The Catholic University of America opened its 2024-25 academic year with a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit, invoking God’s blessings to bring about not only academic success but also the gifts of peace and reconciliation for all, said Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the annual liturgy’s main celebrant and homilist.
“We beseech the Holy Spirit not merely to guide us productively through future demanding examinations, the successful authoring of required class papers, and the effective understanding of new lessons. We are seeking His warmth and His presence in our lives each moment of every day in this new school year,” said the cardinal, who also serves as CUA’s chancellor.
The Aug. 29 Mass, with more than 80 CUA priests concelebrating, gathered more than 2,000 people, mostly students, faculty, administrators and staff of the Catholic University, filling the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception almost to capacity. Classes were cancelled from noon to 2 p.m.
“We invite the Holy Spirit to open our minds and to open our hearts. This year, in a special way, we beseech the Holy Spirit to allow us to work for justice and harmony within our nation, among diverse peoples, specifically on this particular campus of higher learning,” Cardinal Gregory said.
In his homily, the cardinal encouraged the CUA community to seek the Holy Spirit’s active presence in their lives and to recall the Apostles on Pentecost, while continually relying on God’s help.
“Like those first frightened disciples who were secluded in the Upper Room, we will not have the courage to proclaim the truth of the Gospel without the Spirit’s fire and the Spirit’s wisdom,” he said. “…For in truth, the grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to engulf our entire lives and simply to help us get through the rigors of academia.”
Cardinal Gregory was joined by principal concelebrants: Dominican Father Aquinas Guilbeau, the university chaplain and director of CUA’s Campus Ministry; Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, dean of the CUA School of Canon Law; Sulpician Father Gladstone H. Stevens, rector of Theological College; Father Carter Griffin, rector of the Saint John Paul II Seminary; and Father Antonio Lopez of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo, who serves as provost and associate professor of the theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. Members of the CUA faculty donned academic regalia for the Mass.
The choir led the congregation in hymns recalling the theme of the Mass to petition the Holy Spirit for inspiration and guidance including, “Come Down, O Love Divine,” “O Lord, in Thee is All My Trust.”
When the Holy Spirit is called upon, He aids the faithful in any circumstance or life challenge, Cardinal Gregory continued in his homily.
“…Whether in the classroom, on a Zoom lecture or in whatever situation we might find ourselves. The Holy Spirit invades our lives with His grace and with His power. From that first Pentecost outpouring, we know that he is not deterred by locked doors or even locked and frightened hearts,” he said.
In addition to humbly imploring the Holy Spirit’s aid in academic accomplishments, the cardinal urged the Mass-goers to also focus their petitions on bringing healing to the divisions in the United States of America.
“We pray this day for the mending of relationships across racial, ethnic and religious differences so that the world that our university students, administrators, and faculty will encounter tomorrow will be a place of justice and integrity for all people,” he said. “….. And so, we pray ‘Come, Holy Spirit.’ Amen.”
Following the homily, five new CUA faculty members of the university’s ecclesiastical schools – the School of Philosophy, the School of Canon Law and the School of Theology and Religious Studies – were conferred with canonical authorization to teach in the name of the Church.
At the conclusion of the Mass, Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, the university's president, reflected on CUA’s participation as a premier sponsor of this summer’s National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which drew and united 60,000 faithful from many cultures all across the nation. He described the event as a “truly awe-inspiring encounter with Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church.”
Today, at CUA’s traditional Mass of the Holy Spirit to begin the new school year, Dr. Kilpatrick said the same spirit of unity is present and should continue to be fostered on a profound level. “Let us support one another in following Him who is the Truth, and Who makes us one with Him and the Father, by submitting ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
