“We ended last year with Father (Michael) Woost and we begin this year with (Auxiliary) Bishop Woost,” said Bishop Edward Malesic as he celebrated the opening Mass for the new formation year at the Center for Pastoral Leadership.
The liturgy was attended by students from Borromeo Seminary and Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology as well as those who are beginning or continuing their formation in the diocesan lay ecclesial ministry and permanent diaconate programs, their professors and formators.
Bishop Woost, Father Mark Latcovich, president/rector of Borromeo and Saint Mary seminaries, and the priests who teach and support students in the seminaries and formation programs concelebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit.
(See photo gallery above.)
“This is one of the most necessary and most dangerous things we can do,” Bishop Woost told those gathered for the liturgy.
He shared some history with the assembly, telling them in the fourth and fifth centuries, after Christianity had been accepted in the Holy Roman Empire, some felt that Christians had become too comfortable so they established small enclaves in the desert and lived as hermits. These became centers of spiritual renewal, the bishop explained, noting that people sought them out in order to learn from them.
He told the story of Abba Lot who went to Abba Joseph asking what more he could do to live a better, holier life. Abba Lot said he prayed, meditated, entered into silence, offered hospitality to the best of his ability and tried to keep his thoughts clean.
As Abba Joseph reached his hands toward heaven, “his fingers became like 10 flaming torches,” Bishop Woost said. Abba Joseph told Abba Lot that if he wished, “you can become all fire. That’s what we’re all about: Becoming fire.”
The bishop said the Holy Spirit moves us with a divine energy and we can set the world on fire. He recalled images of fire from the Bible, including Moses and the burning bush, the pillar of fire that led the Israelites from their 40-year sojourn to the Promised Land, the fire that consumed sacrifices, the chariot of fire, the transfiguration of Jesus and “the glory of the Resurrection that revealed the divine presence of a Savior who is alive once again.”
He said this divine fire of God has brought us together as a community of faith and brings us together at the beginning of a new journey this year.
“If you wish, you can become all fire,” he repeated. “That’s why what we do today is not only necessary but dangerous. We open ourselves to a spirit of God that we can’t control. We are moved in a direction that we can’t anticipate and are challenged to do things we never imagined we could as the Spirit is calling us to be and do those things for the mission of the Church.”
Bishop Woost said we are all chosen. At baptism, God’s presence is in our lives. At confirmation, we have his mission within us and when we receive Communion, his divine life is renewed within us.
“All we do in formation is oriented to becoming fire. Everything we do is intended to respond to that call to pray to become fire; to study to become fire; to serve to become fire and to live to become the fire of God. If you wish, as dangerous and necessary as it is, you can become all fire not for your sake but for the mission of the Church in response to God’s call,” the bishop said.
“We don’t know where the Spirit will lead us or what the Spirit will ask of us. But with the presence of the Spirit in our lives, if we wish, we can become all fire.”
Bishop Malesic said he didn’t want to call this the beginning of a new academic year. Instead, he called it a year of formation.
“There is so much hope for the diocese represented here as we gather together and respond to God’s call. You help to form each other,” he said.
“Grow in the gift of this place. It is a gift to the people of God,” the bishop added, saying many prayers to God have been offered there and many learn to serve the people of God there.
“This is a place of blessing, a place like no other.”