On the evening of Sept. 5, as people made their way home from work, about 35 young people and adults processed through the city’s Little Village and Lawndale communities, following the Eucharist to pray for peace and to bless their neighborhoods.

The event was part of a special consecration to Mary at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Youth Center, 3600 W. Cermak Ave.

Blessed Sacrament Youth Center, located in the former Blessed Sacrament Church, was founded in 1987. What used to be the main church is now a gym with a regulation basketball court, and the lower level includes a kitchen, a computer lab and tables where students do homework and eat during the center’s after-school program.

Father Tom Boharic, pastor of Mother of the Americas Parish, located near the center at 2226 S. Whipple St., walked behind altar servers with candles and a processional cross carrying the Eucharist.

The young people and adults followed behind, singing and praying. The procession stopped at four locations, and young people read Scripture passages and offered intercessions in English. Boharic blessed the people and the neighborhood with the Eucharist at each stop.

The procession ended inside Blessed Sacrament Youth Center with adoration and praise singing. During this time, leaders led a consecration of the young people, the leaders and the center to Mary. 

The idea to consecrate everyone to Mary came after staff members found a statue of Mary discarded in a closet of the former church, said Oscar Lare, youth minister at the center. A member of the maintenance crew had rescued the statue from the trash when the church was closed.

Lare and center director Jesus de Leon decided to restore the statue and use the moment to give their work and the youth to Mary.

“We said, ‘Let’s bring her in,’” Lare said. “’Let’s consecrate all the work that we are doing with the youth. Let’s ask for her help for this place. Let’s bring her home, especially with what’s going on with the community.’”

The center also wanted to let the community and young people know that the center is there and is a safe place for them to gather.

 “A lot of people don’t know that the center is here, so now we are taking it to the streets, letting the neighborhood know, praying for our neighborhood and the surrounding area, cleaning the area spiritually and then coming back and ask our Blessed Mother for help,” he said.

The center’s new youth-led worship band, The Bleeding Thorns, had its debut during the event and are part of a new music program.

The idea to form a worship band originated with the young people, said Mari Cardenas, the center’s new music minister. They started singing during Masses at St. Bernardine Church in Forest Park two years ago.

“Once upon a time, we would make our kids go to church, but these kids work so well together,” Cardenas said. “They all have so many talents that they were the ones who decided to sing to the Lord and use their gifts and talents.”

The young musicians reached out to people they knew and the parish community asking for donations of instruments and equipment.

Not long after they started, they mentioned their band to Jesus De Leon, a founder of the youth center, and he invited them to play at one of the center’s Fired Up Fridays, monthly events where young people from parish youth ministries come for worship, prayer a meal and dancing.

Young people from various cultures make up the band, Cardenas said.

“Their main thing is bringing the youth back to the church, bringing them back home,” she said. “These kids, they feel it. They want it.”

“I think it’s really beautiful playing for Jesus and his mother,” said Diego Cardenas, 17. “I think it’s fantastic.”

Seeing young people leading the worship benefits their peers who are attending their events, Gaby Cardenas, 12, said.

“I think it inspires them to want to be involved with the church,” Gaby said. “When they see more youth like us getting involved in the band. I think that they want to be moved.”

Diego Cardenas hopes they are also inspired.

“I want people to see how much I love Jesus and how much I’m willing to do for him and how much he’s awakened my passion in music and hopefully they become inspired to join a church or join a youth ministry,” he said. “I put it all on Jesus. I hope I’m encouraging kids to think about Jesus more.”