LIMA — “Let your light shine.”
That was the simple message of Toledo Diocese Bishop Daniel Thomas as he celebrated Mass with students from Lima Central Catholic, St. Charles, St. Rose and St. Gerard schools, as well as staff administration and residents from throughout the community.
Thomas restated President George H.W. Bush’s quotation of a thousand points of light, saying that should be everyone’s goal.
“I would hope that in this school, there would be a thousand points of light allowing Christ to shine through you,” he said.
The Mass was held in the Msgr. E.C. Herr Gymnasium at LCC High School and was a part of Thomas’s biannual visit plans to each city in the diocese. LCC President Walter Klimaski said Thomas is interested in what the youth have to say.
“He wants to get a feel for what is going on in the high schools,” Klimaski said. He wants to know about their faith and their life. He wants to get a pulse on how the feel. He knows they are the future of the church.”
The juniors and seniors at LCC were able to spend time with the bishop following the Mass for a time of asking personal questions or answering questions from the bishop himself.
Thomas echoed recent statements by Pope Francis that we are not here to either condone or condemn others. He recalled his youth as an example.
“I remember I was scared of the goblins under the bed or the monsters in the closet,” Thomas said. “To comfort me, my mother put a nightlight of Mary in my bedroom. It was an ugly, tacky, weird-looking thing, but it was comforting to me as a child. Mother told me Mary only gets her light from her son.”
Thomas said while those goblins only exist in our minds, he said they represent real life.
“The goblins and the monsters are our sins,” Thomas said. “That’s what Jesus came to save us from. Today, I invite each of you to live in the light and ask if there is any darkness in me. Let your response be ‘Lord, let us be your light.’”
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