Yesterday — Sunday, September 14th, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross — we witnessed a ‘historic first’ for New York City. Two missionaries from the Shalom Community, Alanna Cristina Bezerra and Bárbara Tavares de Freitas, professed their perpetual vows of consecrated Celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Brooklyn and Queens, the Most Reverend Robert J. Brennan, and the San Damiano Mission Church, located right between Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, was absolutely packed. Hundreds of people were there: members of the Shalom Work and Family in NYC, friends from across the city, and even some religious guests.
Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro, Local Coordinator of the mission, spoke with Comshalom about how powerful it is to see this kind of consecration take place in one of the most secular cities on the planet, where many people have forgotten to look up to Heaven or even remember it’s there. He described it as a powerful and beautiful sign of ‘Heaven breaking into Earth”, with these two young women choosing to “lose their lives to gain everything” — to gain Christ.
After the rite of consecration, speaking on behalf of the Community, Fr. Cristiano told them:
“You’re becoming a living sign of a Heaven many people have stopped seeking and stopped hoping for. A sign of that higher life that awaits us in Heaven. You’re a glimpse of the Heavenly Jerusalem in our midst — the Bride adorned and prepared for the Lord. Your lives, freely offered, are tangible signs of the Kingdom of Heaven breaking through right in the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.
You are missionaries, and one day you may be sent to other lands, but it’s here — in this Galilee of the Nations — that you’ve given your lives totally and irrevocably to the Lord. It’s a sign that the love of Christ is worth more than anything, goes beyond everything, and is the love most worthy, most deserving of the name Love.”
The Holy Mass and Rite of Consecration for these “newly-wed Brides of Christ” were beautiful, filled with Shalom Community songs — some originally used in the dedication of the Church of the Risen One in Brazil and now translated into English.
Bishop Brennan, shepherd of the Diocese of Brooklyn, repeatedly thanked the Shalom Community for the bold, beautiful, and radically evangelical witness of Alanna and Bárbara. In his homily, he reminded everyone that we exalt the Holy Cross not because it is an end in itself, but because it is the passage to Resurrection. He emphasized that Alanna and Bárbara’s consecration is already bearing spiritual fruit for the Community and the Church and expressed the gratitude of the Church for the courage and self-gift of their offering.
Seeing this take place just five years into the Shalom mission’s presence in the Big Apple is nothing short of amazing. It’s a clear sign of the growing fruits of holiness and evangelization springing from the Shalom Charism in the city that never sleeps.
Shalom Mission in Brooklyn, New York
