The Perpetual Adoration gathering at Holy Cross parish in the Bronx, “Jesus in Zion,” concluded on Day 43 after having started the evening of Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22. The event was a special, ongoing Lenten gathering. Day 43 was Wednesday, April 5, the eve of Holy Thursday.

“April 5 was the last day of the Perpetual Adoration and Praise because we reposed the Blessed Sacrament for the Triduum, but we had a Grand Finale of the Lenten and Triduum part of Jesus in Zion on Easter Sunday from 5:30 to 10 p.m.; it was praise and worship, testimonials, and a healing service,” Father Vincent Druding, parochial vicar at Holy Cross, told The Good Newsroom on April 11.               

“And it was a huge celebration of joy! We are continuing Jesus in Zion the next seven Fridays from Easter to Pentecost, from the 7:15 p.m. Mass until the next morning at the 8 a.m. Mass.”

Father Druding said the Easter Sunday evening gathering “was a big celebration of the graces received.” As for the 43-day Perpetual Adoration and Praise, he said, “It was an incredible avalanche of grace in the hearts and the souls of thousands of people. It was a real encounter with the presence and the power of the Eucharistic Lord.”          

Among the speakers on Day 43 was Immaculée Ilibagiza, a Rwandan-American author and speaker who in her writings has detailed how she survived during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and how her Catholic faith guided her through her ordeal and her eventual forgiveness and compassion toward her family’s killers. 

“I felt my Lord was telling me: what is in your power is how you choose to use your life moment by moment; to love or to hate, to be honest, or dishonest, to be good or be bad. But if you choose to love, if you choose good to use your life for goodness, I am with you,” Ms. Ilibagiza told the Holy Cross revival congregation that night.

“And that is truly how I started to live my life. I woke up from the tears, and started to go around the refugee camp to find somebody to love, to help; because I know that is all my Lord is asking me…I moved to America in 1998, and now I’m writing. I love to share my faith…I am so grateful that we are standing in front of our Lord. Hold on to your rosaries, pray the rosary; go to the Bible and read the Mysteries, and make sure you understand and hold on to Our Lady through the rosary.”

The praise and worship event was conducted in English and Spanish and featured live music. It included Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, praying of the Rosary, confessions, fellowship, The Stations of the Cross, Mass celebrations, healing services, inspirational talks, and lots of praise and worship music. Hundreds of people attended each night.                                                               

Among the Mass principal celebrants were Auxiliary Bishop Peter Byrne and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Espaillat. The focus of talks and homilies included the importance of conversion. Organizers said there were emotional, spiritual, and physical healings; and there were testimonials of dire personal struggles, suicidal thoughts, and eventual conversion. 

Speakers at the gathering included: Father John Higgins, pastor of Holy Cross, Father Ambiorix Rodriguez, pastor of St. Elizabeth parish in Manhattan, and Sister Mary Grace, SV, from the Sisters of Life. Music groups and lay preachers from various ministries participated. The gathering was live-streamed via the Holy Cross parish YouTube channel: Catholic Soundview.