ORLANDO | As the nation awaited the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, many preparations were going on in the background. Essential to the historic event was Eucharistic Adoration and an image of Jesus. Enter the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The bishops called upon the sisters to provide three things: their large nine-foot monstrance for Eucharistic Adoration before the consecration, their Marian monstrance for private Adoration in the bishops’ chapel, and a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The call surprised Mother Adela Galindo, foundress of the order, while on pilgrimage in Medjugorje. “We had the privilege and the honor to be the ones chosen,” she said. “It’s been such a gift to our hearts.”

The sisters had the large monstrance made in Mexico a decade ago for their annual Great Vigil of the Two Hearts in Miami. As the events grew to an estimated 5,000 people, they needed a monstrance large enough to carry a consecrated host that all could see. The bishops also wanted all gathered in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, to be able to see Jesus’s True Presence.

Instead of angels surrounding the nine-inch host, symbols of the Marian community adorn the monstrance, including a pelican and the order’s logo.

“I wanted the symbols of a Marian charism, like being the womb where Jesus is,” said Mother Galindo. Celebrating the “two hearts” — that of Jesus and Mary — it seemed appropriate that the monstrance would also be a part of the national consecration on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Great Vigil of the Two Hearts.

The Marian monstrance used by the bishops in their personal chapel is the one the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary use for youth events “because it’s Our Lady revealing her Son from her womb.”

“I thought Our Lady was arranging everything, even the fact that the (national consecration) is going to be in the Marian Basilica,” Mother Galindo said. Quoting St. John Paul II, she added, “The kingdom of Our Lady’s heart can never be separated from the kingdom of the heart of her Son.”

The final piece was the statue of Jesus and His Sacred Heart. Mother Galindo called the Italian sculptors who helped her in the past. She thought to herself, “This is a historic moment. It must be big. It must be special.” She explained the need and purpose to the artists so they would understand how it would serve “the Kingdom of God” and they responded, “You’re not going to believe it. We just finished one today.”

“When I saw it, I saw His face and I saw a longing in His eyes, like He wanted to receive love, and He wanted to give love, and then the way that the hand is directed to his heart, I just knew that was the one,” she said. The sculpture arrived two weeks later. Mother Galindo placed it in the community’s chapel and prayed to the Lord, “This is going to be a moment where all the successors of the apostles in the United States, all of our bishops, our shepherds, are going to entrust us, entrust the nation, entrust all that it contains in the culture, in the families, in all the institutions, everything that makes up a nation is going to be entrusted to your Sacred Heart.” Then she touched the statue, hoping to communicate the love she knew the bishops wanted to communicate to the faithful.

She recalled how, in 1792, the first bishop of the United States entrusted the country to the Immaculate Conception. Then in 1846, the bishops proclaimed the Immaculate Conception the patroness of the United States. Just a few years later in 1854, Blessed Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception dogma. In 1959 during the Cold War, Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle of Washington consecrated the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “So, I am very happy because at the end, this country and all of us were consecrated to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,” she said.

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, June 18, 2026