As a rural Diocese, we have celebrated the gift of creation and the care and working of the soil for many years.  We welcome back the formal celebration of this gift with all in our Diocese especially those who live it on a daily basis.  Whether on the farm or in the city, tilling a field, weeding a garden or tending to plant life in an apartment window—we celebrate, together, the gift of being stewards of the earth and bearers of fruit.

Would you like to host a future Rural Life Mass on your farm?  Let your Pastor know...we would love to work with you and your parish to organize the next one!

The 7th annual Rural Life Mass
was June 23, 2024 in Oakes, ND.

Bulletin Announcement

8th ANNUAL RURAL LIFE CELEBRATION: TBD

Rogation Days

The booklet “Ceremonies for the Observance of Rogation Days” (PDF) contains a brief explanation of Rogation Days, when they are celebrated, as well as prayers to pray. It contains the following note:

On the Great Plains of the United States of America, Rogation Days have long had an agricultural tone. Rural parishes would incorporate the blessing of fields. There would also be prayers for a bountiful harvest, protection from storms, and timely rains. But Rogation Days were never intended to be an exclusively rural practice. They were born from calamity and have always had a penitential character. They have always been a summons to personal conversion and to trusting confidence in God’s mercy and goodness. In an age of great technological advances, it is easy to forget human frailty and ignore one’s utter dependence upon God, and Rogation Days can be an effective antidote.

Feast of St. Isidore

St. Isidore Novena (PDF) (used with permission from Catholic Rural Life)

Appropriate dates to pray this Novena include:

• May 7-15 to end on the Feast of St. Isidore
• August 7-15 to end on the Feast of the Assumption (also known as the Feast of Our Lady of the Fields.) It is an immemorial custom in the Church to bless herbs and flowers that day.
• November: Eight days before Thanksgiving to end on Thanksgiving Day.

St. Isidore, the farmer, was born in Madrid, Spain in 1070.  He was prayerful and devoted to the Mass and the Holy Eucharist.  For the greater part of his life, Isidore was employed as a laborer on a farm outside the city. He was favored with celestial visions and, it is said, the angels sometimes helped him in his work in the fields.  Isidore married Maria de la Cabeza who was born in Guadalajara, Spain. Maria was responsible for household chores and rigorous farming activities.  She was often known to keep a pot of stew on the fireplace for the poor and hungry.  Isidore and Maria had one son who died in his youth.  Both Isidore and Maria worked hard and were very charitable to their neighbors and the poor. Through the centuries Isidore and Maria have been held up as an example of the vocational meaning of marriage, not only as an institution that addresses a need for affection but also as a vocation through which people can achieve holiness.  Isidore was canonized in 1622 and Maria was beatified in 1697.