Mass of Consecration of Virgin Mary Kelly

Published: July 6, 2024

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock on Saturday, July 6, 2024.

Bishop Taylor

In our Mass today we have an event that I am sure very few of us have ever experienced. This is certainly the first time for me. Today Mary Kelly becomes a consecrated virgin, a bride of Christ. And she does so today on the feast of St. Maria Goretti, who gave her life to preserve her virginity.

Mary commits herself to a life of perpetual virginity, to spending her life in works of penance and mercy, in apostolic activity and prayer according to her state in life as a laywoman.

Most of us are familiar with the vow of chastity that women in religious orders make as they also become brides of Christ, but we forget that there also are women who make this vow while remaining in the world, and that is what Mary Kelly does today.

You may recall that St. Paul declares that women who remain in the unmarried state are freer to devote themselves entirely “to the things of the Lord” and he alludes to the Church as the bride of Christ, saying “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

And in this the Church has for centuries held up the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin as a model for women who in our own day are called to offer their whole self to the Lord in their own perpetual virginity as his bride.

The Church’s requirements for formal consecration in the ceremony that we will observe today are as follows:

• That she has never married or lived in open violation of chastity.
• That by her prudence and universally approved character, she gives assurance of perseverance in a life of chastity dedicated to the service of the Church and of her neighbor.
• That she be admitted to this consecration by the bishop who is her ordinary. (That would be me!)

Consecrated virgins living in the world are not supported financially by the Church, but rather by the very fact that they live their vocation “in the world” they provide for their own upkeep. I am told that there are about 5,000 consecrated virgins worldwide and I know that consecrated virgins work in professions ranging from teachers and attorneys to even that of firefighter. Mary Kelly is a teacher.

By the rite of consecration, Mary will be set apart as a sacred person in consecrated life belonging to the order of virgins. She will be “elevated to the dignity of bride of Christ and joined by an indissoluble, mystical bond with the Son of God.”

And in this she commits herself to leading a life of prayer and service. The ceremony begins with Mary expressing her resolve to persevere in the holy state of virginity to the end of her days in the service of God and his Church, and thus to be a faithful witness of God’s love and a convincing sign of the kingdom of heaven.

After this we will call on all the saints in a litany of supplication, I will then say the long prayer of consecration and then finally Mary receives the insignia of consecration — in particular the ring that marks her as a bride of Christ.

Mary, you have renounced marriage for the sake of Christ. Your motherhood will be a motherhood of the spirit, as you do the will of your Father and work with others in a spirit of charity, so that a great family of children may be born, or reborn, to the life of grace.

Your joy and your crown, even here on earth, will be Christ, the son of the virgin and the bridegroom of virgins. He will call you to his presence and into his kingdom, where you will sing a new song as you follow the Lamb of God wherever he leads you.