MONONA — “This vocation is to be a Bride of Christ, which is mind-blowing.”

Those were the words of Maria Habib as she reflected on her consecration as a virgin in the Diocese of Madison.

The rite was held on January 4 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Monona.

It was significant to Habib to have her consecration at that church, both because it was a Jubilee Year site and because it is a Marian Shrine — the Shrine of Our Lady of the Green Scapular.

“I have this deep Marian devotion, and she is the first consecrated virgin.”

Mary is the ultimate model for this calling, which Habib described as a calling to be “an icon of the Church, as Mary is. The Church is virgin, bride, and mother.”

Her journey

Habib’s road to this vocation was long but constantly guided by Providence.

“The Lord speaks to us in what He allows to happen to us . . .The Lord speaks to us in His Word, and that’s what lectio divina is all about . . . but then there’s another lectio devina, the lectio divina of your life.”

Understanding what the Lord is saying, however, isn’t usually instantaneous.

Habib mentioned that in her younger years, “I always had ideas about what the will of God for me was and what He wanted me to do, and I always thought that my idea was His idea.”

Habib was born in Pakistan and came to the U.S. in the early 2000s.

“When the choice was between staying in Pakistan and coming here, I prayed. I said, ‘Lord, I can’t figure this out. If You want me to go to the United States, get me the visa. Then I’ll just go. If You don’t want me to go, block the visa.’ I got the visa; okay, ‘yes, Lord.’ . . . To me, it was anguish, leaving my parents behind . . . but I knew I had to leave.”

Her difficulties did not end after she moved to the U.S.

“Beginning in 2011, the Lord took my life apart. Clean sweep, broke everything down. . . I ended up in Madison, and for the third time, I had to rebuild my life. And it’s always, it’s painful, and it’s hard, but it’s a gift. Because in the pain and suffering that you go through . . . the Lord can take away what is not of Him. Teach you wisdom . . . and bring you closer to where He wants you to be.”

That transition became a blessing to Habib.

“Madison was the greatest gift to me . . . the Catholics here actually have more fire in them.”

Here Habib heard for the first time — from then-pastor Fr. Andy McAlpin, OP, at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison — that she was called to be a saint.

“That is one of the things that got me on the path . . . nobody had told me I’m supposed to have a relationship with God. That’s the first time I heard it.”

Her struggles continued, however.

“I kept having job-related upheavals,” she said.

One year, she and her siblings visited her father in Pakistan for his birthday. They discovered he had developed serious medical issues and would not live much longer. Habib chose to remain and care for him.

“Everybody else had to go back. I didn’t. I had nothing to go back to . . . and that was the greatest gift of my life. Caring for dad in his last days.”

After her return, she found employment immediately, without issues. She also began to dive deeper into the spirituality of contemplative prayer and surrender to God’s will. “Not just doing God’s will, but allowing God to animate you . . . I was being drawn deeper and deeper into a relationship with God . . . I was feeling a weight, that I have to help others enter into this deeper relationship with God, of knowing the power, the joy, and the freedom of allowing God to work through you.”

It was this pull that first drew her to consider consecrated life.

Habib is grateful for the Lord’s guidance through the years.

“I received a late vocation, and the first thing I asked the Lord, when I was certain that I was being called, was ‘Lord, did I not hear You when I was 20?’ And no, I wasn’t called when I was 20. I was meant to go through all the experiences I went through.”

Rite of Consecration

For Habib, the Lord’s arrangement of her life extended with great care even to the date of her consecration and the guests.

Habib had been profoundly impacted by the Jubilee Year 2000 and hoped to be consecrated in a Jubilee Shrine and in the Jubilee Year 2025.

However, the universal Jubilee Year was going to end on January 6, 2026 and she was only officially eligible after December 20, 2025.

With Christmas in the middle of that timeframe, several priests she hoped to have present (including her brother, who was ministering in Dubai), and the bishop’s schedule to coordinate, that was a small window.

But, of course, not too small for Our Lord. Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison ended up suggesting January 4, which not only fit all her criteria, but was special for another reason.

Habib’s middle name, Arifa, is in honor of her older brother, who passed away before she was born. January 4 was his birthday.

“So many people did so much. It was the most beautiful Mass, it truly was.”

One of the profound moments of the consecration Mass is the prostration during the Litany of the Saints. “You are lying flat on the floor while they sing the Litany of the Saints . . . knowing that you are not worthy, and you can’t do anything without Him, and you are asking for the grace you need to live what He has called you to live, and you have this incredible help of the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant.”

After Bishop Hying prayed the prayer of consecration, Habib could sing the antiphon: “I am espoused to Him whom the angels serve; sun and moon stand in wonder at His glory.”

Habib counts this as a tremendous gift, and yet knows she still doesn’t fully understand what she’s been given.

“St. Augustine says that we enter into the mystery of a sacrament once we receive the sacrament. Outside of the reception of that sacrament, we don’t understand the mystery because we’re not in it. And that’s not just true for sacraments. It’s also true for any sacramental.”

Her specific mission and apostolate will continue to take shape as she discerns how to live her calling within the context of her work as pastoral assistant at Blessed Sacrament Parish, accompanied by the Church.

“Each of us is His instrument. This vocation is meant to serve the Kingdom of God.  I do not know exactly how the Lord will use my work at Blessed Sacrament for the building of His Kingdom. I do know that my work for the Kingdom will be within the framework of Schoenstatt spirituality.”