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.

Understanding the veneration of Saints

We believe that the intercession of saints is entirely dependent on Jesus’ role as the Mediator (1Timothy 2:5). Jesus is the One Way to the Father (John 14:6) Hence all prayers to the Father must go through Jesus.

This week, as we know, we are going to host the exposition of Relics at our parish. We are going to have 150 relics of different saints. Some of them are 2000 years old. They are extremely precious gifts to us.

As a Catholic, we do profess every week that….I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, and the Communion of Saints….Saints are, our parents, brothers, and sisters have set a mark of the heroic life and be an inspiration for the pilgrim church, the living church to church in heaven.

We, Catholics believe in life after death.

We, Catholics believe that our relationship with our fellow Christians does not end with death. We believe in continuing communion. The saints and angels in heaven stand before God and offer Him their prayers.

We believe in the Communion of Saints

– we can ask the saints to pray for us, just as we ask our friends and family to do so too. By doing this, the truth is that Catholics adore and worship only God alone. But we honor, love, and venerate saints including our Blessed Mother Mary as the most saintly and Spirit-filled.

Men and women seek their intercession, based on scriptural reasons. We believe that while enjoying the glory of heaven, the saints are still lovingly concerned with the struggles of Christ’s Body on earth. So, they constantly pray for our needs with love.

We believe that the intercession of saints is entirely dependent on Jesus’ role as the Mediator (1Timothy 2:5).

Jesus is the One Way to the Father (John 14:6)

Hence all prayers to the Father must go through Jesus. While we live together on earth as Christians, we are in communion, or unity, with one another. But that communion doesn’t end when one of us dies. We believe that the saints, the Christians in heaven remain in communion with those of us on earth. We call this the Communion of Saints, and it’s an article of faith in every Christian creed from the Apostle’s Creed on.

God bless you all.

With lots of love and blessing.

Ever at your service.

—Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan