Florida Catholic | Our Lady of Lourdes Kids Talk Jesus With Bishop

Our Lady of Lourdes kids talk Jesus with bishop

Bishop Robert N. Lynch visits Our Lady of Lourdes School in Dunedin on his mission to visit all diocesan elementary schools with the “Living Eucharist” message.

JANET SHELTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 03.14.08

Bishop Robert N. Lynch watches Liturgical Dancers of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School dance to a musical prayer.
Courtesy Photo

DUNEDIN | He talked about sausage biscuits, Diet Coke and doughnuts, and the students of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School ate it up.

And when the St. Petersburg Diocese bishop turned the topic from fast food to spiritual food, they ate that up too.

That was the impression of several adults and kids from the Dunedin school after Bishop Robert N. Lynch celebrated Mass and met with students Feb. 28. The bishop was delivering his Living Eucharist message, a message he deems so important that he plans to visit every school in the diocese to present it.

Our Lady of Lourdes Principal Janice Metz said Bishop Lynch celebrated Mass and then went to the gym to talk to smaller groups of kids one at a time: grades 2-4, grades 5 and 6, and grades 7 and 8. He spent about two and a half hours at the school.

Two Our Lady of Lourdes students said Bishop Lynch was not at all as they expected.

“We prepared a lot and we had the choir and we’re (thinking this is) a really big deal,” said Tricia Sacks, an eighth-grade student. “I was kind of nervous. … When I met him, he was a funny, real laid-back guy.”

“I thought it was really cool because we always think of the bishop as being up there close to the pope,” said Arthur Donner, grade seven. “We were all laughing about how he goes to McDonald’s and gave it up (for Lent) … and went to Krispy Kreme instead.”

Third-grade teacher Kathleen Flanagan said she was amazed how the bishop could talk on one level to the upper grades and another to the younger ones, yet still make the message pertinent to the children’s lives.

“In the homily he summed up his message, Living Eucharist: gathered, nourished, sent,” she said. “He emphasized that we are fed and strengthened by the Eucharist and that we are sent to share that with others.”

There was no doubt the kids remembered the bishop’s Lenten sacrifice story about McDonald’s. But did he help students, teachers and parents think about and better appreciate what the Eucharist is for Catholics?

Flanagan said he did. She liked how he compared the tabernacle to the children themselves: Just as it is bathed in gold, the children are gold when they receive Christ at Mass because they become the tabernacle of Christ; Christ lives in them.

“He spoke to (the children) in a way that they understood,” Flanagan said. “We have been talking it about in class and they have mentioned little details he said in the Mass, so I know they were listening.”

Arthur said Bishop Lynch told his group that the 10 to 15 minutes after one has received the Eucharist is the perfect time to reflect and talk to Jesus one on one. The teen remembered that when he went to Sunday Mass a couple of days later. It made a difference.

“(Bishop Lynch said) when Jesus is inside you, you should use that time to pray and talk to Jesus,” he said. “Later, after I received (Communion), I kind of just sat there and prayed.”

Tricia said that Bishop Lynch discussed the very thing she has felt guilty about from time to time. Could bread and wine really become the body and blood of Christ? She said the bishop understood those thoughts, because there were times in his life when he had them, too.

“At first, I thought I was a bad Catholic,” she said. “He said it was a hard concept to grasp.”

“(Bishop Lynch) made me look at the Eucharist in a different way,” she said. “When we go up, we just shouldn’t say, ‘Lay it on me.’ It’s a gift. … You should be happy to receive it.”

“Your body is a temple,” she continued. “No matter how ugly and fat you think you are, you’re holding Jesus.”

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