By Rachel Richmond
In a time of declining numbers of priests and religious, everyone is asked to pray for vocations. But it’s easy to forget. So a program is spreading through archdiocesan parishes, and indeed around the country, to instill a visible reminder in the homes of Catholic parishioners.
The Elijah Cup program involves a chalice being passed from home to home in parishes. The family that receives the cup is commissioned at Sunday Mass to pray for vocations every day throughout the week that they are the keepers of the cup. The next Sunday they pass it on to another family.
Mark and Angela Shoemaker and their three children kept the chalice they received at St. Alphonsus Rodriguez in Woodstock, Maryland on their kitchen table. Every night at dinner from May 25-31, Mary Ann, 13; Andrew, 11; and Ginger, 3; would take turns saying prayers for vocations.
“We just thought it would a great thing to have in our home, to show our children,” said Mrs. Shoemaker. The Shoemakers had prayed for vocations before but, “This week it’s like we’re really concentrating on it,” Mrs. Shoemaker said. “It’s a reminder since it’s out all the time.” The Shoemakers talk to their children about the religious life but less pointedly since they’re young.
“We don’t directly ask them, ‘do you feel like you’re being called,’ but we always pray for us to be open to whatever God wants,” Mrs. Shoemaker said.
The chalice also comes with a book of vocation prayers and blank pages for each family to add their own intentions and thoughts for the week.
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez has eight gold-plated chalices that are passed from family to family at the parish’s four Masses. St. John in Westminster keeps its chalice fixed in a box. The box has a cord attached with three knots tied into it, which symbolize the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience that religious take. Another parish, St. Philip Neri uses an “unbreakable” cup that is perfect for families with children.
Seminarian-intern Ricardo Bailey introduced the Elijah Cup to St. Alphonsus Rodriguez. St. John models its program on the one at St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park, Maryland and the principal of St. Philip Neri School got the word from her brother. Although the practice’s origins aren’t known, parishes in Atlanta, Georgia and Mobile, Alabama use it as a vocation tool.
The name “Elijah Cup” comes from 1 Kings 17. The prophet Elijah predicts a drought, which comes to pass. He tells the poor widow of Zarephath that if she makes him a small loaf of bread with the last of her flour and oil, her “jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.” In faith, the widow baked the bread and fed Elijah. For the next year, the widow, her son and Elijah ate bread made from the bowl of flour and jug of oil.
The idea of the Elijah Cup is that if people pray for vocations with the same faith of the widow, the cup of vocations will never run dry.
The purpose of passing the cup is threefold, explained Deacon Michael DeAscanis of St. John.
“Number one is, at the parish, when they see us giving out this chalice, they are reminded to pray for vocations,” he said. “The family that gets the chalice is specifically praying for vocations in the parish each night of the week so that every night of the week there’s someone praying for vocations. And thirdly the children and the parents are reminded of the need to discern what their vocation in life is or to foster the vocations of the children.”
St. Philip Neri took on Elijah Cup a few months ago and has found it to be a good tool for promoting vocations. “What I have seen is the reaction of people at church, which has been very positive,” said Judy Stafford, parish secretary. “We all pray for vocations or we’ll say prayers in church but this was like an action that could be taken, an outward sign besides the prayer for vocations.”
The commissioning is done at whichever Mass the family, senior or single person attends so that all parishioners get a chance to see Elijah Cup in action.
“We’ve had a few families where the boy goes up (to take the cup),” Mrs. Stafford said. “You can’t help but think, ‘well maybe these children are going to be our future priests and religious.’ You just don’t know.”
(This article courtesy of the The Catholic Review.)
