DAY 1

The fatherhood and care of God who rules the universe

The place of God in the modern world

We are not alone,
we live in God’s world
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.[1]

Scripture Readings

Isaiah 63:15-17
Psalm 139:1-3, 13, 23, 24b
1 Corinthians 8:5-6

Patristic[2] Reading

From the Greek tradition

Behold the mysteries of love, and then you will contemplate the bosom of the Father, which the only-begotten Son of God has revealed. God himself is love, and through love he is contemplated by us. And while in his ineffable reality he is Father, in his compassion he has become for us mother.

– Clement of Alexandria [c. 150-215], Which Rich Man Will Be Saved? 37:1-2

For reflection:

  1. How have you experienced God’s fatherly care and motherly compassion in your own life?
  2. What hinders us from recognising each person as a child of God?
  3. How does acknowledging God as the Father of all affect our perception of and relationship with others?

Prayer

[1] A New Creed, the United Church of Canada, https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/faithstatements/new-creed-1968

[2] From early Christian writers.

R:   Thanks and praise to you, O Lord

We bless you, O Lord, Father of lights: from you descend every good thing and every perfect gift. R/

You have made the world and all that it contains, you are the Lord of heaven and earth.

To all mortals you give life and breath and all things. R/

You created all the peoples that dwell on the earth.

For them you established the order of time and the boundaries of their space. In the heart of human beings, you have placed the thought of eternity R/

Heavenly Father, according to your great goodness  you grant us a way of life through the Law and the Prophets.

Merciful Father, in Jesus, your Son, you proclaimed the good news of the kingdom. R/

God of all consolation, call us to follow you.

Make firm for us the work of our hands. R/

Let us pray.

Father of compassion,

renew our faith in you and bind us together through your love, so that we can recognise each other as your children, and come together as one.

We praise you through Jesus Christ, your only-begotten Son, in the communion of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Alternative Patristic Readings

From the Syriac tradition

What man can contemplate God with vigilant thought, and look upon his majesty, and consider his hidden nature, and can with the eye of his understanding look upon that pure and holy Nature, which has need of nothing? … He who begs, and entreats, and urges every man to live. He who suffers to give us life, and seeks to find us, and is more pleased at our happiness than we ourselves. He who continually entreats us to take from his riches and to carry off wealth from his storehouse, that we may be rich through his treasures and not povertystricken. He who rejoices not so much for his own life as that we live. – Philoxenus of Mabbug [c. 440-523], Discourse 7

From the Latin tradition

The Fountain of Life is that chief Good, from which the means of life are dispensed to all, while he has life abiding in himself. He receives from none as though he were in need. He confers good on others rather than borrows from others for himself, for he has no need of us … What then can be more lovely than to approach him, to cleave to him? What pleasure can be greater? He who has seen and tasted freely of the Fountain of Living Water, what else can he desire? 

– Ambrose of Milan [c. 337-397], Letters IV, 11, 18