Whenever Jesus prayed to the Father He used the word “Abba” which is essentially an affectionate, loving form of address, both confident and very personal, and if Jesus is to pray in us when we pray to our Father in heaven, we need something of the attitude Our Lord had that made Him speak of God as “Father” but to God as “Abba”. Our Lord often told us that God is our Father, but He did not say that God is “Abba”. That word, which cannot be translated, is not one of description but of contact with God.
St. Paul tells us that we have received the spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters] of God, a spirit that makes us cry, “Abba, Father”. So it is the Holy Spirit of Jesus that enables us to relate to God the Father in that extremely personal and loving and confident way that Our Lord Himself had.
I knew a monk once who lived in the [conscious] presence of God almost all the time, as far as I could tell, and I found out from him how he would put into words the feeling or attitude or movement of his soul in this constant state of recollection. He told me that he simply lived in the almost unspoken aspiration, “Abba, Father”. And that is what one does if one lives in Christ.
So there is a great difference between the act of faith, “I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God”, and the prayer that should proceed from that faith, in which, drawing on the Holy Spirit within us, and thus the feeling, as it were, of the Heart of Christ, we pray Jesus’ prayer, “Abba, Father”.
My monk friend used to stay in God’s presence by being absorbed in the warmth and intimacy and reverence of “Abba, Father” coming from Jesus’ Heart. Other holy people may use other forms of address in their private and personal prayer and recollection. But it is very important surely that we have a real sense of being sons or daughters of this wonderful merciful Father. We are not just addressing a Person. We are not just speaking to God as believers. We are with Him as His children, each one of us His specially loved child. Just think of what it is like for a well-beloved child to be with its Father, especially when that Father is our infinite God of love. All honor and glory be to Him, forever and ever. Amen. “Abba, Father!”
