Bishop urges Albay folk to pray ‘Oratio Imperata’ for deliverance

MANILA, Philippines–The bishop of the Diocese of Legazpi City urged Catholics on Wednesday to recite in churches the “Oratio Imperata” (mandatory prayer) for deliverance from calamities as the Mayon Volcano vomited lava, sending thousands of residents fleeing their homes.

“We urge everyone to continue praying the Oratio Imperata that the Lord may protect us from all harm,” Bishop Joel Baylon said.

Mayon Volcano continued to send lava down its slopes and generated volcanic quakes in the last 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said yesterday.

The Oratio Imperata is an ordered prayer for a special intention besides the ones prescribed by ritual that the Pope or the bishop of a diocese may require to be said during Mass.

There are different kinds of Oratio Imperata, which can be said either for civil disturbances or deliverance from calamities or outbreaks of diseases.

Prayer for protection

The special prayer pleads for protection of people and possessions from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.

“The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference. Global warming is upon us. Typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions and other natural calamities occur in increasing number and intensity,” Baylon said.

The Oratio Imperata also asks God to inspire Filipinos to grow into responsible stewards of creation and generous neighbors to those in need.

Baylon also urged people residing within the danger zone around the volcano to heed the evacuation order issued by the government.

Evacuees’ condition

The Diocese of Legazpi’s Social Action Center has sent personnel to various evacuation centers in Albay province to check on the conditions affecting thousands of residents evacuated from the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone and 7-8-kilometer expanded danger zone around Mayon Volcano.

Fr. Rex Arjona, Social Action Center director, said in a post on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines website that a meeting with a number of parish priests would be held to evaluate the evacuees’ needs.

Food not a problem

He said food had never been a problem whenever the provincial government ordered an evacuation.

Volunteers open their homes to evacuees to decongest government-run evacuation centers, Arjona said.

They also find ways to help evacuees find livelihood opportunities after being uprooted from their farming villages, he said.

Baylon called on the parish priests to visit evacuation centers and celebrate Mass aside from attending to the people’s spiritual needs.

He said the local church would attend to the evacuees’ psychosocial requirements.