Призывание «Отче наш, сущий на небесах»

Long Christian Catechism. To more conveniently consider the Lord's Prayer, we can divide it into: invocation, seven petitions and doxology. St. Gregory of Nyssa. “Who gave me wings like a dove?” (Ps. 54:7) says the great David in one place of psalmody. I will dare to say the same word: who will give me these wings so that I can soar with my mind to the height of the greatness of these sayings - and leaving the earth, crossing all the air spilled in the middle, touching the ethereal beauty, reaching the stars, seeing all their decoration, and not stopping at them, but passing this too, standing outside of this movable and changeable, embracing the constant nature, the immovable force, installed and directing in itself and supporting everything that has existence, everything that depends on the ineffable will of God's wisdom, so that, having become a thought far from everything changeable and perverted, in an immutable and unwavering state of the soul, I could first become akin in thought to the Immutable and Unchangeable, then call on the most related name and say: “Father!” St. Cyprian of Carthage. Oh, what condescension towards us, what an abundance of favor and goodness of the Lord, when He allowed us, when praying before the face of God, to call God Father, and to call ourselves sons of God, just as Christ is the Son of God! None of us would have dared to use this name in prayer if He Himself had not allowed us to pray so. St. Cyril of Jerusalem. In the prayer that the Savior conveyed to His disciples, we, with a clear conscience, calling God Father, say: “Our Father!” What great love of God for mankind! Those who have fallen away from Him and reached the extreme of evil are given such oblivion of all evil, and such a communion of grace, that they call Him Father: “Our Father!” St. John Chrysostom. "Our Father!" Oh, what extraordinary philanthropy! Oh, what a wonderful honor! What word will be able to render gratitude to the One who gives us such blessings? Look, beloved, at the humiliation of your and my nature, delve into its affinity - into this earth, dust, dirt, clay, ashes; because we were created from the earth, and again finally decompose into the earth. Having imagined this, marvel at the unsearchable wealth of God’s great goodness to us; according to which you are commanded to call Him “Father”, - earthly - heavenly, mortal - immortal, corruptible - incorruptible, temporary - eternal, who was yesterday and before dirt - God who existed before the age. Blazh. Augustine. In every petition, they first try to gain the favor of the person to whom the petition is addressed, and then they present the petition itself. Favor is usually gained by praise to the one whom you intend to ask, and it is always supplied at the beginning of the request. In this sense, of course, the Lord commanded us to cry out at the beginning of our prayer: “Our Father!” There are many sayings in Scripture that express praise to God; but you will not find that Israel was ordered to cry out: “Our Father!” The prophets, however, called God the father of the Israelites, even on behalf of God himself: “I raised and raised up sons, but they rebelled against Me” (Is. 1:2), and: “if I am the Father, then where is the respect for Me?” (Mal.1, 6), but they were named so obviously in order to expose them that they did not want to be sons of God, working in sins. They themselves did not dare to turn to God as to their father; for they were still in the state of slaves, although they were destined for sonship, as the Apostle says: “As long as he is a child, an heir differs in no way from a slave” (Gal. 4:1). This advantage was granted to the new Israel, the Christians; they are “given power to become children of God” (John 1:12) and they “received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom they cry: “Abba, father!” (Rom. 8:15). Tertullian. When we say: “Our Father”; - then we pray to God and together we express faith, the fruit of which is such a name. For it is written: “To those who received Him He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). The Lord often called God our Father; He even commanded us not to call anyone on earth father except Him whom we have in heaven (Matthew 23:9). Thus, by crying out like this in prayer, we fulfill the commandment. Blessed are those who know God the Father. – The name of God the Father was not announced to anyone before; and even Moses, who asked about him, heard another certain name; it is revealed to us in the Son. For the Son is already giving a new name to God - the name of the Father. But He says directly: “I have come in the name of the Father” (John 5:43), and again: “Father! glorify Your name” (John 12:28), and more clearly: “You have revealed Your name to men” (John 17:6). St. Cyprian of Carthage. The new man, reborn and restored by his God, by His grace, first of all says: “Father,” because he has already become His son. “He came to his own,” it is said, “and his own did not receive Him. But to those who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). So, whoever believed in His name and became the son of God must begin by giving thanks and confessing himself to be the son of God, calling God Father. Blazh. Augustine. Calling at the beginning of the prayer: “Our Father!” By this name we testify to love: for what is sweeter for children than the name of the Father? and we express confidence in receiving what we ask when, before any request, we imagine ourselves having already received that great mercy to call God our Father. For what kind of request will God refuse to His sons, having first given them the power to be His children? Say “Our Father” if you have begun to have God as your father. They begin to have God as their father when they are born again from Him. You were born of Him in the womb of the Church. Remember that you have a Father in heaven. Remember that in Adam you were born into death, but from God the Father you were reborn into life. And what you say, feel, is in your hearts. What is in the heart of the one who prays, according to the strength of it, the One who hears his prayer accepts it. St. John Chrysostom. “Pray like this,” the Savior continued: “Our Father who art in heaven.” See how He immediately encouraged the listener, and at the very beginning remembered all the good deeds of God. In fact, the one who calls God Father already confesses by this name the forgiveness of sins, and liberation from punishment, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption, and sonship, and inheritance, and brotherhood with the Only Begotten, and the gift of the Spirit, since one who has not received all these benefits cannot call God Father. So, Christ inspires His listeners in two ways - both by the dignity of what is called, and by the greatness of the benefits that they received. St. Cassian. The Lord's Prayer presupposes in the person praying the most sublime and perfect state, which consists in the contemplation of the one God and in fiery love for Him, and in which our mind, embraced and imbued with this love, converses with God in the closest way and with special sincerity, as with its father. That we must carefully try to achieve this state is what the words of this prayer inspire us with. We say: “Our Father!” If in this way we confess God, the Lord of the universe, with our own lips as our Father, then at the same time we confess that we have been completely brought from a state of slavery into the state of adopted children of God. St. Maximus the Confessor. (The first word of the prayer leads to the confession of the Holy Trinity). The Father does not possess this Name as a newly acquired one... If He is the Ever-Bearing One and is always the Father, then this means that both the Son and the Holy Spirit always essentially coexist with the Father. They naturally exist from Him and in Him in such a way that they transcend (all) reason and (all) reason. Therefore, by starting this prayer, we learn to honor the Consubstantial and Pre-Essential Trinity as the creative Cause of our existence. At the same time, we learn to proclaim the grace of adoption in us, being worthy to call our Creator by nature Father by grace. And this is so that, experiencing reverent fear of the name of (our) Parent by grace, we would try to imprint in (our) life the features of the One who gave birth to us, sanctifying His name on earth, becoming like Him, revealing ourselves through the deeds of our children (His) and glorifying with our thoughts and deeds the Self-performer of adoption (ours) - by nature the Son of the Father. Blazh. Theophylact. The disciples of Christ compete with the disciples of John and want to learn how to pray. The Savior does not reject the desires of the disciples, and teaches them prayer. “Our Father,” says He who is in heaven.” Notice the power of prayer. She immediately leads you to what is above, and, since you call God Father, she convinces you in every possible way not to lose your likeness to the Father, but to try to become like Him. The word “Father” shows you what blessings you have received by becoming the son of God. Simeon of Thessalonica. "Our Father!" - And because He is our Creator, who brought us into being from non-existent things, and because by grace He is our Father, through the Son by nature, made like us. St. Tikhon Zadonsky. From the words: “Our Father!” we learn that God is the true Father of Christians, and they are “all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). Therefore, as a Father, they should call upon Him with hope, just as the children of the flesh call upon their parents and stretch out their hands to them in all their needs. St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Teacher of the world and the Teacher of unity, first of all, did not want prayer to be performed separately and privately, so that the person praying would pray only for himself. In fact, we do not say: “My Father who art in heaven, give me my bread for this day”; each of us does not ask for the abandonment of only our debt, does not pray for ourselves alone, so that we ourselves do not be led into temptation and get rid of the evil one. We have a national and common prayer, and when we pray, we pray not for one person, but for the whole people, because we - the whole people - are one. God, the Teacher of peace and harmony, who taught unity, wanted one to pray for everyone, just as He alone carried us all. This law of prayer was also observed by the three youths thrown into the fiery furnace: they agreed in prayer and were unanimous in the spirit of agreement. This is confirmed by Divine Scripture, which, showing how they prayed, gives us an example to follow, so that we too can become like them. It is said: “Then these three sang as if with one mouth in the oven, and blessed and glorified God” (Dan. 3:51). They spoke as if with only their lips, although it was not Christ who taught them to pray like that. And that is why the speech of them - those praying - was convincing and valid: peaceful, simple and spiritual prayer was pleasing to the Lord. After the Ascension of the Lord, we find the apostles and disciples praying in a similar way. “All of them,” it is said, “were with one accord in prayer and supplication, with some women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). They were in prayer, with one accord, showing both the urgency of their prayer and mutual agreement, because God, “who dwells like-minded people in a house” (Ps. 67:7), accepts into His divine and eternal home only those who have prayer unanimous. Oh, what are the secrets of the Lord’s Prayer, dear brothers! How much and how great is contained in a prayer brief in words, but rich in spiritual power! …We say together: “Our Father,” i.e. believers - those who, having been sanctified and restored by a grace-filled spiritual birth, have become sons of God. St. John Chrysostom. He teaches us to pray for all the brothers. He does not say: My Father who art in heaven, but “Our Father,” and thereby commands us to offer prayers for the entire human race, and never have in mind our own benefits, but always try for the benefits of our neighbor. And in this way he destroys enmity, and overthrows pride, and destroys envy, and introduces love - the mother of all good things; destroys the inequality of human affairs and shows complete equality between the king and the poor, since we all have equal participation in the highest and most necessary matters. Indeed, what is the harm from low kinship, when by heavenly kinship we are all united, and no one has anything more than the other: neither the rich more than the poor, nor the master more than the slave, nor the boss more than the subordinate, nor the king more than the warrior, nor the philosopher more than the barbarian, nor the wise more than the ignorant? God, who honored everyone equally to call Himself Father, through this gave everyone the same nobility. Blazh. Augustine. It is suggested by this - “our” - that the rich and noble in this world, having become Christians, should not be proud before the poor and ignorant, since they also cry out to God in the same word as they do: “Our Father!” What they cannot say sincerely from the heart if they do not recognize themselves as their brothers. Blazh. Theophylact. You do not say: My Father, but “Our Father,” because you must look at everyone as brothers, children of one Father. (The Lord in prayer) did not say my father, but “Our Father,” inciting you to brotherly love, and compelling you to love everyone as brothers in general. St. John Chrysostom. When the Lord says in prayer: “he who is in heaven,” then with this word he does not imprison God in heaven, but distracts the one praying from the earth and places him in the highest countries and mountain dwellings. Wanting to teach us to leave the earth and earthly things and not bow down, but to take the wings of faith and, soaring above the air and rising above the ether, to strive for the so-called Father, He commanded to say: “Our Father who art in heaven,” - not because God was only in heaven, but so that we, reptiles on the earth, would be disposed to strive for heaven and, having illuminated the beauty of heavenly blessings, turn all ours there desires. Blazh. Theophylact. Having said “in heaven,” the Lord does not limit God to them, but raises the listener to heaven and takes him away from earthly things. In a word - “in heaven” the Lord pointed you to your fatherland and to your father’s house: therefore, if you want to have God as your Father, look at heaven, and not at earth, like dumb people. St. Tikhon Zadonsky. It is said: “in heaven” - not as God is in heaven, but takes the one who prays from the earth and raises him to the heavenly abodes, says St. Chrysostom; also (and that is why this word is said) because there is a fatherland of the elect, and God in His glory shows Himself there, and delights the souls of His saints. Otherwise, God is essentially in every place, both in heaven and on earth, just as the Psalmist sings: “Our God is in heaven and on earth” (Ps. 113:11). St. Cassian. We add in prayer: “he who is in heaven,” so that, avoiding in every possible way caring thoughts about this earthly life, as wandering and moving us very far from our Father, we rush with extreme desire to the region in which, as we confess, our Father dwells, and do not allow anything that, making us unworthy of our rank and the nobility of such adoption, would deprive us, like degenerates, paternal heritage and subjected to the full severity of God's righteous judgment. St. Gregory of Nyssa. With the words: “he who is in heaven,” we are reminded from what fatherland we have fallen and what nobility we have lost. With the story of a young man who left his father’s house and indulged in a pig-like life, the scripture, historically describing his departure and dissolute life, shows the disastrous state of humanity, and not before returning this young man to his original state, as after he sensed a real disaster, when he came to his senses and brought to mind the words of repentance. And they somewhat agree with the words of the prayer. For there the young man said: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:21); but He would not have mentioned in his confession the sin “against heaven” if he had not been sure that heaven was his fatherland, leaving which he fell into sin. Therefore, the thought of such a confession makes the father accessible to him, who rushes to his son, greeting him with a kiss. So, how the reason for the love shown to the young man by his father was his return to his father’s house (and this is “heaven”, the sin against which he admits himself to his father); So, it seems to me, here too the Lord, teaching you to call on your father “who is in heaven,” reminds you of the good fatherland, so that by arousing the strongest desire for the beautiful, he will put you on the path that again leads to the fatherland. The path that elevates human nature to heaven is nothing other than retreat and flight from earthly evils; and the means to escape from these evils is nothing else, I think, than becoming like God; to become like God means to become righteous, holy, good, and all the like. If anyone, as much as possible, clearly imprints in himself the features of these perfections, then, as if by natural order, without difficulty, he will move from earthly life to the heavenly land; because it is not local what kind of distance the Divinity has with humanity, so that we would need some kind of tool or device to introduce this heavy, burdensome and earthly flesh into a non-physical and spiritual way of life. But according to the reasonable separation of virtue from vice, it depends on human will alone to be where a person is inclined to desire. Therefore, since there is no difficulty in choosing what is good, and election is followed by the acquisition of that which has been chosen by someone, then it is possible for you to immediately be in heaven, having declared God in your mind. If, as Eccl. St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Heaven can also be those who bear within themselves “the image of heavenly things” (1 Cor. 15:49), to whom God promised: “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (2 Cor. 6:16). Simeon of Thessalonica. "He who is in heaven." For God, as it is written, being holy, rests in the saints. The angels who live in heaven are holier than us, just as heaven is purer than earth. This is why it is thought that God is more in heaven. Blazh. Augustine. So let the new New Testament people, called to an eternal inheritance, cry: “Our Father who art in heaven,” that is, among the holy and righteous. God is not limited to any local space. No matter how bright the sky may appear, it is all a material terrain, limited. If God lived only in the higher parts of the world, then birds would be happier than us, because they fly closer to God. But it is not written: “The Lord is near to those who have climbed high, high, or to those who live on the mountains,” but: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 33:19), which is the belonging of the humble and humble. Just as a sinner is called earth when it is said to him: “you are earth and to earth you will return” (Gen. 3:19), so by contrast a righteous person can be called heaven. To the righteous it is said: “The church of God is holy; and this church is you” (1 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, if God dwells in His church, and the saints are His church; then it will be fair to understand the words: “he who exists in heaven” as follows: “he who exists” in the saints. This application is all the more convenient because in spiritual terms the righteous are separated from the sinners, like heaven from earth. So we turn to the east, where the sun rises, when we stand in prayer, not because God dwells there, leaving other parts of the world: for He is always everywhere, and in all His greatness; but in order to thereby dispose one’s spirit to turn to the highest being, i.e. God, when his body - earthly - turns to his higher body - heavenly. And with the degrees of spiritual age, this (the word: “in heaven”) is more consistent, so that in prayer the hearts of everyone, according to their strength, are filled with feelings worthy of God. For those who are captivated by still visible beauties and cannot think detachedly about the incorporeal, since they necessarily prefer heaven to earth, it is more possible to think that God is believed to be more in heaven than on earth, because they still know God bodily. But when they understand that the soul surpasses every celestial body in dignity, then they will begin to place it in the soul more than in any body, even a celestial one. Having realized how far the souls of sinners are from the souls of the righteous, they, as before, when they carnally philosophized, did not dare to posit God on earth, but posited him in heaven, so now, having been enlightened with better knowledge and higher faith, they will begin to posit him and seek him in the souls of the righteous, and not of sinners. And so it is fair to understand the words: “he who is in heaven” as if it were said: he who exists in the hearts of the righteous, as in his church. The one who utters these words in this sense should desire that the One whom he so calls to abide in himself, desiring this, to maintain a righteous life: for in this way only is God drawn to dwell in the soul. St. Cyprian of Carthage. Calling God Father, we must remember and know, beloved brothers, that we must also act as sons of God, so that just as we ourselves rejoice in God the Father, so He rejoices in us. Let us remain as the church of God, so that it can be seen that God dwells in us. May our actions not be unworthy of the spirit: having begun to be heavenly and spiritual, let us think and do only spiritual and heavenly things, bearing in mind what was said by God: “For I will glorify those who glorify Me, but those who dishonor Me will be put to shame” (1 Samuel 2:30) - and what was written by the blessed Apostle in his Epistle: “And are you not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your bodies" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). St. Gregory of Nyssa. The one who says “Father” – what kind of soul does he need? How much boldness does it take? What kind of conscience should one have in order to know God as much as possible and understand that the nature of God is goodness, holiness, joy, power, glory, purity, and everything that is similar to this is represented by the thought of God’s nature, and then dare to pronounce this word and call some being one’s Father? It is obvious that if someone has any intelligence, then, not seeing in himself the same as in God, he will not dare to utter these words to him and say: “Father!” For it is unnatural for someone who is essentially good to become the father of someone who is evil in deeds, for a saint to become the father of someone defiled in life, for a father of life to become the father of someone killed by sin, for a pure person to become the father of those who have disgraced themselves through the passions of dishonor. If someone, seeing himself still in need of cleansing and recognizing his evil conscience as full of filth, before being cleansed from such evil properties, includes himself in kinship with God, and the unrighteous to the Righteous, the unclean to the Pure, says: “Father,” then this saying will directly be an insult and slander. Therefore, when the Lord teaches us in prayer to call God Father, it seems to me that he does nothing more than legitimize an exalted and above all way of life; because the truth teaches us not to lie, not to say about ourselves what is not in us, not to call ourselves what we were not, but, calling our Father the Righteous and Good, justifying this kinship with life. Therefore, do you see what kind of life we ​​need in order to have the boldness to say to God: Father? For if you love money, are preoccupied with worldly charms, seek human glory, serve the most passionate desires, yet you accept such a prayer in your mouth: what do you think the One who sees your life and hears your prayer will say? These are the words I seem to hear from God himself speaking to such a person: “And you, who have been corrupted in life, call the Father of incorruption your father? Why do you desecrate a pure name with unclean lips? Why are you using this saying falsely? If you are My child, then your life should bear the features of My properties. I do not recognize in you the image of My nature; your features are opposite. Another is the father of the evil qualities in you. My offspring are adorned with good fatherly qualities, the son of the merciful is merciful, the son of the pure is pure, the incorruptible is free from corruption, the good is good, the righteous is just. But I don’t know you, where you’re from.” Therefore, having prescribed to say in prayer that God is our Father, he commands nothing more than to become like the Heavenly Father through a splendid life; as in another place he commands the same thing more clearly, saying: “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Just as the signs of likeness to God are obvious, so the evil disposition has its own special signs - and whoever has them, it is impossible for him to be the son of God. This is envy, hatred, slander, arrogance, covetousness, passionate desire, the disease of glory - these and similar traits distinguish the image of the opponent. Therefore, if someone who has denigrated his soul with such filth calls on his father, what kind of father will hear him? May such impurity be removed from your image. The Divine is not involved in envy and any other defilement, and let such passions not stain you, neither envy, nor arrogance, nor anything else that defiles God-like beauty. If you become like this, then boldly call upon God and the Master of all, calling him your Father. He will look at you with fatherly eyes and, having clothed you in divine clothing, adorned you with a ring, and equipped your feet with gospel boots for the procession upward, he will return you to your heavenly fatherland. St. John Chrysostom. It is not in vain that you were taught to pronounce this word (“Our Father!”), but in order to reverence the name of the Father, pronounced by your own tongue, you imitate His goodness, as in another place He says: be like “your Father who is in heaven, for He commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Therefore, one who has a brutal and inhuman mood of the soul cannot call the man-loving God; because he does not have the properties of goodness that the heavenly Father has, but has changed into a brutal form and has lost his divine dignity. The same one who is meek and humane towards his neighbors and does not take revenge on those who sin against him, but repays offenses with good deeds, can impeccably call God Father. precision of expression, as He commands us mutual love, and unites everyone with a friendly disposition. He did not command to say: “My Father who art in heaven,” but “Our Father who art in heaven,” so that, having learned to name the common Father, we would show brotherly affection towards each other. St. Tikhon Zadonsky. With this invocation: “Our Father!” let's learn: 1) that for all Christians there is “one Father” - God; therefore, they are brothers with each other, as having one Father. 2) Christians, as spiritual brothers, must have love among themselves, pray for each other to God, and, as it were, emit one voice from the heart to their Heavenly Father: “Our Father!” “By this He teaches,” says St. John Chrysostom in a conversation on this word, “to pray in common for the brethren. For he does not say: “My Father,” but says: “Our Father,” to send up prayers for the common body, and everywhere to see not only one’s own benefit, but also that of one’s neighbor.” 3) When Christians are brothers in God, then they all have the same honor and glory. All, I say: masters and slaves, famous and unknown, rich and poor, high-ranking and simple, like brothers. And therefore, we should not despise each other, since “they are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). “So,” says St. John Chrysostom, “He removes inequality from us, and shows the great equality of the king with the beggar.” 4) How diligently we must guard ourselves from sins, and with more good morals we must become like God, like sons to their father, if without a twinge of conscience they want to call upon Him and call Him Father. 5) It is clear from this that a faulty Christian, until he corrects and cleanses himself with true repentance, cannot usefully call upon God, much less call him Father and pronounce this prayer. It is absolutely necessary to leave sins and carnal desires, repent, and depart from unrighteousness, according to the teaching of the Apostle: “Let everyone who confesses the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness” (2 Tim. 2:19). For how can he say to Him: “Our Father,” but with his morals he himself is likened to cattle or the devil? For those who call God Father and pray: “Our Father” must be the sons of God, and the sons must have properties similar to the father. So, we must certainly, like the prodigal son, come to our senses, turn and return to the Father and before Him with humility admit our sin: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before You and am no longer worthy to be called Your son" (Luke 15:17-21) - and henceforth not to be separated from the Heavenly Father, but to serve Him with a pure heart, and with His household, that is, with true Christians, to have a part, and so with them together to emit a common voice to Him: “Our Father!” Collector (St. Theophan the Recluse). "Our Father!" What a sweet proclamation! The Father's Name is both warm and sobering. Whoever has a father feels himself under a powerful wing, completely safe and protected: he also feels that he does not need to worry or bother about anything; everything will be there - food, clothing, and shelter, and that he only has to turn to his father when he wants what he wants and he will get everything. Those who are able to recognize and feel God as their Father have the same feelings. As soon as the confirmation that God is his Father is revived in someone, those feelings that children usually have for their father will immediately be established in their hearts, and he will feel himself in a safe home, and in carefree contentment, and in the firm hope that everything will be done to him, whatever he asks for. So that's where all the power lies! Ascend to the feeling that God our Father exists. How is this possible? By clarifying the relationship in whatever it pleased God to place himself with us. Think about what God is for us, and you will get there. First. God our Father also exists in the natural order. For, creating man, He breathed into his face the breath of his life. This breath, not carnal, but spiritual, never ceases to revive all people, and the traces of what is divine in it are indelible. Thus we are related to God by nature. This thought, although abstract, is not far from the general feeling. And St. Paul did not hesitate to use it to admonish the Athenians, not only bringing to their memory the words of one of their scribes: “we are His generation,” but drawing from this a very impressive conclusion: “Being the generation of God” (Acts 17: 28–29). Anyone can reach such a conviction, or rather, restore it in himself, and then say in his heart: being the race of God, you can and should feel related to God and have Him as your ancestor and common Father to all. Second. God is our Father, in providential care for us. For He created, preserves, holds in His right hand, leads to the end, and surrounds with all care, more than one’s own father. So, come to the point of seeing and feeling God’s care not only for everyone, but also for yourself; then you will involuntarily cry out: “Our Father!” How to get to this point? - By reflection. Please consider and trace everything that God has done for the human race; how he placed us in paradise for bliss, how he did not leave us in the fall, but provided for the image of returning to us what was lost, how he then led to the acceptance of our Restorer, first all equally, then separately - especially the Jews, and especially other languages - how this Restorer finally came and accomplished the work of restoration, how then the work of assimilation of this restoration by our race began, how at the same time God converted entire nations and attracted countless individuals, how he converted our people and guards the restorative powers in it. If you want to see more private actions of God's care, trace the history of Abraham, Joseph, Job, David, Hezekiah and other men; look at our national history and its glorious men. In all this you cannot help but see that God thinks a lot and cares a lot about us. Isn’t He the Father of our race? Then turn your thoughts to yourself and trace everything that happened to you. You will see God’s repeated deliverances from troubles and downfalls, and in all life a special beneficial direction by the right hand of God. There are much more hidden blessings of God than obvious ones. They are hidden because they are invisible at the time when they are given and seen later - and this is until tactile evidence. Such understanding and perception of God's care, not seen at one time and seen later, gives the conviction that even now God carefully arranges our existence and well-being, although we cannot definitely indicate this. From here it is impossible not to bear the conviction that the eye of God is favorably turned towards us, and His right hand holds, covers and guides us, and directs the course of our life along a good path. When this is felt, then the heart itself will uncontrollably say: “Our Father!” Third. God our Father exists by virtue of spiritual rebirth. In this regard, one must marvel at how little or no feeling among us Christians that God is our Father. Christians should have this feeling naturally in their hearts, without much effort to produce it. For they are born of God. St. Evangelist John writes: “to those who received Him,” God’s Word, who came into His own through the incarnation, “to those who believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God, who were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). When were you born? When, according to belief, they were baptized. For in baptism one is born of water and spirit. And whoever is not born in this way cannot enter the realm of being a child of God, opened by the incarnate Son of God. Being thus a creation of God in the spirit, we should both feel this in the spirit, and in the spirit have God as our Father - not reaching this point by thinking, but directly feeling it. Why is this feeling weak, or is it not there at all? Therefore, we must assume that the state into which birth from God puts us has either completely evaporated and passed, or has weakened. Doesn't this state exist? There is no feeling of being a child of God or patronymic of God. Therefore, what is the matter? The state of rebirth must be restored to strength; then the feeling of God’s patronymic will be restored. How is this possible? Here reflection alone is not enough. Thinking about what we should be as a result of being born from God, and about how all this happened, can only be an introduction to this. Start to figure out what you should be by spiritual birth, and compare it with what you actually are. You will see a great disagreement between one and the other, which falls upon you as a great reproach before your Christian conscience, before God and His Angels. Reproach entails condemnation; punishment follows conviction. Deepen these thoughts, which show the true, immutable thing, and you will perk up. Having perked up, you worry about how to avoid the expected penalty. From here will come repentance and the decision to continue to hold oneself worthy of being born from God. In the sacrament of repentance, the grace of rebirth returns, or its effect on the heart is purified. The feeling of the patronymic of God should immediately be born here. This happens to all truly repentant people. Having received or felt pardon, they cannot help but feel the father’s embrace, as in the parable of the prodigal. But then this feeling passes. Labor is required in the father's house, sometimes as a slave, sometimes as a mercenary. Whoever passes through these degrees through constant work will finally enter the rank of son. Then the feeling of the patronymic of God settles in the depths of his heart, and remains in him forever. You might be interested in: