On Friday, May 1, Archbishop Gomez will lead the country in prayer to consecrate the United States to Mary, Mother of the Church. 

“This will give the Church the occasion to pray for Our Lady’s continued protection of the vulnerable, healing of the unwell, and wisdom for those who work to cure this terrible virus,” said Archbishop Gomez in a letter to the U.S. bishops. Each year, the Church seeks the special intercession of the Mother of God during the month of May. “This year, we seek the assistance of Our Lady all the more earnestly as we face together the effects of the global pandemic,” he continued.

Historically, the United States has been under the protection of Mary since 1792, when then Bishop John Carroll, the first Bishop of Baltimore, placed the United Stated under Mary's protection. In 1846, the 21 bishops attending the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore, s placed our country under the protection of Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, naming her as Mary, Patroness of the Americas. The Immaculate Conception is the dogma that Mary as Theotokos or “God bearer," gave birth to the Son of God and is thus understood to be unstained by original sin. Around this same era, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed to be an infallibly held dogma of the Church in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. In recent years, the dedication of the National shrine to the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. in 1959 gave the US Bishops an opportunity once again to consecrate our nation to Mary, the Blessed Mother. 

This act of consecration is meant to be a reminder to the faithful of the witness of Mary, Blessed Mother, to the Gospel and to plead for an effective intercession before Jesus, her Son, on behalf of those in need. This follows the consecration of the Bishops of Italy at the Shrine to Our Lady of Caravaggio in the northern region of Italy, near Bergamo, one of the hardest region by the Coronavirus in Italy. To date, 24 priests have lost their lives in service to their flock during the pandemic in the Diocese of Bergamo. A similar action of the bishops’ conference of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) who also consecrated their nations to Our Lady of Guadalupe on Easter Sunday. Canada will follow suit as well on Friday, May 1st to on consecrate their nation to Mary.

On Friday, May 1st at 12:00 noon PST, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will livestream The Renewal of the Consecration of the Unites States of America to the Blessed Mother and St. Monica will celebrate together via livestream, available on the St. Monica Livestream page or via Facebook Live - we will follow the Consecration with Daily Mass. The intention of the celebration is to lift up in prayer the our many parishioners who have lost employment, whose employment is in peril, our small and large business owners whose livelihoods are suffering due to the pandemic. 

Our community will transfer the First Friday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with Daily Mass and one hour exposition to next Friday, May 8, in order to encourage our faithful to tune into the Archdiocese of Los Angeles livestream of the Consecration.

References:

Catholic News Agency: US & Canada to be Consecrated to Mary Mother of the Church

USCCB: U.S. and Canadian Catholic Bishops to Seek Intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, for Strength in Struggle Against COVID-19

Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Consecration