Academic year opens with Mass of Holy Spirit

We were blessed to open the first week of the 2023-24 academic year
on Thursday, August 24 with the traditional Mass of the Holy Spirit on the campus mall.
As a community of faith and prayer, it was a beautiful day to come together to worship outside.

Excerpt from the Homily Message by University President Fr. Malachi Van Tassell, T.O.R. 

Our theme for the academic year, as I hope by now we know, is a humble, generous attitude towards learning. And as part of that theme, we recognize that the gift of learning calls us not to self advancement, but rather to a generous gift of self  for the benefit of others. And so when we turn to the earlier question, what are you looking for? Well, hopefully we're looking for eternal life. Hopefully we're looking for friendship with God. Hopefully we're looking for holiness.

But as our theme also reminds us, we are searching for truth. We do that in academia. We here at St. Francis University, especially, we search for truth with a capital T. And we need others to encounter that truth.

Once we have found that friendship with God, hopefully we invite others to share in that friendship as well. So as we gather at this Mass today, at the beginning of the academic year, we're asking the Holy Spirit to guide us in our search for truth. We want to meet Jesus if we haven't already. If we have met him, let's deepen our relationship with him through our time here at St. Francis University. And then let's bring others to meet Jesus so that they can explain like the apostles did. We have found the Messiah. We have found one about which Moses wrote. And the Psalm can be spoken about us. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom. As we share that friendship with God, let's make this campus part of the most splendorous kingdom that God  has and lead others to adopt truth during this academic year. May the Lord bless us in this endeavor as the Holy Spirit guide us.