Prayers for rain

[idgiehkt]

I am so in touch with how my ancestors lived, lately. We are in a drought, the pond is almost dry. I put out the trash barrels to collect rain-water earlier, just a good ten minute rain will fill up one and fill the other too halfway up. It looked cloudy but now it is clear again. I am thinking about the senior citizens sitting in houses with no air conditioning, the animals that are confined and tethered who may be thirsty and hot and have no shelter from the sun. And I think about how this is an anomaly for us in the days of running water and indoor plumbing. The heat is affecting me badly this year, and I am not even in the deep south. I lived in South Carolina for a few years and it didn't affect me this bad. I have a heavy heart and just wanted to express it and post a prayer for rain somewhere.Here is a Bedouin Prayer:

Mother of Rain, rain upon us!

Moisten the cloak of our shepherd.

O Mother of Rain, rain upon us!
Quench our thirst with torrential rains.
O Mother of Rain, rain upon us!
Give us our portion from Allah's stores.
O Mother of Rain, rain upon us!
Cause torrents of water to fall over us.

O Mother of rain, rain upon us!
We are tormented by this thirst.
O Mother of rain, have mercy on us,
Dust clouds are making us blind.
O Mother of Rain, come to our aid,
The specter of death speeds toward us.
O Mother of Rain, O famished one,
The great cold is destroying us.

Place me upon my camel.
Hold back whoever would restrain me.
The tears of my eyes are used up.
Spent for those who have already gone.

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Prayer for Rain
O God, in Whom we live and move, and have our being, grant us rain, in due abundance, that, being sufficiently helped with temporal, we may the more confidently seek after eternal gifts. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayer Source: Novena in Honor of St. Isidore: Patron of Farmers by National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Catholic Rural Life Conference
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Also,

A Meteorologist's Prayer for Rain
Mary Jean McDermott

(As read Friday, March 16, 2001 on The Dave Ross Show)

Dear God, Creator of our Atmosphere,

Have mercy on your Northwest people, for we are sore afraid of summer drought.

Weaken your Aleutian Low so that rain storms may return to the Pacific Northwest. We do so need the moisture and the fisherfolk need calm seas.

Allow great upwelling of cold deep ocean waters off our coast and send strong on-shore winds to cover our lands with your marine stratus, thereby wetting us with your continuous showers.

Permit the warm pool of water in your equatorial Pacific to move west toward Indonesia, cooling the great ocean waters off Peru and calling La Niña, so that we may be doused by her dismal rains and shrouded in her heavy mountain snows.

Send your south-westerly winds around the Olympic Mountains so that they may converge near Everett, causing convection and bringing heavy precipitation to your Puget Sound Convergence Zone.

And, finally, Sweet God, convince drivers of S.U.V.s and other spewers of huge quantities of carbon to seriously reduce their emissions so that your beautiful atmosphere may cease her suffering. Please allow her to heal herself so that global temperatures do not rise and our region does not experience warm dry winters with low snowpack and subsequent severe summer droughts forever more.

For we know this winter is but a sign of what is to come if we do not heed your warnings and cease our destructive ways.

In the name of the Atmosphere, the Ocean and our Fragile Ecosystems,

Amen.

Courtesy: Mary Jean McDermott
Atmospheric Sciences Department: University of Washington

[idgiehkt]

1. we got our rain last night

a very long downpour that filled up all the rainbarrels so I can water my flowers with rainwater now. I am delighted. :)

[RevCheesehead]

2. So many areas are in near-draught conditions...

...and so many others are victims of mass flooding. We finally got a bit of rain last week, but we need much, much more; while parts of Wisconsin are recovering from floods.

My prayers are for all those in need, whether it be too much or too little rain.

Thanks for your prayers! They will come in handy. O8)