Mass of the Holy Spirit begins formation, academic year at Center for Pastoral Leadership

Members of the ministries housed at the Center for Pastoral Leadership in Wickliffe – Borromeo Seminary, Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, the lay ecclesial ministry formation program, the office for ongoing formation for clergy and the permanent diaconate formation program – began the new formation and academic year with the traditional Mass of the Holy Spirit.

Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost was the principal celebrant for the Aug. 29 liturgy.

The bishop shared the story of his recent participation in a Vatican-sponsored conference on the liturgical formation of God’s people at a Benedictine abbey that also housed a seminary near Portland, Oregon. There were 18 invited attendees from around the world: three cardinals, three archbishops, two bishops, two abbots, one representative from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy, the rector of the national seminary in Sri Lanka and six theologians – including three lay women from various Roman universities, American seminaries and a liturgical federation.

“You might be inclined to ask if I was nervous about preaching and presiding at that gathering … Nervous, anxious, tense, uneasy? Honestly, yes … But what’s happening right now – this is worse,” he quipped, scanning Mary, Mother of the Good Shepherd Chapel.

As important at the Oregon liturgy was, Bishop Woost said he thought this Mass was even more important, “Even more so for God’s people served by the Church and her ministers in Cleveland, Youngstown, Daegu and the Capuchin Province of St. Augustine … Even more so because these people – God’s people – have been given to us as a gift, as our responsibility to serve and to shepherd.”

At this annual liturgy, he said they gathered to give thanks and praise to God for having called us.

“None of us knows what graces or challenges this year of formation will bring. Yet, we can surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit here and now with complete confidence – and confident that God has called us to participate in formation here with this community of faith – confident that God will fulfill his promises to us,” Bishop Woost said.

He reminded the faithful that “Only with the Holy Spirit and only by surrendering ourselves completely to the Spirit’s consoling grace and challenging initiative can our transformation in Christ become a reality.”

In the Gospel, “Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’” Then the bishop asked how that made them feel, explaining that for himself, it was “humbled and joyful and honestly, nervous, anxious, tense and uneasy.” But in the midst of the disciples’ fears, he said they – and us – are not only to be at peace and to rejoice in the Lord’s risen presence, “but to receive and accept a great commission.” They – and we – are to be to the world what Jesus was to the world,” he added.

That one mission is to be to the world what Jesus was to the world: “joyful ministers of the Gospel, living embodiments of the Father’s love, compassionate shepherds, humble servants of God’s people even unto death … Alive in the spirit of god in order to attract, invite and make disciples conformed to Christ Jesus is our holy calling, our shared mission.”

After Mass, the group moved to Founders’ Hall for lunch and fellowship.