Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and merciful For His loving kindness is everlasting. Psalm 118:29
OPENING PRAYER (WELCOME GOD INTO OUR STUDY)
Our Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, look with kindness on your people. Help us to be good stewards of your creation until that day when we make an account of our stewardship, face to face, to you Father of us all. In Jesus’ name we pray.
CATECHESIS (STUDY THE FAITH)
REFERENCES FROM CATECHISM OF CATHOLIC CHURCH 2ND EDITION
CCC 238 – 242 God as Father
CCC 441 – 445 Jesus as Son of the Father
Jesus taught his disciples to call God “Our Father ” Matthew 6:5 The Son passed this relationship with the Father on to us through the Spirit. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba,* Father!” Romans 8:15
We live in a time of absent fatherhood due to frequent divorces and walk away dads. Some may find it hard to address God as Father. If there is a problem with Fathers in your life, pray for the healing that will allow you to call God your Father because that is what He is. He is your Heavenly Father, you are his child.
Jesus told His disciples by getting to know Him they would get to know the Father also. Since Jesus and the Father are one. We can see the love of the Father in the actions of the Son.
Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me. If you know me you know the Father.”
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; John 14:6
We are made male and female in God’s image. To call God our Father in no way diminishes womanhood or motherhood. The most revered human person that ever lived is our Mother, Mary. The greatest choice ever made by a human being was made by a virgin woman to accept the call to be the Mother of our Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Supported by the Old Testament Scripture, we call God our Father and declare that God is the first origin of everything and is transcendent authority over all.
God is separate from His creation. God is essence itself (being) God creates out of nothing. As Father he generates and brings into being all things that are.
God our Father wants to share His divine life and love with us. We become His adopted sons and daughters through the merits of Jesus Christ when we are born again in faith and Baptism.
Let us pray to the Father to increase our Faith that we may know the Son. Let us pray to the Son that we may know and see the Father in Him.
CLOSING PRAYER (PRAY THE FAITH)
Most merciful and loving Father, in loving gratitude, we pray for the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that we may praise you as we ought. To You, Father, be all honor and glory now and forever, Amen. In Jesus’ name, we pray.
LIFE APPLICATION (LIVE THE FAITH)
- The absence of fatherhood due to death, divorce or neglect deprives children of an important nurturing influence. What can be done to supplement the missing Father?
2 How does it make you feel to have a Heavenly Father? Is it the best yet or are you still struggling to accept your adoption?
3. Many feminine virtues are ascribed to God in Scriptures. “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you Isaiah 49:15 But God is never addressed as Mother. Can you guess why?