‘God, give us rain’ – Romanian monastery prays for end to drought

• An 81-year-old woman participated in a liturgy praying for rain at a monastery in southern Romania.
• The Orthodox Church of Romania has requested that priests offer customary rain prayers.
• Romania’s weather agency issued temperature warnings for Sunday and added that torrential storms are expected.

Romania’s DRAGANESTI-VLASCA, July 24 (Reuters) – The 81-year-old Iulia Coleasa, who depends on her little plot of land for food, travelled 15 kilometres in sweltering heat on Sunday to a monastery in southern Romania to participate in a liturgy praying for rain.

This week, the country’s highs reached over 40 Celsius (104 F), and the drought has forced hundreds of Romanian villages to restrict water. In the nation that exports grains, crops are suffering greatly.

The Orthodox Church of Romania has requested that priests offer customary rain prayers. Culeasa participated in a prayer gathering of about 100 persons at the Pantocrator monastery in the Giurgiu region of southern Romania.

The weather, according to her, has never been this bad.

I haven’t experienced a drought like this before, she remarked.

“We have both children and animals. We work hard to plant tomatoes in the garden, but when they fail to grow, we are left without any food. God, send us rain and don’t leave us.”

More over 40% of Romania’s 20 million people reside in rural areas, where many rely on small-scale subsistence farming. The nation has significant infrastructure needs, especially for roads, running water, and irrigation.

Although it predicted that temperatures would remain excessively high, Romania’s weather agency issued temperature warnings for Sunday and added that there will be subsequent torrential storms. The Danube River has three times less water than typical.

Father Justinian, one of several priests who conducted the ceremony at the Pantocrator, stated, “The drought season is fairly severe, not just for this site but for the entire country.” The sunflower and maize crops adjacent were wilting as the monks prayed in a field of harvested wheat across from the monastery.

Scientists tie human activity to a global pattern of rising temperatures, which includes the sweltering heat. Pope Francis urged world leaders earlier this month to pay attention to the “chorus of screams of sorrow” coming from the Earth as a result of climate change, harsh weather, and biodiversity loss.

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