After being canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Mass of the Holy Spirit was celebrated on Sept. 3 in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The liturgy is a tradition at the beginning of the school year for the Saint Ignatius High School community. Also following tradition, members of the freshman class walked from the school to the cathedral.
Auxiliary Bishop emeritus Roger Gries was the celebrant with Jesuits Father Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States and a former Saint Ignatius High School president, Father Raymond Guiao, current Saint Ignatius president, and Father Dan Reim, vice superior of the local Jesuit community and a member of the Saint Ignatius campus ministry, as concelebrants. Father Kesicki was the homilist.
He acknowledged that Bishop Gries was a Benedictine monk and noted that in addition to being the senior-most member of the clergy at the liturgy, the Benedictine order is older than the Jesuits. In fact, the Jesuit community is celebrating the 500thanniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius, founder of the order, this year.
Father Kesicki recalled taking a trip to London one year with beloved Saint Ignatius English teacher Tom Pasko, who was thrilled at the chance to visit poets’ corner at Westminster Abbey. He slightly moved one statue in order to get a better look at something before they walked off to see something else. Another tourist happened by the statue and suddenly, an alarm sounded. Pasko, feeling guilty, went to the man apologizing and explaining he had moved the statue.
The man told him stoically, “I bore your shame,” Father Kesicki said. “That is the power of a good teacher,” he said, noting that Pasko could have slipped away, but he did the right thing. He compared Pasko’s actions to those of Jesus, who gives us direction and meaning, who knows us each by name and who knows what we will become.
“I rely on Jesus. I always turn to Jesus, the teacher, and look to him, the original man for others, who brought us salvation and life,” he said, alluding to the school’s “Men for Others” slogan.
Also at the Mass, 52 new members of the faculty and staff at Saint Ignatius and Welsh Academy, established by Saint Ignatius in 2019 to serve boy in grades 6-8 from families of modest economic means, were commissioned by Bishop Gries, who asked if they were ready to accept their ministry of education.
To view an archived copy of the liturgy, which was livestreamed, click here.