On Wednesday, 4 June 2025, each member of the Board of Directors of Catholic Citizens of Illinois consecrated himself or herself and the organization itself to the protection and patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Help under the supervision of Fr. Thomas Aschenbrener. We did so following Mass at St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church, a visually stunning and both architecturally and historically significant church located in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago.
Our Lord promised that the battle of a Christian will be not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities inimical to the Gospel. Those powers and principalities make no secret of their malign intent and unflagging resolve in our day. It was as a defense against the enemies of the Catholic faith and culture that our Board elected to undertake this consecration. We at CCI are resolved to entrust our work to the protection of the Virgin most mild and yet most powerful to Whom God the Father entrusted the care of His Son and the fate of His Church on earth.
We invoked our Lady’s help under her title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This universally beloved title of our Lady is linked to an icon of the same name whose origin is hidden in remote ages stretching beyond time and memory. This tender, profoundly human depiction of our Lady cradling the frightened infant Jesus in Her arms is one that has deeply touched the hearts and minds of Catholics of the East and West alike. Legend has it that this was the first icon of our Lady. It is said to have been written (icons are “written” rather than “painted” since they speak to the spiritual sight of the intellect and soul at least as directly as to the physical sight) by the Evangelist Luke himself. The legend is that St. Luke, recipient directly from Mary of stories of the early life of Jesus, created the original of this icon either on wood from a table built by Jesus or on the wood of the table used for the Last Supper.
Whatever its origin, the original came to the notice of history in the mid-15th century. It was at that time that the icon was removed from Crete to Rome and, following a series of miraculous interventions, placed in the custody of Augustinian monks at the church of St. Matthew the Apostle where it was venerated for three centuries. Under threat in the late 18th century from the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte, the icon was taken into hiding only to be recovered after several decades and placed under the permanent custody of the Redemptorist order of St. Alphonsus Liguori at his church in Rome. Many, many miracles of healing, protection and prophecy have been attributed to this icon, and it remains one of the most revered images and titles of our Lady.
While there are many icons depicting our Lady, the elements of this particular icon tell an especially moving story with tender images appealing on a deep level to its legions of devotees both old and young. Our Lady cradles the infant Jesus in her arms. The Mother and Child are flanked by the archangels Michael and Gabriel who display the instruments of Christ’s Passion. Seeing them over His shoulder, the Baby is alarmed. His shoulder until this time has known nothing but the loving caresses of His Mother but will eventually bear brutal scourging and the weight and splinters of the wood of the Cross. The reality of His humanity is expressed by the fear on His face and the urgency in His grasp of His Mother’s hand.
The most poignant part of this icon is at the very bottom. So precipitous has been the Child’s dash to the safety of His Mother’s arms that His right slipper has slipped from His little foot. This image, touching as it is on an immediate level, also brings to mind a time three decades hence when that Child will have grown to a Man Who may well have lost a sandal on the first, second or third time He stumbled and fell on the way to Golgotha.
The title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help speaks of the unending and steadfast compassion our Lady shows for all her children. Is it not to her “perpetual help” that we appeal when we implore Her to pray for us “now and at the hour of our death”?
We at Catholic Citizens of Illinois made this consecration at the beginning of June 2025. Within a week, we had already experienced the grace of our Lady’s intercession in the form of generous unexpected benefactions and success in the booking of new and interesting speakers for our upcoming luncheons.
