A big theme on my recent retreat was the fact that we Catholics are “consecrated”. We are chosen, set apart from the world, reserved for sacred things. The short hand for this concept became the tag line “you are a chalice.”
Father Dan Leary explained further “What happens if a chalice doesn’t know it’s a chalice? If it doesn’t know that it’s job is to hold the sacred blood of Christ?
A chalice might think it’s just another cup. It could let itself be fill up with beer or Coke.
How to you differentiate between a Chalice and a plastic cup. A plastic cup gets thrown into the trashcan when the party is done. A Chalice is reverently cleaned and placed in a safe place until the next Mass”
Somehow the image of a chalice letting itself get filled up with beer really struck my soul. I had this visual image of a silver chalice showing up at a frat party and getting stuck in some pretty profane activities.
That’s what happened to me in college & grad school. I swam in the pigsty.
And so my conversion isn’t so much, “oh once I was a drunken fornicator and now I’m a chaste Catholic.” I was always a chalice. I was always intended to hold the wedding wine of Cana. I was always Jon’s wife.
There was just this period of time from my first kiss age 12 until I figured out the details of Theology of the Body at age 28, when I had no idea that I was really a Chalice intended always for the Lord’s use.
Prayer: Dearest Mother, this Lent let all Catholic women remember that they are Holy Chalices which hold your dear Son’s Presence at all times. Remind us to “Do whatever He tells us.”
