Welcome to the Recent Speeches Podcast presented by BYU Speaches, featuring inspiring new

devotionals and forums given each week on BYU campus. Be sure to check out our other podcasts

by searching BYU speeches wherever you get your podcasts or by visiting speeches.bYU.edu slash

podcasts.

This devotional address entitled Lessons in Giving Gifts of Light was given on September 16th of

2025 by C. Shane Reese, then president of BYU.

My dear students, the answer to darkness is light.

The answer to evil is Christ.

He is the ultimate gift of light.

And the goal for you and me this year, our 150th year as a university, is to grow, to celebrate,

to share his light.

Indeed, this is our sesquicentennial theme, celebrating gifts of

light. We can start by exercising greater faith in Him. While there is room to grow, we are making

progress. In recent years, BYU has seen a marked increase in the percentage of BYU students reporting their faith in Jesus

Christ and his living prophets and apostles has increased during their time on campus.

This growing collective witness of Jesus Christ is nothing short of powerful.

Think of it for a moment.

Brigham Young University is the single largest undergraduate student body on any brick-and-mortar

private campus in America. And we welcome all of you new freshmen. You are part of one of the

largest classes to ever enter this university. Collectively, we all join with more than 466,000 living alumni

across the globe, and our numbers grow even larger when we combine with all the graduates

of the church educational system. Alone, your light cannot be hid.

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