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CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

Pastor's Corner

 

Welcome to the Church of the Nativity family. Since its dedication on October 21, 1989,  our community has faithfully committed to our mission: We are a praying, learning and caring community fulfilling the mission God gives us in baptism by our worship in faith, by our witness in hope, and by our service in love. We invite you to journey with our community in Christ, thus will be said, “Day by Day the Lord added to their number” (Acts 2:47). Our Nativity School is led by faith-filled, loving professional staff who provide not only excellence in academics for our children so that they may excel in life, but help cultivate and form our children to come to know, love and serve God through the gifts God has blessed each of them. We are a Dynamic Parish and look forward to walking with you and your family to pray, worship, and give thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us. In joy and in sorrow, we will live out together the witness of faith, hope and charity. At the Church of the Nativity, there will always be room “in the inn” (Luke 2,7).

In the past Sundays we have reflected on significant elements in the life of the disciples of Jesus.  Foremost in these elements were the call of Jesus that was responded immediately by his first disciples, who listened to him and came to know him, eventually leaving everything they had to radically change themselves in following him.  Last Sunday’s gospel from Mark made us aware that this Master, whom the first disciples followed, taught with authority, “what is this A new teaching with authority?” (Mark 1, 27) This made the disciples recognize the intrinsic connection between Jesus’ teaching and his power to dispel evil.  His teaching is new not only because it never has been heard before, but because it had power to accomplish what it communicates.
The gospel from Mark this Sunday concretizes more clearly this power with the episode of Jesus healing the mother-in-law of Peter.  In today’s gospel reading we can have a brief glimpse of how Jesus spent is day.  These activities may be summarized in these: teaching, healing, and praying.  We mentioned that Jesus taught with authority in the past week, now we see how he healed, which often involved in his physical contact with the patient, a 
personal and consoling touch.  Mark describes it very clearly when he mentioned that “he grasped her hand and helped her up.”  Biblical exegetes explain that the woman’s recovery from illness is a foreshadowing of the resurrection on the last day.  Furthermore, the immediate reaction of the healed woman is a “model of discipleship: she waited on them.”  This action of the healed mother-in-law of Peter is the basis for the service ministry of the 
deacons.  It is the ministry that Jesus prescribes when he said that he came “not to be served but to serve.” (Mark 10:45) The right response to the healing experience from Jesus is to “spend oneself in the service to him and his disciples, that is, to the Church.
The third activity that Jesus portrayed in this narrative of Mark was his time and act of prayer.  “Rising very early in the morning, he left and went off to a deserted place where he prayed.”  Notice that the first activity in the day of Jesus was to rise early in order to pray.  Despite his manifestation of authority in his teaching ministry, Jesus sought the guidance from his Father in prayer.  He chose a place where he could spend time by himself in order to communicate intimately with his Father.  The place was a desert, a place of solitude 
conducive to communicate with his Father in order to always do His and obey in his ministry. These three activities of Jesus: teaching, healing, and praying are all shared to each of us, his disciples, through the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.  The ordained ministers are given a heavier responsibility to exercise these ministries, not only as participation in it, but a commitment to exercise with fidelity and devotion.  All of us, both lay and ordained, can only teach with conviction, if we know our faith; we can heal others by asking the Lord to make use of us in order to heal those who are physically and spiritually in need of healing.  Prayer should be regular in our daily activity that should help us always to communicate with God Himself so that we can be certain that we do would always be in conformity with his Divine Will.  Like Jesus, let us look for the proper place and time for prayer in our daily activities.  The time and place of prayer matter a lot in disposing us to speak with the God and listen to His directions for us to follow.