From: Galatians 4:4-7
Divine Sonship
[4] But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of
woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the
law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you
are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,
“Abba! Father!” [7] So through God you are no longer a slave but a
son, and if a son then an heir.
Commentary:
6. Abba is an Aramaic word which has come down to us with its trans-
lation “Father”. As can be deduced from Mt 14:36 (cf. note on Lk 11:1),
this is the same word as our Lord used in his personal prayer. However,
it is not a word ever used by Jews to address God, probably because
it contains the kind of trust and tenderness that small hildren have in
their dealings with their father. Jesus, however, did not hesitate to use
it and to encourage his followers to use it. In this way he invites us to
relate to God with the trust and tenderness of a child towards its father
— as well he might, because by redeeming us Christ not only freed us
from the yoke of the Law but enabled us to have a new relationship to
God, to be God’s sons and daughters. St Paul echoes this teaching
(cf. also Rom 8:16-17) and attributes to the Holy Spirit that movement
in man’s heart which impels him to cry out, full of love and hope,
“Abba! Father!”
This all means that “if we have a constant relationship with the Holy
Spirit, we shall become spiritual ourselves, we shall realize that we are
Christ’s brothers and children of God, and we shall not hesitate to call
upon our Father [...]. Words cannot go so far as the heart, which is
moved by God’s goodness. He says to us, ‘You are my son.’ Not a
stranger, not a well-treated servant, not a friend—that would be a lot
already. A son! He gives us free access to treat him as sons, with a
son’s piety and I would even say with the boldness and daring of a
son whose Father cannot deny him anything” ([St] J. Escriva, “Christ
Is Passing By”, 136 and 185).
In this verse we can see the roles of the three Divine Persons in man’s
supernatural life. The Father sends the Holy Spirit, here called “the
Spirit of his Son”, to help us activate our gift of divine sonship.
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Reprinted with permission from from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers,
the U.S. publishers.
Sancta Maria,
ora pro nobis.
Holy Mary,
pray for us,
your children here upon the earth,
sinful, sorrowful,
so often lost and lone.
Come to us when our hearts are heavy,
when we most need our mother,
and lead us to the fruit of your womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
Sancta Dei Genetrix,
ora pro nobis.
Holy Mother of God,
who was graced to know Jesus
like no other human,
whose kind and gentle advice is
Do whatever he tells you,
pray for us
now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
Mater dolorosa,
ora pro nobis.
Mother of sorrows,
You understand grief in that special way
that comes from offering up
the best and the brightest
gift of your heart,
without anger,
without curses.
Seeing your son in his sorrow and pain,
you suffered
like a woman in labor,
martyred alive
to become our mother.
Pray for us
now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
Refugium peccatorum,
ora pro nobis.
Refuge of sinners,
Thank you, o sweet Mary,
You who come looking for us,
lost in the night,
like a worried mother
seeking her lost child
In this time where the twlight grows so dim,
and so much is so confusing,
we need our mother,
take us by the hand,
and bring us to the foot of the Cross,
to Jesus your son,
where we may find the true light.
Sancta Maria,
Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc,
et in hora mortis nostrae.
Amen.