I in them. [1] Let us, then, love such a Father. Let us say over and over again, Our Father, Our Father, Our Father! Shall we never love you? Shall we never be like true children, pierced to the heart by your fatherly tenderness?
Yet again, 'Our Father.' Why do we say our Father? Let us learn of St Paul. 'Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' [2] It is the Holy Spirit, then, Who is in us; from Him proceeds that inward cry of the heart by which we call upon God, as upon a Father always ready to hear.
The same Apostle says elsewhere: — 'For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' For God gives us 'the spirit of adoption whereby we cry: Abba, Father!' [3] Here, again, it is clear that the Holy Ghost teaches us this filial cry with which we have recourse to God as to our Father.
Why call it a cry? Because a great need causes us to cry out. A child cries only when it is in pain or want; but for whom should it then cry but for father, mother, or nurse — for anyone, in short, who stands to it in a parental relation?
