Saint Agnes Prays…for Vocations
Re-Introducing the Elijah Cup, a Devotional Aid to Pray for Vocations
The Elijah Cup is a chalice, a drinking vessel worthy of being used to hold the wine that is transformed into the blood of Christ during the Mass. As a devotional aid, to support vocations to the religious life, we will use it as a focal point for prayer. In a nutshell it works like this: parishioners and families are encouraged to take the Elijah Cup into their home for one week and place it in a location of honor. They then gather for prayer daily with the cup in their midst while they pray for an increase in vocations. The power of this program is in its simplicity with two goals only: to pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and all religious life and to bring families together in prayer.
The call to a vocation is a gift from God that is nurtured in prayer. Thus, praying for vocations is the most powerful way to support them. When we pray for vocations, we lift up to our Father those men and women whom he is calling in a very special way and we pray for them to be listening when they are being called.
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The Saint Agnes Elijah Cup
The Saint Agnes Elijah Cup shown here was donated to the parish in November, 2005 by the Knights of Columbus St. Jude Council #9019. In early 2006 families from the parish began to take it home and began to use it as a focal point for family prayer intentions centered on vocations. In recent years there has been less focus on the program and with COVID-19 it suffered a complete shutdown. Now with the obligation to return to Sunday Mass in person, our parish is eager to re-embrace prayer in a new and revitalized way and re-introducing our Elijah Cup is one way we can do this.
We hope that those who take the Elijah Cup home for one week and participate in this remarkable ministry at Saint Agnes will continue to pray for vocations daily long after their week is over. Hopefully they will be inspired to do so by reading these pages.
Note that the Elijah Cup story does not end with just the prayers. It will be given to the next young man from Saint Agnes who answers the call of the priesthood. Thank you for your prayers for this young man and all others considering the consecrated life.