HOUSTON - The consecration of a virgin is one of the oldest rites in the Catholic Church, in which a woman dedicates herself to the service of the Church. She remains in perpetual virginity, serving as a “mother” to her parish community and living and serving Christ in the world as a lay person.
Through this sacramental, the virgin, after renewing her resolve of perpetual virginity to God, is set aside as a sacred person who belongs only to Christ. The acting agent is God Himself, who accepts the virgin’s promise and spiritually fructifies it through the action of the Holy Spirit.
It is a rare and special calling. But on Jan. 11, Mackenzie Warrens walked down the aisle at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and joyfully made this unique promise. A Ph.D. student in experimental atomic physics at Rice University and a St. Vincent de Paul parishioner, she is the newest consecrated virgin in the Archdiocese. Amongst lit Christmas trees, winter flowers and roses, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo celebrated the Mass and performed the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Women Living in the World, as it is formally called.
As part of the rite, she received a veil, a ring — the only external sign of her consecration — and the Liturgy of the Hours, which she promised to pray daily with the Church. Surrounded by family and friends, including the Holy Family in a Nativity scene, her two best friends and a group of her fellow former perpetual pilgrims who walked the St. Juan Diego route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage last summer.
