From the Desk of Father Nathan

St Gabriel Catholic Church | Pompano Beach

A Message from Father Nathan

My dearest people who are all close to my heart!

Lots of love, blessings, and prayers to you all.

Mass is God’s Food for Our Soul, come and partake.

The Covid-19 situation hopefully is over for now.

I am glad and delighted to witness many coming back to the church in person, which is great! I am looking forward to witnessing all our people back at the church. I thought maybe it would be good to do a little catechism as my thankfulness.

We don’t do God a favor by showing up for church

We don’t do God a favor by showing up for church on Sunday and putting something into the plate. This does nothing for our God. It does not enhance His dignity or add anything to His power or glory. As our preface at the Mass so beautifully puts it –

“For, although you have no need of our praise, yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift since our praises add nothing to Your greatness but profit us for salvation, through Christ our Lord.”

What happens is this. God does us a favor every Sunday (and in parishes blessed with priests every day), by hosting a meal for us in which He offers Himself to us as food, in the most intimate act of communion with Himself imaginable. Mass is not about what we do for God, but what God does for us.

Pray for God to Work in our hearts

At this Sunday’s Mass, let’s pray more intensely for God to work in our hearts, forgive our sins, and transform the way we think and act so that we can become like the man of Psalm 15 who is suitable to dwell in God’s presence; or like Mary, who understood the “the one thing” necessary and was willing to say “No” to distractions and demands in order to soak in the presence of teaching of Jesus.

Recharge our Spiritual Energy

Secondly, by going to the church, we may do the recharging of our spiritual energy also by our personal and family prayers, the meditative reading of the Bible, and participating in the celebration of the Holy Mass.

Christian husbands and wives should develop “couple spirituality” and seek more opportunities to pray together and attend the Holy Mass together. As we heard last Sunday the Martha and Mary episode teaches us the need for balance between service and prayer and the need for spending time with the Lord, learning from Him, and recharging our spiritual batteries with the power of the Holy Spirit.

God bless you all.

With lots of love and blessing.

Ever wanting to be faithful to your service.

—Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan