Dressed in formal attire from wall to wall in the Benson Arena, the entire Jesuit community came together to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit. A 476-year-old tradition of Jesuit academic institutions, the Mass of the Holy Spirit is an occasion for students, faculty, and staff to invoke the Spirit’s guidance for the upcoming year and to dedicate the year’s challenges, victories, struggles, and accomplishments to God’s glory.

Serving as a fitting conclusion to the levity of Welcome Week, the Mass marked the end of the second full week of school for Blue Jays. Typically, the Mass of the Holy Spirit serves as the inaugural Mass of the school year, but this year the Feast of the Assumption fell on the first day of school, providing to a unique start to the academic year.

Also unique to this fall, the Mass’s location in the Benson arena called to mind the special renovation and restoration project currently underway in Jesuit’s iconic Chapel of the North American Martyrs.

Mass was celebrated by Jesuit’s president, Fr. John Brown, S.J., and concelebrated by Fr. Stephen Kramer, S.J. In his homily, Fr. Brown compared the Holy Spirit to the wind blowing in a ship’s sail, emphasizing that just as the wind propels a ship forward, his hopes for the Blue Jays is that they may find the Holy Spirit guiding and energizing them on their journey through this year.