New Student Perspective: Sending of the Holy Spirit
By Gregory Marco

I will never forget [the first Academic] Convocation at St. Mary’s University in 2005, my first full day on campus as real life college student. [A] Convocation is defined as a ceremonial assembly of members of a college or university, and that is an accurate description of Saint Mary’s Convocation. Since this is a Catholic university we also celebrate the Mass. The Convocation Mass invokes the Holy Spirit to come down and be a living presence on this campus: to bless our work, study, and play. It was at this Mass that God not only decided to send His Spirit upon this campus but also into my heart by inspiring me to take a serious look at college seminary.

The idea of the becoming a priest was brought to my attention as a young child by my mother and grandmother. Ever since I was three or four years old the word “priest” has been tossed about my mind. However, I did not think it was for me. As I got older I began to take my faith more seriously. The Mass, regular Confession, devotion to Mary and other saints took me from asking the question, “What do I want to do with my life?” to “What does God want me to do with my life?”

So there I sat, in [the Saint Mary's University's] Gostomski Field House, listening to Father Steffe's homily, about to embark on the biggest change in my life thus far, and I felt uneasy. This is not a good feeling to have! As the “Holy, Holy, Holy” came to an end, the whole congregation remained standing except for one group of pious looking gentlemen  in front of me, [the Immaculate Heart of Mary seminarians]. They had knelt down.

They knelt down because they knew that the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ would be in our midst! They had the simple courage to kneel and show reverence and love to the Lord of Lords. I however, did not. At that moment I knew what I had to do. After Mass I went back to my dorm and e-mailed the Director of Vocations of the Diocese of La Crosse. The uneasy feeling was gone.

Often on campus there are grumblings around Convocation time. People say it is the same thing every year, and that it is just not worth attending. I, on the other hand, will forever be one of the biggest advocates of Convocation at Saint Mary’s University.

Note: This article was written in the fall of 2006 when Greg Marco was a sophomore and a "new man" at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (IHMS).  Mr. Marco transferred into IHMS after his freshmen year at Saint Mary's University as a campus student.  The Convocation this article speaks about occurred while Mr. Marco was a campus student.