Draw closer to god through worship in church

These couple of months I have noticed that the attendance for our weekend Masses have been dwindling. I don’t know about other churches but I tend to be too obsessed with this troubling thought.

By Fr. George Packiasamy 
These couple of months I have noticed that the attendance for our weekend Masses have been dwindling. I don’t know about other churches but I tend to be too obsessed with this troubling thought. I try my best to make my homilies and celebrations interesting so that you may stay connected when you come for Mass. Some of our parishioners don’t feel that it is important to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

Church attendance is important. We attend Church to meet with God. God is worthy of our worship.  As Catholics, Church is a place where we can all come together to worship. It reminds me of one of the hymns, which goes, “Enter His gate with thanksgiving in our hearts…” (cf. Psalm 100:4). Every time when we enter our Church doors we come with thanksgiving in our hearts and we sing praises to God.

We come to Church to be part of our Church and to be one with Jesus. We submit ourselves to Him and draw life from Him. We gather in the Church where the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed and the Sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated reverently for us. Our gathering in the Church for weekly worship will encourage us, strengthen us and nourish us.  We listen and learn from Jesus, Mary and Joseph in order for us to grow spiritually.

It is very important that Catholic families should mould their children in faith while they are still young. We attend Sunday Masses or any other spiritual formations in Church to enhance our spiritual and psychological growth. Our participation in the sacrament, prayers and formation each week deepens our belief and our faith in the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Church,” (cf. Eph 4: 5).

There is no excuse for not attending mass on Sundays. Often we hear that “Sunday is my only day to sleep in.” Church no longer holds priority in our lives. We are too occupied with our daily schedules. When the weekend comes,  we would prefer to go for a  vacation or away from the town just to get some relaxation. One of the greatest advantages we Catholics in KL have is the easy accessibility to numerous Churches in the city –  just a mere  20 minutes drive!  It will be most pleasing to God that we fulfill our Sunday obligation before we get engrossed with other agendas during the weekend. God will be happy when we come to Church and worship Him. When Jesus sees that His Church attendance is full and His Church is growing in numbers, surely He will be rejoicing in Heaven as He rewards us with His overflowing love.

Today’s culture is changing where we have become very individualistic. Both Church attendance and fellowship with communities are equally important. The Holy Spirit leads us to unity with the Body of Christ, which is the Church. “Without Jesus Christ, there can be no Church; and without the Church, we cannot stay united with Jesus.” We need to bring ourselves closer to Jesus and to reach out to the people in the community. It is for our own good that Jesus wants us to have fellowship with one another. The more we develop our friendship in the Church, the more we want to be together.  We are to be disciples of Christ.  We need each other to grow in the faith of Christ, to learn to serve, to love one another, to exercise our spiritual gifts, and to practice forgiveness.—SJC

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online