From lightning and tempests, spare us O Lord.

12 Comments

1. 8latinfans says:

   2 March 2012 at 7:30 PM

   Thank you for the prayers, Father. We expected bad weather today here in the Midwest. Thankfully, we were spared, but the county just south of us here in Indiana was hit hard, leaving at least two dead. Our local hospital is taking the injured. The father of one of my teenage son’s friends is an EMT and is already at the tornado sight trying to help. Several counties even farther south of us is tiny Marysville, Indiana, which they are saying has been wiped off the map, and Henryville in the same county has sustained major damage, along with loss of life. My heart and prayers go out to all of those impacted.
2. AnAmericanMother says:

   2 March 2012 at 8:18 PM

   We’re under the gun right now.
   About to call some friends just north of us who had a cell pass right over their house. Weather map was seeing rotation and a possible debris cloud.
   More on the way.
   All prayers appreciated.
3. bookworm says:

   2 March 2012 at 9:01 PM

   I believe there is a prayer to avert storms somewhere in the (modern) Roman Ritual. I remember reference being made to it years ago in a Catholic News Service story about a Sunday Mass offered in a Florida town threatened by a hurricane (can’t remember which town, or which hurricane it was).

   If Fr. Z or anyone on this blog knows this prayer or can find an old Latin version with a slavishly literal translation, please share it here… I’ve a feeling a lot of us are going to need it this year.
4. mschu528 says:

   2 March 2012 at 10:06 PM

   “I believe there is a prayer to avert storms somewhere in the (modern) Roman Ritual. I remember reference being made to it years ago in a Catholic News Service story about a Sunday Mass offered in a Florida town threatened by a hurricane (can’t remember which town, or which hurricane it was).”

   There are Commemorations in the 1962 Missal “To Avert Storms”.

   the Collect: “Adomo tua, quaesumus, Domine, spiritales nequitiae repellantur: et aerearum discedat malignitas tempestatum. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.”

   English (from Baronius Press Missal): “We beseech Thee, O Lord, that all spiritual wickedness may be driven away from Thy house, and that the fury of the storms may pass away. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, who livest and reignest with You in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God for ever and ever.”

   Very fitting in these days rife with storms and “spiritual wickedness” indeed!
5. Peggy R says:

   2 March 2012 at 10:18 PM

   St Joseph Catholic Church in Ridgeway IL (Belleville Diocese) was leveled, but the front wall and the gorgeous marble altar, which they are trying to preserve among the wreckage. (It looks like this is the photo Drudge has had up this afternoon.) The roof of the rectory was damaged as well. I think the pastor, Fr. Beatty was fortunate to emerge unscathed himself. Bp. Braxton will ask the rest of the diocese to take up collections for relief efforts by Catholic Charities in these communities.
6. irishgirl says:

   3 March 2012 at 8:42 AM

   It’s awful reading about this, as well as seeing the pictures.
   I wonder if God is trying to ‘tell us something’ through the elements?
   @ An American Mother: I hope that you, your family and your ‘puppies’ weren’t in harm’s way with the storms.
   I have that ‘Prayer Against Storms’ in my St. Andrew’s Daily Missal!
7. wmeyer says:

   3 March 2012 at 10:42 AM

   It was interesting here, 25 miles NE of Atlanta. The radar showed that a tornado cell was to pass over us, and the television news were giving a running countdown to the arrival in our community. I’ve not had that experience before. Thanks be to God, we got only some high winds (not the 100 mph reported on TV), some rain, and none of the 1.25″ hail that was predicted. Nor were we hit by the tornado itself.

   I pray for all those in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and elsewhere who suffered real damage.
8. AnAmericanMother says:

   3 March 2012 at 3:16 PM

   irishgirl,
   Thank you! We are all fine (especially the puppiez who are extra fine).
   We got over 2 inches of rain in less than 3 hours . . . but other than some small limbs down and a dead tree that was coming down anyway and couldn’t hit anything (and didn’t), no wind damage at all. Even our friends a little further north who had a funnel touch down within a few miles of their home in Kennesaw are AOK.
   They’re coming down with a log splitter this afternoon to help us get rid of the tree.
9. Suburbanbanshee says:

   3 March 2012 at 3:37 PM

   In the midst of all the destruction and death, there were some wonderful close escapes. I still remember 1974, and how bad it was; but at least it got people thinking about tornado preparedness. Even a little warning made a big difference for those folks.

   Please take tornado warnings seriously, especially if you live in an area where tornado preparedness isn’t second nature. Make sure your kids know what to do. Better safe than sorry.
10. bookworm says:

    4 March 2012 at 1:55 AM

    “I wonder if God is trying to ‘tell us something’ through the elements?”

    If He is trying to express displeasure with the sins of our nation such as abortion, gay “marriage” and disregard for conscience, He seems to be doing so in a rather curious manner, as these storms affected mostly innocent homeowners, business owners, schoolchildren, etc. in “red” states and communities where such practices do NOT prevail. The loony left gets a lot of mileage out of mocking this.

    Meanwhile, the odious Phelps family of Westboro Baptist Church infamy had threatened to show up at the funerals of the victims of the Harrisburg, Ill. tornado today (they didn’t, but hundreds of others did show up prepared to shield the grieving families from their bile). Where is the justice in the fact that THEIR “church,” such as it is, is still intact, while a beautiful, irreplaceable, classic Catholic church is reduced to rubble? For that matter, why is a certain, ahem, surgical facility in Kansas — right in the middle of Tornado Alley! — still standing while schools, hospitals, churches, etc., get whacked? The facility in question is one of the few places on earth I would LIKE to see get hit by a tornado (when no one is there, of course, and with minimal collateral damage).

    I suppose that the only thing God is trying to say is exactly what His Son said in the Gospel of Luke when asked about victims of disasters and massacres of His time: “Do you think they were more guilty than everyone else?… By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.”
11. Kathleen10 says:

    4 March 2012 at 7:49 PM

    Amen, and spare us too from hateful atheists who rush to comment sections online to inform us all how they have no use for God and why did God allow such a terrible thing and they are too smart to be bothered with God and all the other atheistic nonsense that we are forced to hear.
    I tell them save it and tell God when they meet him on the day they die. They can then inform Him that He is not there and they have no use for Him.

    What a nuisance it is that atheism is now chic. Now we must be bored with know-it-alls informing us they are too cool for God.
12. irishgirl says:

    5 March 2012 at 9:53 AM

    @ bookworm: You’re right, of course. I can’t argue with your logic.
    @ An American Mother: Oh, I’m happy to hear that you, your family and your ‘puppiez’ all got through the storms with just a lot of rain! Did your ‘Psycho Ruby’ go nuts with the rain and wind?

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