easter , Vocem jucunditatis , also called Rogate (Latin rogate "prays / begs") or Prayer Sunday , in line with the pre-Reformation tradition of supplication days.

Corridors

The petition days in the phase of crop growth between sowing and harvesting originally have an agrarian orientation. Disaster, including through storms, was understood as a consequence of human guilt. Prayer days therefore have a penitential character , the liturgical color is purple. As a result, the days of prayer are in a certain tension to the joyful character of Easter, which liturgically only ends with Pentecost.

On the days of prayer, prayer processions are held, regionally also called prayer walks , during which a good harvest is prayed for. The processions can be understood as a late antique transformation of the Roman corridors, the Ambarvalia . They may also be related to Germanic legal customs, according to which every landowner had to circumnavigate his property once a year in order to maintain ownership.

Emergence

The story of a petition to the Löschem chapel in Moselle Franconian dialect

The corridor processions to the Bitttagen can be an arrangement of the Bishop of Vienne , Mamertus traced, because in the year 469/470 earthquakes and crop failures on the three days before Ascension with fasting to keep connected penitential processions; the Council of Orléans made them mandatory for all churches in Gaul in 511. Around 800 the three days of petition of Pope Leo III. also introduced in Rome and the entire area of ​​the Roman liturgy, but without prescribed fasting. In some places they took place on all three days before Ascension Day.

There were also corridor processions on the feast of Ascension and in the days that followed until Sunday. In Swabia, the Ösch procession takes place in many places on Ascension Day , a large corridor procession through the fields of the city. There were special hail processions at individual locations on different days during the Week of Prayer or the Cross: on Tuesday, Friday, "Hail Friday" or "Shower Friday" or on Saturday or Sunday. (See: List of hail and fire processions .)

Harvest days

Processions are rejected in Protestantism and - in Braunschweig, for example - were also banned by sovereigns. Nevertheless, corridor walkways were still kept in isolated cases in Protestant parishes until the 18th century . In the church ordinance of Braunschweig of 1709, Duke Anton Ulrich ordered a "hail celebration" as a day of prayer (without procession) for the "Monday post Vocem jucunditatis" (5th Sunday after Easter); In 1825, the spring festival of the hail festival was moved to the second or third Monday in June. In 1968 the Synod of the Braunschweigische Landeskirche renewed the practice of the hail holiday, which was celebrated with school and evening services, as harvest day and set the first Sunday after Trinity or on a day in the week after:

"In a world in which millions of people are threatened with starvation, the Church will always have to remember that she is also charged with caring for the physical well-being of people through her actions, but also in her prayer."

Württemberg's King Wilhelm I also suggested a public holiday with harvest supplication services in the famine years 1815 to 1817, which was observed throughout the Evangelical Church in Württemberg ("with hunger soup, sausages and a cold drink") and continues today as a local community festival, for example in Honhardt .

Current practice

In the Catholic Church, the custom of petitions has often been preserved in rural regions and in some cases has even been revived. New forms are being tried out in the cities - not infrequently also in the evening hours, adapted to today's work and life rhythm. The missal of the Catholic Church says about the supplication processions: “On the supplication and quatembre days , the church prays for a variety of human concerns, especially for the fruits of the earth and for human creation.” In addition to “preservation of creation”, work can also be done for everyone Be motives, peace, bread for the world, and reverence for human life. Design elements are traditionally the All Saints' Litany , other litanies, psalms and alternating prayers as well as the rosary .

The Evangelical Church Service Book , the agenda for the Evangelical Church of the Union (EKU) and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), contains several Propriums texts for church services on Bitt days, in particular e.g. B. as a request for blessed work , a request for daily bread , a responsible use of nature and technology , overcoming social tensions , for peace and protection of life .

In Denmark , a request day is still a national holiday (previously also in Norway and Iceland ). This holiday, Store Bededag , is always the fourth Friday after Easter.

literature

  • Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , pp. 127-131.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Liber Usualis , Parisii, Tornaci, Romae 1954, pp. 835ff.
  2. ↑ Evangelical church service book. Agenda for the EKU and the VELKD. Verlagsgemeinschaft Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch, Berlin 1999, pocket edition, ISBN 3-7461-0141-7 , p. 703.
  3. ^ Andreas Heinz : Prayer procession. In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, Freiburg, 3rd edition 1993-2001, Volume 2, Col. 512.
  4. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 128.
  5. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti : Celebrations, festivals, seasons. Living customs throughout the year , Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-451-27702-6 , 300, 373
  6. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag , Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 128.
  7. ^ Dieter Manz: The pious city. The episcopal city of Rottenburg aN in the mirror of its church and piety history. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2009, ISBN 978-3-89870-596-7 , p. 211.
  8. ↑ Hans Ehlert: The hail holiday in the state of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweigische Heimat Volume 60 (1974) Issue 1, pp. 16-18 - here, however, it is called “Vocum Jucunditatis”.
  9. ^ State portal Baden-Württemberg ( Memento from July 21, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  10. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 130.
  11. ↑ Evangelical church service book. Agenda for the EKU and the VELKD. Verlagsgemeinschaft Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch, Berlin 1999, pocket edition, ISBN 3-7461-0141-7 ; Pp. 452-475.