While many seek God as if groping in the fog, we Christians know in a very special way that he is our Father and that he watches over us. "The expression "God-Father" had never been revealed to anyone. Moses himself, when he asked God who he was, heard as an answer another name. But to us this name has been revealed by the Son". Every time we turn to him, he says to us: My son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours9. None of our needs, none of our sorrows, leaves Him indifferent. If we stumble, he is attentive to support us or lift us up. "Everything that comes to us from God and which at first seems to us prosperous or adverse, is sent to us by a Father full of tenderness and by the wisest of doctors, with a view to our own good".
Life, under the influence of divine filiation, acquires a new meaning; it is no longer an obscure enigma to be deciphered, but a task to be carried out in the Father's house, which is the whole of Creation: My son, he says to each one of us, go and work in my vineyard. Then life produces no fears, and death is seen with peace, for it is the definitive encounter with Him. If we feel at all times like this, children, we will be people of prayer; with that piety that disposes us to "have a ready will to give ourselves to what belongs to the service of God". And our life will serve to give glory and praise to God, because the treatment of a son with his father is full of respect, veneration and, at the same time, of recognition and love. "The piety that is born of divine filiation is a profound attitude of the soul, which ends up informing all thoughts, all desires, all affections ". It fills everything.
The Lord, throughout his earthly life, teaches us how to treat our Father God. In Jesus, this filial treatment and affection for his Father is given to the highest degree. The Gospel shows us how, on various occasions, He withdraws far from the crowd to unite in prayer with His Father, and from Him we learn the need to dedicate some time exclusively to God, in the midst of the tasks of the day. At special times He prays for Himself; it is a prayer of filial abandonment to the will of His Father God, as in Gethsemane and on the Cross. At other times he prays confidently for others, especially for the Apostles and for his future disciples, for us. He tells us in many ways that this filial and trusting relationship with God is necessary for us to resist temptation, to obtain the necessary goods19 and for final perseverance.
This filial conversation must be personal, in the secret of the house; discreet; humble, like that of the publican; constant and without discouragement, like that of the importunate friend or that of the widow rejected by the judge; it must be permeated with confidence in the divine goodness, for he is a Father who knows the needs of his children, and gives them not only the goods of the soul but also what is necessary for material life. "My Father," thus, with confidence, "who art in Heaven, look upon me with compassionate Love, and make me reciprocate.
"Melt and enkindle my heart of bronze, burn and purify my immortified flesh, fill my understanding with supernatural lights, make my tongue a herald of the Love and Glory of Christ". My Father..., teach us and teach me to treat you with filial trust.