Miguel Morales was among the nearly 500 people who attended “Jesus in Zion at St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” a praise and worship gathering on the evening of Thursday, February 15. Also in attendance were about a dozen nuns from the Sisters of Life and the Missionaries of Charity, all of whom received a special blessing for their dedicated work.  

“Events like this bring people together, no matter what background or path in life they have,” Morales, 24, told The Good Newsroom after the special Lenten event. “It unifies everybody…I hadn’t been to church in a long time, and I’m starting to come back again.” He said his return to the Church has made him feel closer to the Lord and fellow Christ followers, adding he believes the Jesus in Zion event will help him in his faith journey back to the Church.         

Morales was with his girlfriend, Kembilly Mundo, 23, who said, “It was beautiful,” and noted that she too is seeking to grow more in the faith. Morales and Mundo are parishioners of St. Lucy’s Church in the Bronx.      

The two-hour gathering, conducted in English and Spanish, was sponsored by the Jesus in Zion Ministry, based at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx. It featured lively praise and worship music from the event choir; intercessory prayer teams; Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; Adoration; and a benediction. Priests were available for confessions. Toward the end of Adoration, many people were linked arm-in-arm in a show of faithful unity in Christ.      

“We need a revolution of vocation. He (Jesus) gave His life for his Bride. He threw it all on the line for Her!” Father Vincent Druding, ministry leader and parochial vicar at Holy Cross Church, said as he led the people in prayer and song in Charismatic Renewal style. “Who will throw your life on the line for Jesus Christ?” He noted the importance of Church faithful vocations, whether in the laity or marriage, the priesthood, or religious life.   

The priest added, “You’ve got to fight for your soul; you’ve got to fight for the Church. Who’s going to become a person who gives their life so that others can have life?” In urging the people with these words, he spoke of the significance of conversion and battling sin and evil by seeking to allow Christ to “break the chains,” to become the center of their lives, the Savior of their souls.

Father Druding spoke in both Spanish and English in his sermon. He blessed the nuns after Adoration, having asked them to come forward to the steps of the sanctuary, a gesture met with loud applause from the many faithful. “They’re laying their lives down for the One they love,” the priest noted.

Early on, Father Donald Haggerty, parochial vicar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, spoke to the faithful about the life of St. Angela of Foligno (Italy; 1248-1309), a widow and member of the Secular Franciscan Order who, like other medieval mystics, developed a devotion to the side wound of Jesus.   

Father Haggerty noted that St. Angela “was a mystic who had locutions and visions of our Lord.” He said that during one vision, she asked the Lord, “How can I love you more?” and the Lord’s answer was, “Look at my wounds.” Thus, the priest said, “If we want to love Him more, look at His wounds…But the great wound of Jesus on the cross may be invisible, the hidden wound in His heart, the internal wound that Jesus suffered in His heart.” 

The intercessory prayer teams prayed over many who lined up to receive individual healing prayers. 

In 2023, Holy Cross Church hosted a 43-day Jesus in Zion perpetual adoration during Lent, which featured evening praise and worship events. In the Old Testament, Zion is the chosen place where God desired to dwell, and where He would invite all the tribes and nations to go up to praise the God of Israel, event coordinators noted, adding that Christ is “the fullness of the revelation of the God of Israel and to Him belongs all praise and honor and glory forever and ever.”