‘Pray that the Holy Spirit reveals the gift God wants revealed through you,’ seminary rector tells Sacred Heart faculty, students
DETROIT — A full chapel at Sacred Heart Major Seminary marked the beginning of the school's 105th academic year Sept. 3 as faculty, seminarians and lay students gathered for the Mass of the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Stephen Burr, rector and president of Sacred Heart, led the seminary community in thanking God for all the blessings bestowed upon the institution in the past, and all the graces, both known and unknown, the Lord will provide to the seminary’s teachers and students this upcoming year.
“It’s good to see the chapel full this morning with all of us to be able to gather together as we start once again,” Fr. Burr said during his homily. “This is a blessing for us that we need to unpack and unfold throughout the year. This is the task before us, and it requires work, it requires study, it requires hardship, and at times, will challenge our lives.”
The annual Mass serves as the start of the academic year for Sacred Heart Major Seminary’s 94 seminarians and more than 250 commuter students, including 22 men in formation for the permanent diaconate.
It also was the formal introduction of the seminary’s newest faculty member, Fr. John Kopson, who in addition to teaching will serve as spiritual director of undergraduate seminarians. Fr. Kopson made a profession of faith and oath of fidelity after Fr. Burr’s homily, officially welcoming him into the ranks of the seminary’s faculty.
During his homily, Fr. Burr reflected on the liturgy’s epistle from St. Paul to the Corinthians, where St. Paul described the gifts of the Holy Spirit that have been bestowed on the people of God.
The coming academic year is a time of discovery to see what gifts the Holy Spirit has given to each student and teacher at the seminary, Fr. Burr said.
“The gifts of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul details later in his letter to the Corinthians that we hear, often go unrealized,” Fr. Burr said. “It’s through the challenges, the good instruction, and the faithful proceeding in our shared mission that those gifts start to come to life and display something that God has always known about you. He wants those gifts for you and for His people that have always been in you all along and this place, to become realized.”
Fr. Burr asked the seminary community to look to Pope St. Gregory the Great, the sixth century pontiff whose feast was commemorated at Mass, as an example of someone who was called by God to discover and contribute his God-given gifts to the universal Church.
“Pope St. Gregory the Great was presented with difficult challenges throughout his priesthood,” Fr. Burr said. “There are different challenges being a monk than from being the pope. But those gifts were there (inside him), and God extracted them through His faithfulness and with him. God knows what is hidden in you; He knows what He wants for His Church, thus, for His people. Through the Holy Spirit, may we all see all our gifts come out all the richer throughout this year.”
As those gifts are revealed through preparing lectures, studying for exams and discerning the Holy Spirit, Fr. Burr said there are bound to be challenges. In those times, it’s important to remember Who is at the center of the seminary.
“The Holy Spirit carries on the work of Jesus Christ in the world, and here at this place, we are those that unite to His work,” Fr. Burr said. “The message of salvation is needed, and we are a community that shares in the victory over sin and death and wants to share it with others. In our daily movement here at Sacred Heart, each of us in our own way promotes Jesus Christ’s life in the world.”
For the Sacred Heart faculty, the challenge of discerning the will of the Holy Spirit and doing the work of Christ with a new cohort of seminarians and lay students is a mission worth accepting.
“It’s certainly exciting; over the summer, it seems quite quiet and not a lot going on,” Victor Salas, Ph.D., who will begin his 18th year in Sacred Heart Major Seminary’s Philosophy Department, told Detroit Catholic. “It’s always good to see new life and excited faces to begin the year; it’s always a happy time.”
For Astrid Caicedo, assistant dean of studies who has served at Sacred Heart for 16 years, the new academic year brings a sense of excitement as new seminarians visit her office, making sure they are taking the proper courses and on the correct path of study.
“I’m always excited to see the new seminarians who come in every year; they are always a little bit nervous, but as their advisor, I try to let them know it’s normal,” Caicedo said. “It’s the start of a new year; like when I was in school.”
Near the end of his homily, Fr. Burr noted how the demon Jesus cast out of a man in St. Luke's Gospel can very much be akin to the day-to-day distractions people face that stop them from hearing the word of God.
“Brothers and sisters, the distractions of the world are all around us,” Fr. Burr said. “Many of us feel like they are pressing into our lives from all over the place, distracting us from the good. But when we put aside those distractions, we are able to hear the word of God. Before Jesus cast out the demon, the people in the synagogue were struck by Jesus' authority. It is the unclean spirit who tries to distract from the teachings of the Lord, but instead, it gives evidence of Christ’s power by falling silent and being dismissed.”
Whenever those distractions hinder one’s ability to hear the will of God, Fr. Burr said, the Mass and the sacraments are the place where the Lord is waiting for each and every individual.
“We gather today to pray for the Holy Spirit to come down upon us once again,” Fr. Burr said. “To pray that the Holy Spirit enlightens us to use the gifts we’ve always had for the good of the kingdom, and to pray for oneself and one another.”
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