Litany to St. Prophet Jeremiah

It is the first and the only litany in honour of St. Prophet Jeremiah.

Whatever challenges you are facing in life – know that there is a powerful Saint Prophet Jeremiah, who eagerly awaits your call for help.

Jeremiah was set aside before birth to take a message to the nations, urging a change of heart and turning to the one true God. His message still applies.

It is clear from the outset that Jeremiah’s sensitive nature was going to impact very strongly on his life as a prophet. His calling as described at the beginning of the book shows a young man who is reluctant to take on the task he is being offered. “Lord I am only a youth” is the plea he makes but to no avail as the Lord insists that he proclaim a message of repentance, warning about the danger from the north i.e. the invading Babylonian armies. Even though his message is often a harsh one it is spoken in language of great feeling and compassion. He understands in a very heartfelt way that Israel’s true identity lies in restoring its covenant relationship with her God.

“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown; but my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and dug out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that hold no water(2:2, 12-13).

His religious sensitivity also gave him great political courage because he knew that he could not stand by and watch the decline that was happening all around him. So we have two reports of his famous temple sermon which he gave early in the reign of King Jehoiakim. On this occasion he challenged the popular and widely held view that Jerusalem would never be destroyed because of the presence there of the temple, God’s dwelling place on earth.