The Mass of the Holy Spirit returns to LMU on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, at noon, with lunch to follow in Sculpture Garden. Click here to RSVP. All are welcome!
Take a stroll across LMU’s upper campus next Thursday around midday and you’re likely to detect a buzz around Sacred Heart Chapel. Your first hint that something is happening might come when you spy from a distance the dazzling array of colorful flags in the plaza representing the many nations which our global student population calls home. As you draw closer you might start to hear the intricate harmonies of the LMU Consort Singers drifting along the breeze. Approach nearer still and you will certainly feel the pulse of the beating drums of the LMU African Music Ensemble accompanying a procession of interfaith leaders, representatives of LMU’s colleges and schools, Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, and Jesuits as they enter the chapel. Step inside with them and you’ll be greeted by voices lifted in song and prayer: “Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter: all are welcome in this place!”
This is the Mass of the Holy Spirit, which makes its return to the bluff on Sept. 18 at noon.
The tradition of commencing a new school year by calling on the Holy Spirit to bless an academic community is a tradition as old as Jesuit education itself. This special liturgical celebration traces its origins to the first school founded by St. Ignatius in Messina, Sicily, in 1548.
But why invoke the Holy Spirit to begin the academic year? The prophet Isaiah speaks of the spirit of the Lord alighting upon God’s chosen ruler to bestow gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge, among others, and it is for these gifts that we as a community pray as we begin a new season of learning, of educating the whole person, and of seeking God in all things.
The Mass is also a callback to Pentecost, the moment when the followers of Jesus, uncertain how to proceed following Jesus’ departure from among them, experienced the spirit descending on them as tongues of flame and granting them the ability to understand the speech of the many peoples gathered in Jerusalem. Today you will find a Mass of the Holy Spirit kicking off the new year not just at LMU but also at Verbum Dei High Jesuit High School in Watts, Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and hundreds of Jesuit high schools, colleges, and universities in between. Despite differences of language, cultures, and even religions, we unite as a single Ignatian family committed to academic excellence in pursuit of the service of faith and the promotion of justice, all for the greater glory of God.
So put on something red (for the tongues of flame!) and join fellow Lions and other faculty, staff, and students at Jesuit universities around the world as we pray in the ancient words of the Church: Come, Holy Spirit!