Rogate is not only Prayer?

We may have heard it already, and it even taught us that St. Hannibal was a man of the Rogate (Prayer). The Catholic Church even recognized him for this. His life was dedicated to that command of Jesus from the Gospel… “Pray therefore to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers to his harvest.” It seems co-incidental in his life history that St. Hannibal was a disciple of the Rogate, which means ‘to pray,’ he discovered this call through his prayer when he was in the Church of St. John Malta while praying. God called him to be an apostle of prayer through his act of praying. Through his prayer, he discovered his vocation: to be the disciple of the Rogate in the Church and the world. This is not coincidental. This is a call, a vocation. This Rogate… or the command of Jesus to Pray, is found in Matthew’s gospel, which says that it directly comes from the compassionate heart of the Lord. He felt compassion for the crowd, that is why he told… Pray to the Lord of the harvest… Jesus’ compassion for the abandoned people moved him to say that we must pray for more workers in the church.

St. Hannibal owned the Rogate. He took it as his personal mission. He committed his life to it. Throughout, he lived this Rogate both through Praying and Charity. To make this prayer a concrete one, he dedicated his life as well for the abandoned children. He took care of them. Like the Lord Jesus, his heart for the poor also moved him to serve them.

As he received the command of PRAYER AND COMPASSION from Jesus Christ…. St. Hannibal responded by offering his entire life for PRAYER AND CHARITY. Prayer and Charity summarize the mission of our founder.

Rogate is prayer. For St. Hannibal, Prayer is the foundation of every charitable work we do… while Charity is the concrete expression of how genuine our prayers will be.

St. John, in his letter, says, “God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him” (1 Jn. 4:16). This is the picture of God, He is Love. His compassion is also love. To understand this meaning of love, we need to go back to God; we need to talk to God. Prayer is the way to communicate with God.

Jesus commanded us to Pray… He said, Pray, therefore…. Why is Jesus telling us to pray if we want to ask for good workers?

1. It is because Prayer is the only way for us to understand the whole message of the command entirely. Only in prayer can we fully understand the absolute need for God’s workers. Only in prayer can we comprehend why that command is so urgent, NOW!

God sees the need of the world or the vineyard. He sees what human eyes and the human mind cannot see. Jesus knows the needs of his people fully well. His plans are so different from our plans that there are times when we conflict with our God. This is why we need to pray to talk to God, consult him, verify with him, and ask for his guidance. Pray, therefore… for us to see clearly the needs of God’s people.

2. What can prayer do to us? Prayer can bring us straight to the heart of God. He listens to our concerns, and he responds through his love. “Why are you looking for me” Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”. If we want to meet and talk to God, we can find him in His house: the church, the Tabernacle, and the Eucharist. We stay in front of him in prayer to hear his voice. In prayer, God speaks to us, and we listen…

A prayerful person is a joyful person. God brings joy to the hearts of his believers. The voice of God we hear in prayer brings genuine joy and hope to our lives. This is the mark of a prayerful person; he is always joyful, for he hears only the voice of the Lord. No fear, no doubt, and no insecurities in him. God is his security.

PRAY THEREFORE… so that our joy may be complete… Pray so that we can remain in God… Pray so that we can understand the world and the needs of God’s people… Pray so that we can also be at peace within ourselves… Pray that our mission as Rogationists will never be a burden but becomes a gift from God.

Pope Francis has a reminder for us Religious through his writings… “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, #1). We must remember that the Rogate or the command ‘to Pray’ comes from the gospel. It is Jesus directly speaking to us. The Word of God brings joy to his people. The Rogate must also be a joy to us. “Anyone who has met the Lord and follows him faithfully is a messenger of the joy of the Spirit.” (Rejoice. By Pope Francis). “A joyless community is one that is dying out. […] A community rich in joy is a genuine gift from above to brothers and sisters who know how to ask for it and to accept one another, committing themselves to community life, trusting in the action of the Spirit” (Rejoice, Pope Francis) p. 45

After Prayer… St. Hannibal is also a man of charity… CHARITY is the concrete expression of prayer. A prayerful person is a charitable person. Prayer directs us to God, and God responds in love. A person who prays genuinely will always carry with him the Love God has given him.

In his Encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est (20), Pope Benedict XVI writes… “As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community”. Every person called, particularly every Rogationist and Daughters of Divine Zeal, is a fruit of prayer and charity. We are born out of the Rogate and sustained by the Charity that the Church is called to express daily.

Returning to St. Hannibal's life, his memorable experience of the Blind Man, Zancone… was his turning moment… When St. Hannibal asked Zancone, “Where do you live?” Zancone responded... how will you know if you will not come?... The blind man guided him to the Avignone Quarter, or the place of the poor. Such a moment of encounter was so ironic. The blind man opened the eyes of St. Hannibal to the reality surrounding him. The blind man became instrumental in St. Hannibal's seeing the needs of the poor in the Avignone. From the blind man, he learned that the right place for the Rogate to be preached is among the poor.

The miserable conditions of the people and the place did not discourage St. Hannibal. They became the source of his inspiration to work for the Rogate. Such is the man of God; a person with God in their heart always sees the good, even amid pain and misery.

Rogationists are Men of prayer and charity. They must see the good even amid pain and misery. They do charity because they understand it in their prayers. They serve the poor and God’s people because that is what the Church expects them to be.

Today, in our places of missions, there is little difference from the Avignone of St. Hannibal. We have many poor places and many poor people surrounding us. It only takes an initiative to ask this same question… “Where do you live?” where is your place? It takes only that simple encounter to open the doors for charity.

In his book, The Name of God is Mercy, Pope Francis says: “It only takes a little opening of our hearts to allow God’s grace to enter.” It takes only a moment of encounter to allow the Rogate to be sown to the hearts of people and communities. Look for that little openings. It could be the moment of grace or the hands of God guiding us to be charitable.

Our Charity is for the least: the poor, the marginalized, and the abandoned. They are the defenseless, the voiceless, and often the oppressed. We, the men of prayer, the Rogationists, become their voices, protectors, and hope. St. Hannibal, in his works for the poor, did the same. He gave hope and life to these people.

St. Hannibal embraced the Rogate throughout his life. He committed his life to it. Commitment is the highest expression of our following. Yes, prayer can direct us to the heart of God. But it is more meaningful to commit to God than simply to listen to his voice. “What are these few orphans who are saved, and these few poor who are evangelized, compared to the millions who are lost and who lie abandoned like a flock without a shepherd? I considered the limitation of my miserable forces and the tiny sphere of my ability and searched for a way out, and I found an ample immense one in those divine words of Jesus Christ or Lord: Rogate Ergo…” Rogate for St. Hannibal is not just a command but a mission for him. He embraced it as his mission.

Rogate, yes, it is a command to pray. But pray for what? For God to send workers for the harvest. It is a command to respond to the needs of the suffering and lost crowds. I am convinced that the reason for our entry into the seminary was because the Church has also prayed for us. Our parents have prayed for us, our parishes have prayed for us, and we are all answers to their prayers; that’s why we are all Rogationists here. We thank them for their prayers. And we, as answers to their prayers, have the very purpose of fulfilling the desire of that suffering heart of Christ to address the problematic situations of the crowds who are sheep without a shepherd. We are to be shepherds of the sheep. But how will it be? It is not to pray only, but to work for them…

Yes, we continue to be prayerful to fulfill the mission of continuously asking God to send workers to work for the suffering crowds. You know, for me, the focus of Rogate as prayer and only praying is an incomplete following of the gospel pericope of the Rogationists' charism. Reading that Rogate within the context of the sentiment of Christ is not to be taken simplistically as a selfish motivation where it remains and develops only within oneself. The pain and the sentiment of Christ are clearly directed to the crowds as sheep without shepherds. He was not in pain for himself nor for no reason at all. The very sense of that compassion is the crowd. This is why when we pray for vocations without considering the works for the crowds, it is an incomplete consideration of that prayer. Ora et Caritas, or prayer and charity, means prayer and praxis work hand in hand. Rogationists are workers of the Church, and our work expresses our Rogate or prayers.

Sometimes, I cannot avoid thinking that we Rogationists are like social reformers; we are workers at the margins. This is the so-called social dimension of the Rogate. We work for the liberation from poverty by letting people understand that there is God who loves and cares. Of course, we do everything for the Kingdom of God and the salvation of souls. We must accept that uplifting people from poverty has no shortcuts. Look at it: even a 3 Trillion government budget per year cannot solve poverty in the country. We do not have trillions. This work is challenging and sometimes so tiring. As our staffs in Davao used to tell me, “Father, you got more white hairs here in Davao.” I reply, “There is no escape because I am a Rogationist.” I have to continue loving even the unlovable. I have to embrace even the most neglected. And continue doing it even if it entails more white hair. No matter how helpless situations can be, with the Rogate in our hearts, we will always commit to participate in the mission of the Church. We will enjoy every moment God calls us to work for his Kingdom. I am grateful for this gift of the Rogate, where God allowed us to participate in this noble mission and continually allowed me to deepen my communion with him among the poor.

Fr. Francis Paul Escaño, RCJ, is currently assigned as the Superior of St. Anthony’s Boys Village in Davao City, Philippines, which caters to the formative and educative needs of the young whose families cannot afford much. He also serves as the Rector of the Rogationist Academy - Davao.