POPE JOHN PAUL II's
Prayer to God the Father
For the Third Year of Preparation for the Jubilee Year 2000

BLESSED ARE YOU, LORD,
Father in heaven,
who, in your infinite mercy,
stooped down to us in our distress
and gave us Jesus, your Son, born of a woman,
to be our Savior and friend,
our brother and redeemer.
We thank you, good Father,
for the gift of the Jubilee Year;
make it a time of favor for us,
the year of a great return
to the father's house, where, full of love,
you await your straying children
to embrace them in your forgiveness
and welcome them to your table,
in their festive garments.

      We praise you, Father, forever!

FATHER MOST MERCIFUL,
during this Holy Year
may our love for you and for our neighbor
grow ever stronger;
may Christ's disciples promote justice
and peace; may they proclaim the Good News
to the poor; and may the Church our Mother
direct her love especially to the little ones
and the neglected.

      We praise you, Father, forever!

FATHER OF JUSTICE,
may the Great Jubilee be the fitting time
for all Catholics to rediscover
the joy of living by your word
and obeying your will;
may they know the goodness of fraternal
communion, as they break bread together
and praise you in hymns and inspired songs.

      We praise you, Father, forever!

FATHER, RICH IN MERCY,
may the holy Jubilee be a time of openness,
of dialogue and encounter,
among all who believe in Christ
and with the followers of other religions;
in your immense love,
be bountiful in mercy to all.

      We praise you, Father, forever!

O GOD, ALMIGHTY FATHER,
as we make our way to you,
our ultimate destiny,
may all your children experience
the gentle company of Mary most holy,
image of purest love,
whom you chose to be Mother of Christ and
Mother of the Church.

      We praise you, Father, forever!

TO YOU, FATHER OF LIFE,
eternal source of all that is,
highest good and everlasting light,
be honor and glory,
praise and thanksgiving,
with the Son and with the Spirit,
for ages unending. Amen.

BASIC TEACHINGS ON GOD THE FATHER
From the 1997 edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

GOD IS TRIUNE

198   Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last,1 the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works.

THE FATHER REVEALED BY THE SON

238   Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world.59 Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son".60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.61

239   By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood,62 which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard:63 no one is father as God is Father.

240   Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: He is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." 64

241   For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature".65

242   Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him.66 The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only- begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father".67

FOR UPDATED TEACHINGS FOR THE YEAR OF GOD THE FATHER, SEE
JOHN PAUL II WEEKLY
  1 Cf. Is 44:6.
59 Cf. Dt 32:6; Mal 2:10.
60 Ex 4:22.
61 Cf. 2Sam 7:14; Ps 68:6.
62 Cf. Is 66:13; Ps 131:2.
63 Cf. Ps 27:10; Eph 3:14; Is 49:15.
64 Mt 11-27.
65 Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3.
66 The English phrases "of one being" and "one in being" translate the Greek word homoousios, which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis.
67 Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; cf. DS 150.



SIMBAHAYAN  SA  MAYNILA