Seeing how God designed the whole world leaves us astounded by His ingenuity. The continuous and sustaining system of the rain cycle proves this point. The water vapor that evaporates from the ground and transpires from plants accumulates and becomes clouds. Once it becomes heavy enough, water pours back to the ground and to the plants in the form of rain. Then the cycle goes on and on. This has sustained the world from eons ago and continues to affect our lives today. Rain is important in providing fresh water to drink, watering the field for food and other crops, and in maintaining the climate in different areas.
We make our prayer for the gift of rain. Rain which will quench the thirst of our dry land. Rain which will water our crops to sustain them. Rain which will provide drinking water to animals and to humans alike. Let us whisper to God this prayer for an end to the drought. We beg God to let the rain fall before us in His suitable time. We hope, when that time comes, to enjoy the blessing that comes with it, to experience His mercy to the needy, and to thank Him for His unfailing providence to his faithful ones.
Prayer for refreshing rain
Dear Father, Creator of the earth,
In my dire need, I bring to you my petition for the rain to come down on us. Open the floodgates of Your heavenly abode to pour down Your mercy and love for Your faithful ones. Let it quench the thirsty soil and be filled with nutrients. Shower upon Your creation: the plants, animals, and us, the refreshing waters of life. Your blessing of rain is what we need to fulfill a multitude of needs: to water our crops, to provide us with fresh water for us and for our animals to drink and to provide comfort from the searing temperatures of the day. Kindly allow rain to pour over and fill our anxious hearts.
As stewards of Your magnificent creation, we might have been careless in nurturing and in propagating it. The unquenchable desire to amass and hoard the fruits of creation led to the abuse and exhaustion of the soil, the extinction of animals, and the endangerment of human life. In between the interconnectedness of everything, we direct all of them toward our selfish needs. Thus, this makes us suffer the consequences of diminishing yields from harvests, reducing biodiversity, and deteriorating the quality of human life. We reap the fruits of our sins against creation and against You, the creator of all. May You look upon us once again with mercy and hear our prayer.
I also offer this special prayer for rain to those places which are experiencing drought and torrid weather. Let rain draw upon them in Your time through Your generous providence. May the rain that You provide for them nourish their dried-up soil and ease them from the discomfort of a hot day.
May my prayers for rainfall for us and for those in need ascend before You within Your heavenly abode,
Amen.
Short prayer for rain
God, our heavenly creator, please let the rain pour over our parched lands. Let Your refreshing rain fill our emptiness, quench our thirst, and allow us to experience Your loving mercy. Amen.
The Word of God
Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to everyone.
Zechariah 10:1 NRSVUE
Prayer to Saint Heribert of Cologne for rain
O gracious Saint Heribert of Cologne, I come before you to offer my special prayer for rain to fall on our land. I seek your powerful intercession to provide rain upon our dry and malnourished earth. The rain that I hope for will nourish our dry soil, water our withered plants, and provide refreshment for the thirsty animals. This rain will also ease our discomfort in this time of drought. May our prayers to you allow God to let the rain pour over us.
Your formidable faith and unyielding care for the poor made you favorable in the eyes of God. The numerous sick and dying who you tended with great care and affection led you to become a shining example of following Jesus’ commandments. It was known that in your lifetime, during an extreme drought, you led a procession within the busy streets of the city. As you knelt down at the altar to pray, torrential rain came down and saved the endangered harvests and the suffering faithful. Make my prayers also be heard before God through your miraculous intercession.
Let my prayer for drought to cease also reach cities experiencing severe drought and scorching heat. Allow clouds to form and break the dry spell which torments their land. May the withered leaves and flowers bloom once again with life by the rain that I am praying for. May we experience rain once more so that we may continue to be a living witness to the efficacy of our prayers to you, o Saint Heribert of Cologne, and of our faith in God, the Creator of all things.
Saint Heribert of Cologne, our intercessor against drought, pray for us.
Amen.
Further reflection
It can be seen throughout the stories in the bible that drought appears to be a punishment for the community. Heavily relying on harvests and animals for food, drought can bring a great nation into ruin. Thus for the people of Israel, it is the result of society’s sin against God. It is brought about by their social sin. On the other hand, extreme rain can also be punishing to a nation. Taking, for example, the famous experience of Noah on the great flood (Genesis 6:9-9:17), which cleansed all the wicked from the face of the earth. This shows how powerful our Father in heaven is and, in his great wisdom, has spared a good man, Noah, with his family, in repopulating and cultivating the land.
The intention that we ask before God and Saint Heribert of Cologne is to allow rain to water our dry land. We have prayed for a kind of rain that will refresh our exhausted soil and water our withered plants. This rain will also provide drink for roaming animals. And this rain will also ease the discomfort from the heat of the day.
May the rain that we pray for, shower every plant and crop, trickle upon the heads of animals, and refresh our tired bodies. In our effort to safeguard the whole of creation, we as stewards should observe proper care that the rain, which we hope for, be a blessing. Any abuse or misuse of creation may lead to the further destruction of our land. Let’s keep our steadfast faith in God. Through His providential hand, may we be spared from all natural calamities.
