“Father”

St. Gregory of Nyssa. “Who will give me wings like a dove?” (Ps. 54:7) says the great David in one place in the Psalter. I too dare to say the same words: who will give me those wings, so that I might soar in mind to the height of the majesty of these utterances—and, leaving earth behind, pass through all the spread-out air in between, touch the ethereal beauty, reach the stars, behold all their adornment, yet not halt even there, but pass beyond this too, and stand outside all that moves and changes, to embrace the unchanging nature, the unmoved power, established in itself and directing and sustaining all that has being, all that depends on the ineffable will of God’s wisdom—so that, having placed my mind far from all that changes and is transient, in an unalterable and steadfast state of soul, I might first become akin in thought to the Unalterable and Unchanging, and then call upon Him by the most intimate of names and say: “Father!”

St. Cyprian of Carthage. O, what condescension toward us, what an abundance of the Lord’s goodwill and goodness, that He has permitted us in the performance of prayer before the face of God to call God Father, and to name ourselves sons of God even as Christ is the Son of God! None of us would have dared to use this name in prayer, had He Himself not permitted us to pray thus.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. In the prayer the Savior handed down to His disciples, we, naming God Father with a pure conscience, say: “Our Father!” What exceeding love of God for mankind! To those who have fallen away from Him and reached the very extreme of evil, there is granted such forgetting of all that was bad, and such participation in grace, that they call Him Father: “Our Father!”

St. John Chrysostom. “Our Father!” O, what extraordinary love for mankind! O, what surpassing honor! What words would be capable of rendering thanks to the One who grants us such gifts? Look, beloved, at the lowliness of your nature and mine, consider what it is made of—this earth, dust, mud, clay, ashes; for we are made from earth, and in the end we dissolve back into earth. Having considered this, marvel at the unsearchable wealth of God’s great goodness toward us; by which you are commanded to call Him “Father”—the earthly addressing the heavenly, the mortal addressing the immortal, the corruptible addressing the incorruptible, the temporal addressing the eternal, one who yesterday and before was mud addressing the God who exists before the ages.

Blessed Augustine. In every petition, one first seeks to obtain the goodwill of the person being petitioned, and only then sets forth the petition itself. Goodwill is customarily secured by praising the one whom one intends to petition, and such praise is always placed at the beginning of the petition. It is surely in this sense that the Lord commanded us to begin the prayer with the words: “Our Father!”

In Scripture there are many expressions by which praise is rendered to God; but one does not find that Israel was commanded to cry out: “Our Father!” The prophets, it is true, called God the Father of the Israelites, even speaking in God’s own person: “I have nurtured and raised sons, but they have rebelled against Me” (Isa. 1:2), and: “If I am a Father, where is the honor due to Me?” (Mal. 1:6); but they called Him this evidently in order to reprove the Israelites for not wishing to be sons of God while enslaved to sins. As for the Israelites themselves, they did not dare to address God as Father; for they were still in the condition of servants, though they were destined for sonship, as the Apostle says: “the heir, while he is a child, is no different from a servant” (Gal. 4:1). This privilege was granted to the new Israel—to Christians; to them “power was given to become children of God” (John 1:12), and they “received the Spirit of adoption, by whom they cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).

Tertullian. When we say “Our Father,” we both pray to God and at the same time express the faith whose fruit this name is. For it is written: “to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). The Lord often called God our Father; He even commanded that no one on earth be called father except the One we have in heaven (Matt. 23:9). Thus, by calling out in this way in prayer, we fulfill the commandment. Blessed are those who come to know God as Father. — The name of God the Father had not been proclaimed to anyone before; even Moses, when he asked about it, heard a certain other name; but to us it has been revealed in the Son. For the Son brings forward a new name for God—the name of Father. And He also says plainly: “I have come in the name of the Father” (John 5:43), and again: “Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:28), and more explicitly: “I have revealed Your name to mankind” (John 17:6).

St. Cyprian of Carthage. The new man, reborn and restored by his God, through His grace, says above all: “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, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). Therefore, whoever has believed in His name and become a son of God ought to begin by giving thanks and confessing himself to be a son of God, calling God his Father.

Blessed Augustine. By calling out at the beginning of the prayer “Our Father!” we bear witness to love by this very name: for what is sweeter for children than the name of Father? And we express confidence in receiving what we ask, when before any petition we represent ourselves as having already received that great mercy of being able to call God our Father. For in what petition could God then refuse His sons, having first granted them the power to be His children?

Say “Our Father” if you have begun to have God as your Father. One begins to have God as Father when one is born from Him again. You too have been born from Him in the womb of the Church. Remember, then, that you have a Father in heaven. Remember that in Adam you were born into death, but by God the Father you have been reborn into life. And what you say, feel it in your hearts. Whatever is in the heart of the one who prays—according to the power of that does the One who hears his prayer receive him.

St. John Chrysostom. “Pray then like this,” the Savior continued: “Our Father, who is in heaven.” See how He immediately encouraged the listener, and at the very beginning called to mind all of God’s benefactions. Indeed, the one who calls God Father, by this single name already confesses the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from punishment, justification, sanctification, redemption, adoption as a son, inheritance, brotherhood with the Only-begotten, and the gift of the Spirit, since one who has not received all these gifts cannot call God Father. Christ thus encourages His listeners in a twofold way—both by the dignity of the One being addressed, and by the greatness of the benefactions they have received.

St. Cassian. The Lord’s Prayer presupposes in the one who prays the most exalted and most perfect state, which consists in the contemplation of the one God and in ardent love for Him, and in which our mind, seized and penetrated by this love, converses with God in the most intimate manner and with particular sincerity, as with a father. That we must strive diligently to attain this state is suggested to us by the very words of this prayer. We say: “Our Father!” If in this way we confess God, the Lord of the universe, with our own lips to be our Father, we at the same time confess that we have been brought entirely out of the state of slavery and into the state of adopted children of God.

St. Maximus the Confessor. (The first word of the prayer leads to the confession of the Most Holy Trinity.) The Father possesses this Name not as something newly acquired… If, however, He is Ever-Existing and is always also Father, this means that both the Son and the Holy Spirit always co-exist with the Father in an essential manner. They naturally exist from Him and in Him in a way that transcends (every) cause and (every) reason. Thus, having begun this prayer, we are taught to honor the Consubstantial and Super-Essential Trinity as the creative Cause of our being. At the same time we are taught to proclaim the grace of adoption within us, being counted worthy to call by grace the One who is our Creator by nature our Father. And this is so that, experiencing reverent awe before the name of our Parent by grace, we might strive to impress upon our lives the features of the One who gave us birth, hallowing His name on earth, becoming like Him, showing ourselves by our deeds to be His children, and glorifying by our thoughts and deeds the One who is the Author of our adoption—the Son of the Father by nature.

Blessed Theophylact. The disciples of Christ rival the disciples of John and wish to learn how to pray. The Savior does not dismiss His disciples’ desire but teaches them prayer. “Our Father,” He says, “who is in heaven.” Note the power of the prayer. It immediately lifts you to what is above, and, since you call God Father, it persuades you to strive by every means not to lose the likeness to the Father, but to seek to become like Him.

The word “Father” shows you what gifts you have been counted worthy of, having become a son of God.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “Our Father!” — both because He is our Creator, who brought us into being from nothing, and because by grace He is Father to us, through the Son by nature, who became like us.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. 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). Consequently, as a Father, they ought to call upon Him with hope, just as fleshly children call upon their parents and stretch out their hands to them in every need.