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Happening ... in the Local Church
 The
Benner family, left, passes a vocation cross to the Oliver family during
Mass at St. Augustine Parish, Rensselaer. (Photo provided) |
Crosses bring prayer commitment home since 2005.
By
Caroline B. Mooney
The Catholic Moment
RENSSELAER — Parishioners of St. Augustine Church are always praying for vocations to the religious life. About three years ago, the parish formed a vocation committee and its first major project was a vocation cross program.
“The mission of the committee is to continually keep people aware of the shortage of vocations in our parish and to lead people in prayer,” said committee member Bob Evans, who also helped organize a vocations fair in 2007.
“The vocation cross program has really been one of our committee’s best programs,” he said. “Every weekend at the end of Mass, Father (Jim Miller, pastor) passes the cross to a new family, so everyone at that Mass sees it.
“Everyone really just grabbed on to the idea. It’s really wonderful to see kids passing the cross across the aisle to other kids.”
“We have been circulating crosses at three Masses each weekend since 2005,” said Rita Nagel, program coordinator. “We also have a cross that is passed between classrooms in our parish school, so four crosses are constantly circulating. We bring the program to a close in the summer months, with so many people on vacation, but we start up again in the fall.”
The cross is to be displayed prominently in the home each week and the recipients are asked to pray for vocations each day.
“There have been a lot of neat comments made,” Nagel said. “In one family, a little girl cried because she was so happy to receive the cross at Mass — she thought they’d never get it. It’s wonderful to see the little ones — they are so proud to be up there. But it’s not just families with children who take the crosses home; we do have many individuals and couples in the program.”
“At the end of the week, whoever has the cross is asked to find someone else to pass it on to; that’s their responsibility,” Evans said. “If they have a problem finding someone for the next week, there are names in a book they received at the beginning of the week.”
Parishioner Jan Benner said her family has had the cross twice.
“You get a booklet that gives you instructions through the week while you have the cross,” she said. “There are different prayers you can say and things to talk about. At one point while we had it, my grown nephew was at our house and he went through it with us. It was fun to experience it with him. We had a discussion about what kind of person would make a good priest or nun. You do as much as you want to do while you have the cross. We had it sitting on top of our TV all week, where it was a reminder every time we walked by.”
The Benners passed the cross on to James and Marie Oliver, who have three children: Alexis, 4; Caleb, 2; and Trinity, 1.
“Alexis was very into the vocation cross,” Marie Oliver said. “She set up candles around it and had a little stool next to it. I would happen by and see her sitting there with the book open acting like she was reading the prayers during the week. It was neat to have it in our home; we really enjoyed it.”
“When we started, we bought a cross from a national program, then a parishioner who is a woodworker made a dozen crosses for us,” Evans said. “Another parishioner painted on the words, ‘Master of the harvest, hear our prayers.’ We gave one cross to a Christian brother in Chicago. He is passing the cross along with a log book through his order.”
Parishioners who want to participate can call Nagel or the parish office.
The program, based on a vocation cross program that began in California, is co-sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference.
Parishes interested in starting their own vocation cross program can call Nagel at 219-866-3631. St. Augustine’s will provide a cross and an information packet.