When it is said
A priest reads it near the end of a service of prayer sung in time of drought.
The service also reads from the letter of James: the farmer waits patiently for the precious fruit of the earth, until the rains come.
Outside a drought, the Church still prays for good weather in its regular services. The litany, the deacon’s chain of short petitions, asks for good weather, for plenty of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Seven prayers for a drought
The Russian Church’s book of services for country parishes has a whole service of prayer for a drought. It closes with seven prayers for rain, and this is the first. The book credits them to Kallistos, a patriarch of Constantinople. It also has a service for the opposite trouble: heavy rain that falls out of season.
Сельский требный сборник (the Rural Book of Needs), Moscow Patriarchate, 2016
Elijah and the rain
The prayer remembers the prophet Elijah. In the days of King Ahab, Israel turned to the idol Baal. Elijah told the king that no rain would fall except at his word, and for three and a half years none fell. Then, on Mount Carmel, the people turned back to God. Elijah prayed, and heavy rain came. The letter of James holds him up as a man like us whose prayer was heard.
1 Kings 17:1 and 18:39-45; James 5:17-18
The Scripture in it
And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees. “Go and look toward the sea,” he said to his servant. So the servant went and looked, and he said, “There is nothing there.” Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” On the seventh time the servant reported, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.” And Elijah replied, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain began to fall. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.
You sent abundant rain, O God; You refreshed Your weary inheritance.
All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Владыко Господи Боже наш, послушавый Илию Фесвитянина ревности ради к Тебе, и во время посылаемому земли дождю удержатися повелевый, таже паки молитвою его дождь плодоносный ей даровавый:
Сам, Владыко всех, от самаго Твоего благоутробия умоляем, дождь волен даждь наследию Твоему, и согрешенная нами презрев, дожди Твоя низпосли на требующая и просящая места:
возвесели лице земли, нищих ради людей Твоих, и младенцев, и скотов, и иных всех, зане к Тебе чают, еже дати пищу им во благо время.
Ты бо еси Бог наш, Бог еже миловати и спасати, и Тебе славу возсылаем, Отцу, и Сыну, и Святому Духу, ныне и присно, и во веки веков.
Аминь.