Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of St. Leonard
Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, Poland
Beginning of the Tertio Millennio Seminar
Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit
July 7, 2025
Is 61:1-3.6.8-9, Ps 104, Jn 14:23-26
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following points were made in the homily:
- John Paul II celebrated his first three Masses here in this chapel, the day after his ordination. On Nov. 2, a priest can celebrate three Masses and he offered them, respectively, for his deceased mom, dad and brother Edmund.
- We are celebrating a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit to begin our Seminar. St. John Paul II had a great love for the Holy Spirit. He dedicated his third encyclical to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and he gave a year’s worth of catecheses in 1998, in preparation for the great Jubilee of 2000, on the Holy Spirit. I’d like to focus on six aspects of his teaching on the Holy Spirit:
- The Holy Spirit and prayer
- The Holy Spirit and our charisms, our manifestation of the Spirit for the common good
- The Holy Spirit and learning.
- The Holy Spirit and life according to the Spirit
- The Holy Spirit and the Church.
- The Holy Spirit and sharing the faith with tongues of fire.
- John Paul II taught about the Holy Spirit in each of those areas in his magisterium and lived by those same teachings.
- All of these teachings are summarized here at Mass, where the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray, where he reminds us of the great gifts of the talents of the sacraments, where he reminds us of what Jesus has taught us and leads us to all truth, where he strengthens us to live with him full-time, as he seeks to unite us as one body, and as he prepares us inwardly to leave Mass and go out with tongues of fire and give joint witness to us. The same Holy Spirit who will overshadow the priests and altar and change bread and wine into Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity, will overshadow each of us here to make us “one body, one spirit in Christ.” Let us ask St. John Paul II’s intercession to help us to correspond to the work of the Holy Spirit in us with the same docility he did.
The readings for this homily are below:
A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, planted by the LORD to show his glory. You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and boast of riches from them. For I, the LORD, love what is right, I hate robbery and injustice; I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them. Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; All who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed.
Responsorial Psalm: Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth
Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD be glad in these works!
May my theme be pleasing to God; I will rejoice in the LORD.
When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came.
When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. M
Alleluia, Alleluia
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth and remind you of all I told you.
Alleluia, Alleluia
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John
Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name — he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.
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