Since today is Father’s Day, I have provided the following collection of Q&A’s on fathers and fatherhood. Do you have a question about Catholicism? If so, send me an email and I will try my best to answer it.
Why do we call God our “father”?
We call God “father” first of all because He was revealed to us as such. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He told them to begin by saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven …”. The Catechism gives us other reasons: “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” (no. 239).
But, this does not mean that God is a man. The same paragraph in the Catechism goes on to clarify: “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: no one is father as God is Father.”
Are there any patron saints for fathers?
For the fathers themselves, there are only two: St. Joachim, the father of Mary; and St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse and Jesus’ foster-father. For those who have lost a father, there are 33 different patron saints. Some of the more popular among these are St. Angelica Merici, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Maria Goretti, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Therese of Lisieux.
How come we don’t know more about St. Joseph?
That is a very good question, and all we can really do to provide an answer is speculate. There is a tradition which says that Joseph was an elderly widower when he took Mary to be his wife. If this is true, then he likely died when Jesus was very young and so not much would be known about him by the followers of Jesus.
The last we see of St. Joseph in Scripture is at the temple, where he and Mary finally find Jesus, who had become separated from their traveling party. After this, there is a 12-year silence about the life of Christ. Joseph resides within this silence. Perhaps this is fitting. After all, the little information we have about Jesus’ earthly father causes his Heavenly
Father to come into greater view. Scripture tells us a great many things about that Father!
Pax Christi,
phatcatholic
Why do we call God our “father”?
We call God “father” first of all because He was revealed to us as such. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He told them to begin by saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven …”. The Catechism gives us other reasons: “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” (no. 239).
But, this does not mean that God is a man. The same paragraph in the Catechism goes on to clarify: “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: no one is father as God is Father.”
Are there any patron saints for fathers?
For the fathers themselves, there are only two: St. Joachim, the father of Mary; and St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse and Jesus’ foster-father. For those who have lost a father, there are 33 different patron saints. Some of the more popular among these are St. Angelica Merici, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Maria Goretti, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Therese of Lisieux.
How come we don’t know more about St. Joseph?
That is a very good question, and all we can really do to provide an answer is speculate. There is a tradition which says that Joseph was an elderly widower when he took Mary to be his wife. If this is true, then he likely died when Jesus was very young and so not much would be known about him by the followers of Jesus.
The last we see of St. Joseph in Scripture is at the temple, where he and Mary finally find Jesus, who had become separated from their traveling party. After this, there is a 12-year silence about the life of Christ. Joseph resides within this silence. Perhaps this is fitting. After all, the little information we have about Jesus’ earthly father causes his Heavenly
Father to come into greater view. Scripture tells us a great many things about that Father!
Pax Christi,
phatcatholic
