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University Celebrates Mass of the Holy Spirit

Hundreds of students, staff, faculty and administrators packed St. Francis Xavier College Church Thursday, Aug. 25, to celebrate the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit. Classes were canceled for the duration of the service to ensure all could attend.

Mass of the Holy Spirit 2016

Xinse Zhang reads a petition in Mandarin. Students additionally read petitions in Indonesian, English, French, Spanish, Thai and Korean. Photo by Maria Tsikalas

Presided by Chris Collins, S.J., assistant to the president for mission and identity, the Mass began with a procession, an invocation of the Holy Spirit’s guidance over the new academic year and a blessing with holy water.

Steve Schoenig, S.J., associate professor of history, gave the homily. He explored the connection between the Mass of the Holy Spirit and the feast day of Louis IX, saint and king of France and patron of the city.

Like the stained glass in Louis’ Sainte-Chapelle chapel in Paris, he said, the Holy Spirit enables the light of Christ to shine through each person in a unique way, creating one unified body.

He reminded the crowd that everyone from the nursing to the math students can “live SLU’s mission” in their seeking of truth.

The Mass of the Holy Spirit is a tradition at Jesuit schools and universities throughout the world dating back to 1548, when the initial Mass was celebrated at the first Jesuit school in Messina, Sicily.