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Hurricane Irma has been on my mind a bit. Some think that it will do more damage in Florida than Andrew did in 1992. Irma’s path will go straight up Florida, it seems. My mother lives along the coast, and so Irma has been on my mind a bit.
BISHOPS OF FLORIDA: Stand on the steps of your respective cathedral churches, dressed in cope and miter and, surrounded by clergy, with crosiers in hand, pronounce from the traditional Rituale Romanum the Litany of Saints with the deprecatory prayers against storms. [below] Ring the cathedral bells. You all talk to each other: perhaps coordinate your timing.
I know that in every chancery of Florida, at least one person reads this blog, probably more. Readers, especially if you know your bishops personally, ask them to do this.
PRIESTS OF FLORIDA: Ditto. Also, if you have blessed bells, ring the bells of your churches against the storm. Bells are sacramentals. They are “baptized” and given names. They speak. In valleys of mountainous countries, as storms approached, people would ring the bells and pray the Litany.
PEOPLE OF FLORIDA: Get on your priests about this. The prayers of priests and bishop are powerful. Also, ask your holy angels to protect you and to help you make prudent decisions.
Fathers, Bishops…
Use the old Roman Ritual – it’s the real deal – and pray the Litany with the deprecatory prayers against storms. A procession could be done around the grounds of the cathedral or even indoors… even with a very few.
You don’t have to be directly in the line of the storm to pray for others!
PROCESSION FOR AVERTING TEMPEST [Better in Latin, but here is the English from Sancta Missa.]
The church bells are rung, and all who can assemble in church. Then the Litany of the Saints is said, in which the following invocation is said twice:
From lightning and tempest, Lord, deliver us.
At the end of the litany the following is added:
P: Our Father (the rest inaudibly until:)
P: And lead us not into temptation.
All: But deliver us from evil.
Psalm 147
P: Glorify the Lord, O Jerusalem; * praise your God, O Sion.
All: For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; * He has blessed your children within you.
P: He has granted peace in your borders; * with the best of wheat He fills you.
All: He sends forth His command to the earth; * swiftly runs His word!
P: He spreads snow like wool; * He strews frost like ashes.
All: He scatters His hail like crumbs; * the waters freeze before His cold.
P: He sends His word and melts them; * He lets His breeze blow and the waters run.
All: He has proclaimed His word to Jacob, * His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.
P: He has not done thus for any other nation; * He has not made known His ordinances to them.
All: Glory be to the Father.
P: As it was in the beginning.
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: Lord, show us your mercy.
All: And grant us your salvation.
P: Help us, O God, our Savior.
All: And deliver us, O Lord, for your name’s sake.
P: Let the enemy have no power over us.
All: And the son of iniquity be powerless to harm us.
P: May your mercy, Lord, remain with us always.
All: For we put our whole trust in you.
P: Save your faithful people, Lord.
All: Bless all who belong to you.
P: You withhold no good thing from those who walk in sincerity.
All: Lord of hosts, happy the men who trust in you.
P: Lord, heed my prayer.
All: And let my cry be heard by you.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
God, who are offended by our sins but appeased by our penances, may it please you to hear the entreaties of your people and to turn away the stripes that our transgressions rightly deserve.
We beg you, Lord, to repel the wicked spirits from your family, and to ward off the destructive tempestuous winds.
Almighty everlasting God, spare us in our anxiety and take pity on us in our abasement, so that after the lightning in the skies and the force of the storm have calmed, even the very threat of tempest may be an occasion for us to offer you praise.
Lord Jesus, who uttered a word of command to the raging tempest of wind and sea and there came a great calm; hear the prayers of your family, and grant that by this sign of the holy cross all ferocity of the elements may abate.
Almighty and merciful God, who heal us by your chastisement and save us by your forgiveness; grant that we, your suppliants, may be heartened and consoled by the tranquil weather we desire, and so may ever profit from your gracious favors; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
He sprinkles the surroundings with holy water.
Oh yes… Mom is staying in place for this one. Some of her old friends from a gated community where she used to live who can’t evacuate will come to her house, which is a real building and not one of those light trailer things. Friends and neighbors came to batten down the hatches, and she has done the necessary prep.
There is a promising conference in – I think – Kansas. The advertising is a little confusing, since they are talking about it on the site of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Littleton (Denver), CO where my friend Fr. James Jackson FSSP reigns supreme. However, the conference seems to be in Pittsburgh… KANSAS.
From a reader…
Under another post this comment appeared:
I don’t use the Second Eucharistic Prayer. Okay, okay, I don’t say the Novus Ordo all that often either. But when I do, I use the Roman Canon… always. Even when I was saying the Novus Ordo often, I did not use Number Two. The way I figured it, when I got to the very bottom of the Roman Canon, exhausted it, no longer found anything interesting or new in it, then I might move on.
