From the Desk of Father Nathan

A Message from Father Nathan

“My dearest people who are all closer to my heart”

“The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.”  “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”.  This is the spiritual wisdom of St. John Maria Vianney, the patron saint of all priests whose feast we are going to celebrate on the 4th of August.

John Vianney was born on May 8, 1786, in the french town of Dardilly to Matthiew Vianney and Marie Bulize.  John became the parish priest, or Cure’, in Ars, France.  He had no gift for learning.  But he did have the gift of understanding what was in people’s hearts and minds.  That made him a wonderful confessor!  So people from all over France came to Ars and asked John to hear their confessions   Sometimes he spent as many as 16 hours a day listening to people confess their sins.  Through John, God’s mercy and love came to these people.  He became internationally notable for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish because of the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings.

Please allow me to share some of his spiritual wisdom about the priesthood “A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy.”

“The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.  When you see a priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“O, how great is the priest!… If he realized what he is, he would die.”

“If we have faith, we could see God hidden in the priest like a light behind glass, like wine mixed with water.

“Without the priest, the passion and death of our Lord would be of no avail.  It is the priest who continues the work of redemption here on earth…what use would be a house filled with gold, where there is no one to open its door?  The priest holds the key to the treasures of heaven:  it is he who opens the door: he is the steward of the good Lord; the administrator of His goods….Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest and they will end up worshipping beasts there.  The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.”

In conclusion, I wanted to end with saying of Pope Benedict XVI on the anniversary of the priesthood year:  “To the Most Holy Virgin I entrust the Year for Priests.  I ask her to awaken in the heart of every priest a generous and renewed commitment to the ideal of complete self-oblation to Christ and the Church which inspired the thoughts and actions of the saintly Cure’ de Ars.”  Let us pray for all priests that we know bearing in our mind that they are the ones who are bringing Christ into our lives  Please do pray for me that I may be ever faithful to the Lord and to His calling and be faithfull to our Holy Mother Catholic Church and above all to be an inspiring, committed holy shepherd to you all

With lots of love, ever at your service.

Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan