The Father’s Family

ABOUT US

Goals

Individual consecration of all human persons to God the Father.
Collective consecration of human communities to God the Father.
Celebration of the Feast of Abba Our Father, the Father of All Humanity, on the first Sunday of every August.
Continuous growth in our personal knowledge and love of God the Father.
Propagation of the knowledge and love of God the Father.
Christian ecumenical outreach in knowing, praising, honoring, thanking, and loving God the Father.
Inter-religious outreach in knowing, praising, honoring, thanking, and loving God the Father.
Civic outreach in knowing, praising, honoring, thanking, and loving God the Father.

Structure

The social network hub of The Father’s Family, was first set up in 2013. Chapters of The Father’s Family are being set up across the world. The governance of the organization and of each chapter follows the bylaws of The Father’s Family. The reporting structure of the organization starts with the individual chapter that then reports to a local council. The structure then ascends to a regional council, a national council, a global council and finally the Board of Trustees. All council officers are elected. The Board of Trustees is guided by Lay Advisors and Spiritual and Ecclesial Advisors.

Here is an overview of the organizational structure of The Father’s Family with two countries listed per continent as an example.

Leadership

Governance Structure of The Father’s Family

The Father’s FamilySpiritual and Ecclesial Advisors

The Father’s Family, Lay Advisors

The Father’s Family, Board of Trustees

The Father’s Family, Global Council

The Father’s Family, National Council

The Father’s Family, Regional Council

The Father’s Family, Local Council

The Father’s Family, Individual chapter

Membership

Membership in the The Father’s Family is open to all who have a desire to honor, know and love God the Father; who share the goals listed above of The Father’s Family organization; who will not contradict the Trinitarian creeds of the seven Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church; and who will abide by the bylaws and governance structure of The Father’s Family organization (see link).

You can “sign up” to join the The Father’s Family movement at ourfathersfamily.com and then set up or join a local chapter. Here you can also download (free) a copy of Daddy We Never Knew You, a book on the Father.

Structure of Chapter Meetings

The Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”)

Review of the Goals of The Father’s Family

Reports of Members

Reflections on the Father’s Promises (see The Father’s Promises tab on ourfathersfamily.com)

Recitation of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed*

Reading of report from the Global Council

Discussion of near-term and long-term plans

Litany of God the Father**

Consecration to God the Father prayer***

Feast Day

The famous preacher Raniero Cantalamessa rightly said, “It’s sad that in the whole liturgical year there isn’t a feast dedicated to the Father. There are many feasts dedicated to Jesus the Son; there is a feast of the Holy Spirit. There isn’t a single feast dedicated to the Father, “source and origin of all divinity”.¹

Why is a feast so important? As Cantalamessa says, “feasts are the highest and most solemn form of proclaiming one’s faith, because all people participate in it unanimously.”²

The theologian Jean Galot said: “The new worship which Jesus began consists of adoring the Father: and yet there is no day in which this adoration is directed more particularly to the person of the Father.”³

The global movement The Father’s Family exists to proclaim and propagate the celebration of an annual feast day to honor the God the Father of humankind. The celebration will be held on the first Sunday of every August.

It is a festival that celebrates the Father’s relationship to us and his acts on our behalf. Christmas is a commemorative feast day that celebrates the coming of the Son while Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Spirit. A feast for the Father of humankind commemorates the Father’s acts of loving us (“for God so loved the world”) by creating us and then sending us his Son and his Spirit.

How did Christians go about “instituting” a Feast? In most cases, it originated as a movement of the faithful. Christmas was first celebrated by groups of Christians during the reign of Constantine in Rome from 336 A.D. Different regions of the world began celebrating the feast in different eras. Pentecost was a Jewish harvest feast held on the fiftieth day after Passover. It was during this feast that the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and other disciples.

August, the Eighth Month, is the appropriate month for celebrating the Feast of God the Father given the significance of “eight” in the Bible. And the first Sunday of August would be the appropriate day since this is a celebration to accompany our Sabbath worship.

“Eight” is appropriate because, as is well known, the eighth day was the day ordained for sacred feasts in the Old Testament. This continued in the New Testament even with the institution of the Sabbath on “Sunday.”

The Jewish feast of Booths/Tabernacles was held on the eighth day:

“For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD, and on the eighth day you will have a declared holy day. You shall offer an oblation to the LORD. It is the festival closing. You shall do no heavy work. ” Leviticus 23:36

“On the eighth day you will hold a public assembly: you shall do no heavy work. ”

Numbers 29:35

The Jewish purification ritual was on the eighth day

“On the eighth day the individual shall take two unblemished male lambs. ” Leviticus 14:10

The feast of the Dedication of the Temple was also on the eighth day.

“On this occasion Solomon and with him all Israel, a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days. ” 2 Chronicles 7:8-9

In Ezekiel’s vision of the future, we see,

“And when these days are over, from the eighth day on, the priests shall sacrifice your burnt offerings and communion offerings on the altar. Then I will be pleased with you.” Ezekiel 43:27.

Christians as different as St. Augustine and John Calvin have commented on the importance of eight in the life of Jesus:

[Jesus] “brought it about that His body rested from all its works on Sabbath in the tomb, and that His resurrection on the third day, which we call the Lord’s day, the day after the Sabbath, and therefore the eighth, proved the circumcision of the eighth day to be also prophetical of Him.”⁴

“It is probable and consonant with reason, that the number seven designated the course of the present life. Therefore the eighth day might seem to be fixed upon by the Lord, to prefigure the beginning of a new life.”⁵ John Calvin

Jesus revealed his own consecration to the Father during the Jewish eight day feast of Dedication.

Like Christmas and Pentecost, the feast of the Father is a cause that should unite Christians of every denomination.

Galot says,

Instituting a feast in honor of God our Father would certainly be a step in the direction of the reunion of Christians. This unifying role is at the heart of our veneration of God our Father: Christians cannot pray to their heavenly Father without by that very fact being more closely united among themselves of the same spiritual family. The feast would be a symbol of Christian unity and a powerful impetus toward reconciliation.⁶

Cantalamessa adds,

Christians would certainly give great joy to the risen Lord if they were able to accomplish this project “ecumenically”, that is, reaching an agreement with all the Churches who accept it in order to celebrate, with one accord, the feast of the Father on the same day.⁷

Consecration

The feast of The Father’s FamilyThe Father’s Family, the Father of all Humanity is just a starting point. We need to have a living awareness of the Father and consecrate ourselves to Him.

The whole Bible is a story of humanity turning away from the Father and then returning to Him. The Father seeks us out through the patriarchs and the prophets, the apostles and the evangelists, and ultimately through the Son and the Spirit. The fundamental theme is the Father’s love for us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus came so that we might know the Father, come to the Father and become children of the Father.

“No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27

“No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6

“That you may be children of your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:45

It is through the Holy Spirit that we become children of The Father’s Family:

“As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” Galatians 4:6.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. … You received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” Romans 8:14-15

The Father cannot be considered other than in relation to Son and Spirit. From all eternity, the Father gives all he is to the Son, the Son receives all he is from the Father and their common love “breathes” forth the Spirit.

We are all called to consecrate ourselves to the Father as Jesus himself did and asks us to do.

“I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth … so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:19, 21

The consecration bears endless fruit in graces and blessings to individuals and communities.

“If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:7-11)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:3)

“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.” (1 John 3:1).

The consecration to the Father is something we must make personally and collectively. Ideally, we should make a collective consecration on a day set aside for this. Hence we have the feast day of The Father’s Family. Father’s Family, the Father of Humanity.

Galot reminds us of the importance of celebrating the Feast:

The Father intervened with His supreme initiative in all the events of the saving work and He cannot be considered extraneous to the fulfilment of His divine plan of humanity’s redemption. He is also the first promoter of the entire liturgy. Precisely, because He is the initiator of all the work of salvation and the ultimate end of the journey of redeemed humanity, the Father should be celebrated. The liturgy must follow the essential movement which characterizes the journey and the worship of Christ, which goes from the Father to the Father.⁸

Each year members will celebrate the Feast of the Father on the first Sunday in August with a collective act of consecration. Ideally they can also celebrate the feast at their places of worship.

The act of consecration can be as simply as saying and living “Abba Father, I love you and give myself to you totally and forever through your Son and in your Spirit.”

A Pipeline for Miracles

The personal goals and obligations – and you might say benefits – of becoming a part of The Father’s Family are three-fold:

Become a child of the Father and constantly grow in awareness of his presence and infinite love.
As a child of the Father, manifest unconditional love for all in our lives and share the Father’s presence with them.
Ask for and receive the blessings, graces, protection, provisions and guidance promised by the Father in all things and at all times – remember the Father’s Promise requires us to believe if we are to receive.

By becoming children of the Father we become a pipeline for his miracles.

The Father offers us a “deal”: if we do what he asks of us, then he promises to watch our back!

And this is what we have to do. This is all we have to do: Trust the Father totally to provide us with everything we need and never fear anything. Never be worried.

Here is the payback: He will take care of all our needs.

We just entrust all our needs, worries, problems, crises, challenges, obstacles to the Father and it becomes his responsibility to resolve them all.

In the measure we trust, in that measure we receive. And it is not a matter of trusting blindly but trusting with our eyes wide open: trusting in the sense of acting by divine directive at every instant.

Jesus said, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

These are the “fringe benefits” of membership in The Father’s Family. But we are not part of it simply for “benefits.”

With the worldwide continual consecration to God the Father of Humankind, we would be knowing, honoring, and loving the Father who loved us into being and seeks nothing but our joy.

It would be the hour of which Jesus spoke:

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.” John 4:23

We will be making an enduring contribution to the divine plan for humankind. We will be playing our part in salvation history.

The first Christian millennium was a time when we deepened our knowledge of the Son. In the second millennium, we came to a greater understanding of the Spirit. Now, in this third millennium, we are ready to know, love, and honor more fully the Father from Whom all things come.

Above all, the feast of the Father will focus attention on the most important truth of all: God’s infinite, unconditional love for each one of us and the need for us to respond to his invitation.

This is what the feast and The Father’s Family are all about and why they are essential. It is the Love of the Father that we discover and celebrate, a Love that we now taste and see for ourselves and manifest to the world.

We are The Father’s Family because we are his children. You are invited now to join this global movement to know, love, and serve him at ourfathersfamily.com.

Notes

¹The True Lordship of Christ, ed. Ancora, pp. 96-9.7

²Ibid.

³Jean Galot, “The new worship of the Father”, December 1999.

⁴St. Augustine, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, 16.29.

⁵John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Genesis 17:12.

⁶Jean Galot, Abba Father We Long to See Your Face (New York: Alba House, 1992), 231-2.

⁷The True Lordship of Christ, ed. Ancora, pp. 96-97.

⁸Jean Galot, “The new worship of the Father”, December 1999.

Blog site

The Father’s Family invites blog posts on the Father on its blog site. All blogs must conform to the Trinitarian professions of the creeds of the seven Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church.

Website

Languages currently supported on our website include English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Arabic and Turkish,

The website is made up of the following:

Home Page

About Us

Blogspace

Community for Chapters and Groups of Abba*

^*The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed

(to be recited at Chapter meetings of The Father’s Family)

I believe in One God,
the Father Almighty,
Maker of Heaven and Earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
the Only-Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages;
Light of Light;
True God of True God;
begotten, not made;
of one essence with the Father,
by Whom all things were made;
Who for us men and for our salvation
came down from Heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered, and was buried.
And the third day He arose again,
according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into Heaven,
and sits at the right hand of the Father;
and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead;
Whose Kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life,
Who proceeds from the Father;
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified;
Who spoke by the prophets.

And in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

^**Litany of God the Father

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity One God,
have mercy on us.

Father, First Person of the Most Blessed Trinity,
have mercy on us.
Father of the Only-begotten Son,
have mercy on us.
Father and Son, from Whom proceeds the Holy Spirit,
have mercy on us.
Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
have mercy on us.
Our Father in Heaven,
have mercy on us.

Father eternal,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, infinite majesty,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, infinite holiness,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, infinite goodness,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, infinite happiness,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, all-powerful,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, all-knowing,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, present everywhere,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, all-just,
hallowed be Your Name.
Father, all merciful,
hallowed be Your Name.

Father, creating Heaven and earth,
Your kingdom come.
Father, promising a Savior,
Your kingdom come.
Father, revealed by the Son,
Your kingdom come.
Father, willing the passion of Jesus,
Your kingdom come.
Father, accepting the Sacrifice of Calvary,
Your kingdom come.
Father, reconciled with mankind,
Your kingdom come.
Father, sending the Paraclete,
Your kingdom come.
Father, in the Name of Jesus,
Your kingdom come.
Father of Nations,
Your kingdom come.

Father of Love, cherish us.
Father of Beauty, protect us.
Father of Wisdom, direct us.
Father, Divine Providence, watch over us.

Father of the poor,
Your Will be done.
Father of orphans,
Your Will be done.
Father of widows,
Your Will be done.
Father of the exiled,
Your Will be done.
Father of the persecuted,
Your Will be done.
Father of the afflicted,
Your Will be done.
Father of the infirm,
Your Will be done.
Father of the aged,
Your Will be done.

Father, we adore You.
Father, we love You.
Father, we thank You.
Father, we bless You.

In joy and in sorrow, may we bless You.
In sickness and in health, may we bless You.
In prosperity and in adversity, may we bless You.
In consolation and in desolation, may we bless You.
In life and in death, may we bless You.
In time and in eternity, may we bless You.

Father, hear us.
Father, graciously hear us.

Lamb of God, well-beloved Son of the Father,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, commanding us to be perfect as the Father,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Our Mediator with the Father,
have mercy on us.

^***Consecration to God the Father

(SHORT FORM VERSION)

“Abba Father, I love you and I give myself to you totally and forever through your Son and in your Spirit.”

COMMUNITY

This is the digital hub of the The Father’s Family organization and is intended for interactions concerning its goals and activities. Only content relating to The Father’s Family is permitted on this site. Any commercial, political and sexual material is strictly prohibited and will be immediately deleted.