The Mass, which took place in the Great Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, is held annually at the opening of the school year. This year’s celebrant was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington and University chancellor, who asked God to invoke the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the University community to strengthen and guide students, faculty, and staff throughout the 2015-16 academic year.

In anticipation of Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to the Basilica and the University, Cardinal Wuerl encouraged students to prepare themselves spiritually by working to make a difference in their community.

Faculty members dressed in full academic regalia attend this year’s Mass of the Holy Spirit.

“Pope Francis challenges us to be ‘missionary disciples,’” he said. “We are not bystanders but rather participants in the great human endeavor to make of this world a better place.

“There is a sense in which each one of us has to make that call and anointing in the Holy Spirit our own,” Cardinal Wuerl said. “This is what Pope Francis asks us to do. We are challenged to take the love and mercy of God and share it with others.”

The cardinal encouraged students to use this upcoming academic year to continue spiritual formation and to ask God’s help in living their faith.

“Here at this university, in addition to preparing for a job and a means to a paycheck, we should also accept that we have a deeper calling — to do our part to help make the world just a little better,” he said. “We come together to ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit because we dare to believe we really can make a difference. We are capable of renewing the face of the earth, or at least trying — at least, doing our part with the help of God.”

Following the homily, Cardinal Wuerl conferred the Canonical Mission — the authorization to teach in the name of the Church — to William Daniel of the School of Canon Law.

In his remarks after Mass, University President John Garvey advised students to live the virtue of constancy in their academic, spiritual, and personal lives.

Members of the University community, including Jeanne Garvey, bring up the gifts during the Mass of the Holy Spirit.

“When the alarm goes off at 6 a.m., constancy is the virtue that gets you out of bed in time for Mass, because you are a Christian striving to grow in holiness,” President Garvey said. “It’s the virtue that keeps you in the library when your friends call it a night because you are a scholar determined to excel in your field. It is the virtue that gives you the conviction to opt-out of the hookup culture, because you are a child of God made for love far greater than that.”

Garvey encouraged students to follow Pope Francis’s example of constancy by taking small, concrete steps to follow Christ. Garvey encouraged students to participate in the Archdiocese of Washington’s #WalkwithFrancis initiative by making concrete commitments to pray, serve, and act. Garvey also pledged to participate in the initiative and said he would serve at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Brookland.

“If we call ourselves Christians, we must affirm that fact in our actions,” Garvey said. “This is constancy.”

Following Mass, all students who pledged to participate in the initiative received blue wristbands marked #WalkwithFrancis. In his closing remarks, Cardinal Wuerl noted that if everyone wears the bracelets during the papal Mass on Sept. 23, it will be a visual reminder of the University’s commitment to service and prayer.

President Garvey Pledges to Walk with Francis at Mass of the Holy Spirit from CUA Video on Vimeo.

Lucia Silecchia

I appreciate her reply because I know from happy experience that good, homemade ravioli can be a source of joy! Pope Francis used this recollection to encourage the youthful crowd to look to grandparents for guidance, wisdom and memories — and surprise.

While this charming anecdote was widely reported, most of Pope Francis’s remarks to the youth gathered that day focused more seriously on the Holy Father’s non-gastronomical secret to joy: seeking the peace of God in all things. In his discourse, Pope Francis spoke of the peace of God as the deepest source of his joy, in good times and in bad. He focused on three important aspects of the peace of God:

First, he taught that the deepest, most profound peace is one that only God can give. He asked youth to pray for the grace to discern the peace of God as distinct from other sources of temporary, fleeting peace that do not have divine origin. While these lesser sources of peace may look good and beautiful and bring a temporary sense of happiness, Pope Francis taught that it is only the genuine peace of God that lasts. Indeed, he warned that deceptive or “false” peace often abounds as a temptation, and he urged honest, prayerful discernment as the only way to find the true peace of God.

Second, and unexpectedly, he taught that sometimes the search for the peace of God leads to the cross. This is, indeed, a paradox, but a teaching of great comfort to all who suffer in so many ways. Certainly, the logic of the world would say that peace should be synonymous with freedom from suffering and grief. Yet, Pope Francis warned his audience that this is not always the case. Anyone who has ever done what is right but not easy, just but not popular, honest but not appreciated, loving but heartbreaking, or selfless but unnoticed will understand that there is deep peace in such sacrifices faithfully made. Pope Francis confirmed what they already know: Even in these times of trial and suffering, Christ can and does offer his peace — a genuine, lasting peace.

Third, Pope Francis promised that the peace of God bears the fruit of joy. Not a giddy happiness, or a superficial joie di vivre that depends on fragile emotion or fickle feelings to survive. But, instead, a gioia profonda — a deep, profound, and peaceful joy.

The great value of peace and a proper understanding of it should come as no surprise. During the celebration of Mass, consider how many times “peace” is invoked — “peace to people of good will” in the Gloria; “Be pleased to grant her [the Church] peace” and “advance the peace and salvation of all the world” in the eucharistic prayers; “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you” along with “The peace of the Lord be with you always” and “Let us offer each other the sign of peace” at the Sign of Peace; “grant us peace” during the Agnus Dei; and “go in peace” as we leave. Consider that peace is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Consider that the words of absolution beg not only for God’s pardon, but also for His peace. Consider how the angelic welcome at the birth of Christ heralded “peace to men on whom His favor rests.” Consider how many times during His life, Christ greeted His loved ones with “Peace be with you” or bid them farewell with “Go in peace.” Christ warned that the peace He promises is not “as the world gives” — not a superficial “feel good” peace that is easily won, but the only one that leads to deep joy.

Pope Francis’s words linking peace and joy struck a familiar note for me. Last month, I found a prayer card that moved me so much that I framed it and have it at my desk as a daily reminder about joy and peace. The card bears the words of a prayer from another Francis, Saint Francis De Sales:

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same Everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.   Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. Amen.

I liked this beautiful prayer because it is a call to peace, but not a promise of a blithe and carefree life. In that, it is a realistic, hope-filled call to peace — hard to find, perhaps, but priceless when found.

So “be at peace” … and if you can find good homemade ravioli, enjoy!

— Lucia Silecchia is a professor of law at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. She also is director of the International Human Rights Summer Law Program in Rome.

Melissa Moschella

Those who have seen the movie “The Vow” may be familiar with the Carpenters’ story, but the movie doesn’t do it justice (the book is much better). Ten weeks after their wedding and less than two years after they met, Kim and Krickitt were in a car accident, which left Krickitt in a coma for four months and damaged her memory. While much of Krickitt’s memory returned, the two years prior to the accident — the time during which she and Kim had met, fallen in love and gotten married — were permanently erased. Social workers suggested that Kim should get a divorce, a move that would relieve him of responsibility for hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Kim, however, would not even consider it: “I had made my vows to Krickitt and there was no way I would ever have abandoned her.” While remaining faithful to Krickitt in these circumstances was difficult for Kim, Krickitt’s challenge was even greater: “When I came round from the coma, I had no memory of this whirlwind romance. My parents told me that I was married to this man, and they wouldn’t lie to me, so I knew that I must have loved him deeply. But I had no feelings for him at all…” Still, she said, “I had made my vows in front of my family and friends, to stay together, for good and for bad, in sickness and in health.” When Krickitt was well enough to return to her New Mexico home with Kim, to a place she had no memory of, with a man she was just beginning to get to know, things were rocky, to say the least. Yet Krickitt knew that Kim was her husband and was committed to being faithful to him, as this moving journal entry reveals: “Dear Lord, I really want to get back with Kim and get our new life going again.  I am relying on you to restore all of my feelings for our relationship…. Please strengthen our marriage and make it even stronger than it was in the beginning.” At the advice of a counselor, Kim and Krickitt began going out on “dates” to build new memories together. And it helped. As Krickitt explains, “Slowly and steadily, we created those memories together, and everything else slowly started to fall into place. Slowly, over time, my love did grow for Kim deeply, but it was never a fluffy, gooey falling-in-love feeling again… My heart didn’t skip beats; I didn’t feel swept off my feet. I would love to have felt that, but it isn’t the truth — I made a choice to love him.’

Krickitt’s words — “I made a choice to love him” — are the secret to their success in rebuilding a happy marriage. And they are equally the secret to success in any marriage. Though less dramatic than what Kim and Krickitt went through, there are times in every marriage when the feeling of love is absent and what remains is simply the commitment, the deliberate choice, to love one’s spouse. The opposite approach to marriage, in which marriage is all about emotional satisfaction and lasts only as long as the feelings of love remain, is at the heart of the crisis of marriage in our culture. This approach, in turn, is based on another great lie of our culture: the false view that emotions are the deepest and truest indicators of our identity, and that true authenticity means following wherever our emotions lead. But emotions are often more likely to be a reflection of the amount of sleep we got last night than of the deepest core of our identity.  It’s through reasoned judgment and reflection, not emotion, that we discover the bedrock values and commitments that form the core of our moral identity, and authenticity means being true to those values and commitments regardless of where the winds of emotion blow. Likewise true freedom is most perfectly manifested in standing by our commitments. Fidelity is the perfection of freedom, not the antithesis of it, even though sometimes it may seem burdensome. There must have been moments in which Kim and Krickitt felt their commitment as a burden and wished that they were free of it, but in remaining faithful to their vows, they showed the transcendence of human freedom over the limits of time and space, the vicissitudes of outward circumstances and even the inner pull of emotions, and in doing so achieved a deep love and happiness that would otherwise have been impossible. It’s this achievement that makes their story so inspirational to all who hear it.

— Melissa Moschella is an assistant professor at The Catholic University of America School of Philosophy.

Lucia Silecchia

In 2013, our stay in Rome coincided with the great Feast of Corpus Christi. By Roman tradition, the Pope celebrates Mass at Rome’s cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, and then processes in a traditional Corpus Christi procession up Via Merulana, a street connecting St. John Lateran with another great basilica of Rome, St. Mary Major. Via Merulana was, literally, the street on which my students and I were living and I looked forward to the chance to see Pope Francis up close. Via Merulana is only about as wide as Michigan Avenue in D.C., and with a spot to stand right at the curb, I was sure that I would get to see Pope Francis much more closely than I ever had in the enormity of St. Peter’s Square.

As the procession got under way, the crowd fell into that blend of reverence and excitement that is unique to Rome. On this occasion, I was surprised that reverence prevailed. But recognizing the sacred events that were unfolding, bystanders like me and the thousands of clergy, religious, and lay people in the procession were more quietly, prayerfully reflective and contemplative than one would ever expect could be possible when so many gathered on a beautiful summer evening in Rome.

After the monstrance holding its sacred contents passed by, the most solemn part of the procession was over and I was certain that the Pope would pass next. And then …. the procession was over, and I had missed him. As it turned out, Pope Francis had walked behind the Blessed Sacrament with a small group of others, and in the crowd I hadn’t even noticed him. I had waited a couple of hours, given up dinnertime in Rome (something no one does lightly!), had a great vantage point … and I missed him.

My initial reaction was great disappointment. But, I had it wrong. I’m not sure that I would have waited so long, prayed with so many strangers, meditated about the great gift of the Eucharist, and shared the joy of pilgrims (both the curious and the devout) if I hadn’t been enticed to come by the possibility of seeing the Pope. If I truly believed what I say I believe, the chance to have seen the Pope should have paled in comparison to the excitement of having been so close to God in the Holy Eucharist — a closeness certainly to be found in Rome, but also to be found in any of our campus chapels, in my parish church, and in the smallest tabernacles in the smallest corner of the world. Yet, there was something about the promise of having a Pope present that drew a crowd together — a crowd of people who otherwise would not have joined together in such prayerful joy.

And maybe that same mystery lies at the heart of a papal visit. The excitement of a visit by the Holy Father and the chance to be with him at Mass here on campus will unite so many of us in prayer and celebration when we otherwise would not be together. Yet, my reminder to myself is that a visit from the Pope — as joyous and privileged as it is — is not the end in itself. Instead, as it was for me in Rome, it is an enticing invitation that beckons us back to God.

– Lucia Silecchia is a professor of law at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. She also is director of the International Human Rights Summer Law Program in Rome.

Greta Haussmann

The homily went on to express the intrinsic relationship between having a prayer life and living courageously. Pope Francis said, “The Church at prayer is a Church on her feet, strong, moving forward.” Pope Francis reminds us that we are given prayer not only for ourselves, but for the sake of the Church — without prayer, we as a Church have nothing. We are given prayer for protection, sustenance, company, and courage.

Pope Francis recounted Paul’s second letter to Timothy in which Paul exclaims, “But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the word fully” (2 Tm 4:17). In his homily, Pope Francis enhanced Paul’s exclamation by explaining that we receive strength from the Lord in prayer, and we are called to use this strength to partake in lives of faith and witness.

Furthermore, Pope Francis reminds us that the Church does not take people out of the world by calling them to lives of faith and witness. Rather, the Church gives its followers the necessary tools to prevail in this radical and over-opinionated world we live in. Encouraging us not to give into popular culture, he asks us to use these tools to live a countercultural lifestyle. Pope Francis tells us that because the Church has given us these tools we are then called to use them to give an authentic witness. Not only are we to use this authentic witness to draw others nearer to Christ, but we are called to use this witness to engage in meaningful conversation.

There is no doubt that it is often easier to leave the Church out of conversation. However, through his pontificate Pope Francis has demonstrated the importance of representing the Church adequately in matters of the world. By serving as such a phenomenal witness, Pope Francis is calling all people to have courage and to serve as witnesses of the Church.

The excitement surrounding the upcoming papal visit to the United States is the perfect opportunity for all Catholics to foster strong prayer lives in order to boldly proclaim the mission of the Church. Catholics should rely on prayer and faith to feel empowered to share their love of the Church with those they encounter. Let us use our excitement about the papal visit to bring people back to the Church through our courageous and authentic witness of the faith.

— Greta Haussmann is a junior at The Catholic University of America majoring in theology and religious studies, and media studies.