On Saturday, June 13, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Mass of Consecration to Jesus Through Mary will be celebrated at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx, a special liturgy for 21 teenage girls finishing 33 days of preparation.
Father John Higgins, pastor at Holy Cross, will serve as principal celebrant and homilist. The 10 a.m. Mass will be followed by a brunch in the Lower Church. On Friday, June 12, the parish will offer a vigil gathering. A consecration prayer will be part of the vigil and the Mass. The 33-day preparation timeline corresponds to the 33 years Jesus lived on Earth. The girls are ages 13 to 19.
Sacred preparation
The program is described as “A Journey of Faith, Purity, and Total Surrender.” The days of preparation included presentations titled “What Is Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary?” How Is Our Lady a Perfect Lady? and Stay Mentally Healthy with the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The preparation requirements included praying the Rosary every day (at least one decade) and watching daily, brief preparation videos. There were optional nightly Zooms to watch the videos and pray a decade of the Rosary together. There were also social gatherings that included baking cookies, making hot chocolate, teatime, and partaking in meals during two restaurant visits.
“This Mass will be the culmination of the preparation, and they will consecrate themselves to Jesus through Mary. It’s significant that it will be on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” Father Higgins told The Good Newsroom. “It will be the day that we honor her heart, her pure heart that serves as a model for these young ladies and the challenges they have in life…And we have a great group of moms who are helping to make the event very special for them.”
Daughters of Christ
Nicole Duarte, a consecration program coordinator, said, “I hope that all the truly extraordinary young women who completed this consecration will come to understand their role and identity as daughters of Christ.” She said she also hopes the girls will “crave the attention and approval” of the Lord, instead of that of “a world where they are taught to fight tooth and nail for the attention of society and people who don’t really know them.”
Duarte noted she hopes that after the special Mass, “the young women will conduct their lives with an understanding of the presence of the two within them (Jesus and Mary).”