Blue Jays gathered for the Mass of the Holy Spirit, continuing a longstanding tradition of beginning the academic year by asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom, guidance, and strength. Fr. John Brown, S.J., celebrated the Mass alongside Fr. Penn Dawson, S.J., as the school community turned its attention toward the work and opportunities of the year ahead.

In his homily, Fr. Brown challenged the Blue Jays to recognize that there comes a point when discernment must lead to decision and decision must lead to commitment. Drawing upon Christ’s warning that “no one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God,” Fr. Brown reminded students that continually looking backward prevents them from giving themselves fully to what God has placed before them.

“There comes a moment when looking backwards has to stop,” Fr. Brown said. “There comes a moment when discernment has to become decision.”

That decision, however, is not meant to be reckless. Fr. Brown connected the challenge of commitment to the spirituality of St. Ignatius, who teaches that important decisions should first be rooted in prayer and careful discernment. Christians are called to examine their motives, seek counsel, and consider whether a choice leads toward God or away from Him. Eventually, though, discernment must give way to action. For the Blue Jays, that action begins with embracing the formation offered at Carrollton & Banks. Fr. Brown reminded students that choosing Jesuit means choosing something demanding: greater discipline, more study, increasing maturity, and a willingness to surrender some of the comforts of who they once were in order to become the men God is calling them to be.

The Holy Spirit provides the gifts necessary for that formation. Fr. Brown pointed students toward wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord, gifts that allow Christians not simply to accomplish difficult things but to see and respond to the world more fully as God does. From those gifts come lives marked by charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The Mass concluded with another prayer for that transformation, asking that “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit cleanse our hearts” and make them fruitful. It was a fitting prayer for a school year still in its opening weeks and for a student body being asked not simply to move forward, but to do so with purpose.

As Fr. Brown reminded the Blue Jays, there is too much goodness ahead to remain attached to the person one once was. The challenge now is to give themselves fully to the mission before them, trusting that the Holy Spirit will provide the gifts necessary to pursue it and that, through that work, their own hearts might become more like the Sacred Heart of Christ.