Class 19: Abba Father Divine Filiation (Sonship) & Mystery (Sacrament) Quasimodo Sunday

St. Louis Director of Faith Formation Jamie Hickman discusses the term Abba (Father) as a central Mystery within the greatest Mystery (the Trinity) & Christ is key to knowing & loving the Father. The Greek letter μ (mu) is spoken with the mouth starting in a closed position and then gradually the lips open in order to let out the sound, which shows us the deep meaning of the word mystery: that which is hidden is intended to be revealed.

μυστήριον (mystērion, moos-tay'-ree-on) means mystery https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3466/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

Abba occurs 3 times in the RSV: https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=abba&t=RSV#s=s_primary_0_1

Ἀββᾶ (Chaldean / Aramaic: abba, ab-ah') means Father https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

πατήρ (Greek: patēr, pat-ayr') means Father https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3962/rsv/mgnt/0-1/

Pater (Latin: patēr, pat-ayr') means Father

Church Teaching on Genesis 1-3 June 30, 1909 https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-01-1909-ocr.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasimodo

The Come and See class occurred Sunday April 12, 2026 (Divine Mercy Sunday, aka Low Sunday or Sunday in the Octave of Easter or Domenica in Albis or Quasimodo Sunday). The Latin term Quasimodo comes from the Introit of the Mass for that day: "Quasi modo géniti infántes, allelúia, rationábile, sine dolo lac concupíscite, allelúia, allelúia, allelúia" ("As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia). This is the calling of all Christians: to be like or according to the mode of (quasimodo) newborn infants -- to be childlike (seek to know and love the Father). After the Last Supper, Christ tells his disciples incredibly an important message, which we hear or read in John 14:8 (the heart of the chapter), Jesus says: "Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also." The mysteries are meant to be seen, to be shared, to be lived. We can only love what and whom we know, so the Christian must seek to see the face of Christ in order to see the Father. When we see, we know, we "get" or "grasp" it -- we do not exhaust it, but we begin to understand. Over a lifetime and even into eternity, we shall understand better who the Father is by help Christ by becoming another Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the Paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own. Increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Happy Easter. Christ is risen. Alleluia. He is truly risen. Hallelujah. So I hope you have enjoyed maybe some downtime from work or extra time with family over this past week. We're now on the octave day of Easter, right? So the eight days. It's always Easter every day of this past week, not just last Sunday. And we'll continue that Paschal joy for a good 40 days, and then we'll have the ascension. Whether it's to celebrate on Ascension Day, Thursday or Ascension Sunday, it's the ascension uh time after that. So we say ascension tide. But really, that Paschal joy continues for those good 50 days up to Pentecost, where we're we're going to be calling on the Holy Spirit for a novena, right? Between of those 10 days, those solid nine days to pray, and then the tenth day being the 50th day, uh, where the Holy Spirit, He's not going to come again as if he hasn't come before, but we're going to celebrate that He came, uh descended upon our Lady and the Apostles in the upper room, and just the tremendous impact uh they've received, you know, the gift of tongues and the fire that uh burned in their hearts to go out after they have been fearful. So we want to be just like them to be on fire with the love of God. Uh that's what it's always about, right? Uh Father O'Hare made that firm early on at the beginning, and I try to hold on to what Father O'Hare has taught us that it's not an academic class, but this is a um growing strong in discipleship class. That's the whole point is to uh to grow in our love of God and neighbor uh because we see God in our neighbor. That's what it's all about. So happy Easter to you. Uh for me, I was down in Richmond. Uh that's where my parents are. So my wife and I, we were down there uh for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and um Easter, well, uh Holy Saturday, and then Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. So we were celebrating the Trudeau at my old parish, uh lots of joy. And then we went Saturday night, so we did not go on Sunday morning, although you can, of course, but we fulfilled our obligation late at night on Saturday at the Easter Vigil, which I'll say a little bit more about a little bit. But um then Sunday we we just rested with family, it was wonderful. And then Easter Monday I went back to that same church, uh St. Joseph's as my old parish. And um so there's uh there's a big family, they've got a ton of kids, and the boys have all been altar boys over the years. And I remember this one kid, he was so small and would just scream and cry, like more than an you know, some kids scream and cry. That's that's one thing. It's like the worst ever. But uh but I noticed that dad after mass pulled out his phone, and I then I realized, oh, that's his son. He's grown up now. He's not like I don't think he's 10 yet, but he's he's in the Guild of St. Stephen, which is like the altar servers guild, so he's become like a pro. And I was like, that was such a good mass, I didn't even notice. Here's this kid that's grown up. And and so at first I was like, why is he bringing out his phone? You know, like just relax. But but he was taking a picture of his son, like putting out the candles, and you could see the love of a father in his son who has grown into a young man. And you know, that's in a way kind of what Easter's about. Uh, that the Lord, obviously, his son is perfect, but the Lord has shown us how to be perfected. We're not perfect individuals, you know. What to say uh confess what a sin. What a confession. I think it was Wednesday of this week, you know. So despite the risen Lord, we still have our faults, or I do, you know, and um, but Jesus doesn't, right? He shows us what is possible as a human, he's a divine person, but he is a he has a human nature no different than ours, except sin, right? Um, sort of like the blessed mother, but she's a human being, right? Jesus is a divine being with two natures. So, Easter, uh, you see that that son get back up, and the father must have looked down with just this immense pride and joy, not that he was surprised by it, there was no shock to the Father in heaven, but he was still delighting in it. And when he sees us get back up after our sins or hardships and journey on uh with the love of God, right, that the Holy Spirit really inflames our hearts, uh, God looks down with that same delight in us. So I just hope we hold on to that, um, at least over this next week and hopefully the next 40 days or so, and and then those that novena towards Pentecost, and just hold on to that, pass that on to your family at home. Okay. So the um I don't think I used it, but the word really is divine filiation. Maybe by a show of hands, has anybody heard the the phrase or the word, the term divine filiation? Yeah, okay, great. Could you could kind of say something to it? Nope, I'm putting you on the spot, so it's okay if you say no. Uh God is our father. Yeah, okay, God is our father, right? Um, like I've got a dad at home, but God is my father in heaven, and it's a real fatherhood, real sonship. Um, and so the filiation is the sonship, right? The divine is is easier, divine thinking of God, filiation, we're made sons in the sun, right? Jesus is the son, and we're adopted. Sons and daughters, of course, it's uh not exclusive to the males. Uh but but it we we refer to ourselves as sons of God, divine filiation because of Jesus, right? He he took on a human nature and was specifically walking around as a man. So that divine filiation or divine sonship is something we want to ponder. Of course, the greatest mystery being the Trinity, and one of the greatest after that being the incarnation, right? So we get to participate in that through our baptism and these other initiation sacraments. We'll come back to that. Okay, do you remember Alexandra Dumas or Dumas? Dumas, yeah. Um Three Musketeers, alright? Any other uh Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorites, yeah. Others? Le Miserab, right? I think that's him, right?

unknown 6:23

Uh that's Victor Hugo.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Victor Hugo, ah, you're absolutely right. Um how about, and now maybe I'm confusing things. Hunchback and Notre Dame? Is that also Hugo? Is that Hugo? Okay. Uh so I totally messed that one up. But um, alright, so that's where I'm falling, right? I'm not I'm not all there. Jesus is all there, I'm not. Um so Victor Hugo, with with uh what's the main character? Who do we think of when we think Hunchback in Notre Dame? So Hunchback, what's his name? Quasimodo. Alright, so is that a French word? Quasimodo? No, it's not a typical French name, right? Um why why is he named Quasimodo? Half human, okay. Okay, quasi- you think of quasi, maybe half human, okay? It's an interesting guess. Um other considerations? He does have a hunchback, yeah. So today, what's today? Uh it's day of the week is Sunday, of course, but what are we celebrating today?

unknown 7:30

Divine Mercy Mercy Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Divine Mercy Sunday, right? That's that's for my house. I love the Divine Mercy. That's where I'm wearing the you know red and blue and white, the blood and the water, right? Um that gush forth, right? We we love we love our Lord and his undying love for us. So Divine Mercy is sacred. It's it's also on our our bulletin today, right? We can think of John Paul II and uh we think of uh who else, St. Faustina, among others. They're not the only ones, but among others. So Quasimodo, famous character, he's born uh found today, right? And they didn't we didn't call it Divine Mercy Sunday until during my lifetime, right? I think about about 25 years ago or so, maybe 2002, 2001. Um and but this was also called Low Sunday or Dominica and Albis, because the Albis think of albino, the they would wear their white garments from last Saturday at the Easter Vigil. You can think of the new Christians wearing white garments. They're still beaming with the joy of being cleansed by baptism. So they wear their white for a whole week. Um and so low Sunday, because like it's still the octave of Easter, last Sunday being the high Sunday of Easter, now it's the low. Um and but also obviously the octave of Easter, the octave day, or the eighth day, but it's also called Quasimodo Sunday, because in the um in the Mass, we have like most of the Mass we can sing, right? Very, very few parts of the Mass would would just be spoken or or whispered, let's say. But we obviously when we love something, when we're excited, we'll sing about it. So Quasimodo is the the entrance antiphon. So I'll say it real quick, but quasimodo genitive infantes alleluia, and that translates to as newborn babes, alleluia. So it's the beginning part of the entrance antiphon, or you can think maybe we have an entrance hymn, but the uh the text of the Mass itself provides an antiphon at the beginning to sing. Um and then it continues, Ratsu Nabile sine dolo lak con cupishit compishite, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. And that that is uh continuation, desire the rational milk without guile. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. So in full, this is from uh 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2. So you can think of the mass starting right away, right out of the scriptures. Um and someone that had denied Christ and is now reconciled with Christ because he has confessed, I've denied you, and he wants reconciliation. So he's able to meditate on that, that he has been transformed, he's been renewed, uh, he's been born again by by the blood and the water that comes from Christ. And so Peter tells us as newborn babes, so we can think in the mode of or being like little little babies. So that's the quasimodo. Quasi being sort of or as, so we're not actually literally little little babies, right? But in the mode of, so our our hearts have to be childlike, right? Not not tiny. Um we're expecting, so my wife is uh expecting, so we actually went down with our whole family, but the um, you know, my my my daughter's heart is tiny right now. I'm not not uh called by Jesus to have like shrink my heart. I'm supposed to have an enlarged heart, right? I'm supposed to have a huge on fire, bursting with love, heart, but childlike. So utter trust in God, utter dependence on God. Um and that's what these mysteries should do. They should help us to um change the way we see the world. That we need open hands and reach out for the love of the Father because it's true, right? We wouldn't want to reach for something that's false, like a fable. So kids learn fables in order to learn virtues, you know, do this, avoid that. But we we know the truth, like from the gospel. So Jesus is teaching us be like him, be uh affiliated, or be be made a son, obviously, including the daughters. Be more like Christ, who opens his hands and into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit, right? The the Lord teaches us how to be Christ-like, how to be childlike. So I said mystery. Uh the word itself, mystery, it's an English word, uh, but it's coming from Greek, mysterion. Um, and it's almost spelled exactly the same. So it's like a transliteration practically. But I want you to take a second pause and think, don't say it out loud, but begin to say mystery to yourself. So if you see me right now, so my mouth is open when I begin to say the word so, right? So you can see my lips are kind of open already, ready to go. But if it's a mystery, my mouth is shut, right? But something inside is like propelling my my voice forward, right? So the the lips are gonna open up naturally to say any word that starts with M, right? Michael, um, mystery, more than, right, whatever it might be. So I know that maybe it's uh too metaphoric, too deep, I don't know. But but there's something to it. Great minds, the philosophers and theologians of the centuries have meditated on mysteries are meant to be shared, right? They're just the way we even express the concept. It's something that's hidden and then it's revealed, it's put forward for us to have. And we don't want to think that um God, who's like the greatest mystery I said is the Trinity, right? And then the incarnation. Really, we could think of after that, uh, that the Son comes to us. It's a mystery in heaven that's revealed to us so that we can be like it. We can know it. And the more we know something, if it's good for us, we can be like it in some way. We can be childlike, right? We don't literally become children, but quasimodo, we can be kind of like a child again. Utter trust and dependence on our Father. Um in uh Greek it's mysterion, which we just say mystery. And then in the Bible, when they're translating mystery into Latin, uh they translate it as anybody uh know or want to wager a guess? What's the Latin word that comes from mystery in Greek? No? No? No, not magisterium. Sacramentum. Sacramentum. And what do we say in English instead of sacramentum? Sacrament, yeah. So these mysteries, those are the sacraments. So the ultimate mysteries, of course, I said the the ultimate is is the trinity, and we can think in in baptism, we have the um the whole trinity infused into our soul, right? So that we're we're now a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, right? The the Lord is really dwelling in us, in our hearts. And then we can think of so that's the first initiation sacrament. How many sacraments of initiation total? Three, yes. Lucy, very good. Um so the first being baptism, the second being confirmation, sometimes it's not in that order, but like if you were there last Saturday, we can we baptize, we confirm, and then we give the Holy Eucharist.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Um, Mass is celebrating the same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Uh depend depends on how we use the term. And so for your question, it's really we're looking at the Eucharist. So the mysteries are those things that we're doing to bring about, like the mystery. So I'm saying the the ultimate being the Trinity, and there's nothing that's separated from the Trinity, right? God is creator, and then there's creation. So everything in some way is tied back right away to the ultimate mystery. And then we can think of maybe the second greatest mystery would be the incarnation, because the creator and his creation are wedded in in such a way, it's a powerful mystery that we're able to understand because Christ actually came, right? We have to believe that, but we're able to see what that looks like. So it's not meant to be hidden, it's not only for the uh special, select few that get to, you know, special knowledge. We're all meant to know about these mysteries, they're meant to be revealed and shared. Um, and so we see that in the incarnation. And the Eucharist, the third and final of those initiation sacraments, is Jesus, right? We don't see him, we see bread, right? That's what we see, or we see wine. Obviously, they're no longer, they've been transformed. So it's the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. But you can't see the divinity of Christ, right? You have to trust that, see that with the eyes of faith. Um, not not these two eyes, even with even with four eyes, right? I can't see um the living God. I have to see with the eyes of faith. And the more we're like Jesus, sons of God, sons and daughters of God, by divine filiation, by divine sonship, we're able to see with those eyes of faith. Because Jesus sees the Father, right? And he tells his apostles if you don't know me, or if you don't know the Father, it's because you don't know me, because I and the Father are one, right? Jesus is one with his father. They're two different persons, but they're united in the Trinity. Okay, so we've looked at the word mystery, it's meant to share, and all of us, I'm assuming, are baptized at least. We're at least baptized, and so we have the mystery of God in us. And so the more we live that, trusting, with the hearts on fire, we we bring God to the world. And that's what we're really called to. Um I mentioned the Mass, so that's the main place we encounter Christ, right? It's not the only place, but that is the ultimate because the Eucharist is there. And if we go outside of the time of Mass, usually in Catholic churches you have a tabernacle with the blessed sacrament in it, right? So we can be very close in proximity to the Lord. Uh, but but we can think if I want to be more like Christ, I should probably talk to him, right? I need to talk to him all the time, certainly daily, uh, probably throughout the day. But but but St. Paul tells us pray without ceasing, right? So that's our goal. Well, in the Mass, we have several prayers where we talk to Jesus, right? Um you can think of the Kyrie Lai San, Lord have mercy, right? Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. We're we're not just saying words, we're really praying. Uh if if we're believers, right, if we're really sons of God, we're believing that. Now, in the old mass, there's a ninefold. So you say, Um, kirie lesson, kiri lesson, kiriele san, and that's really to the Father. And then you say, Christ de laison, Christ laysan, Christ de laison. That's obviously to Jesus, the Son of God. Then you say, Kyrie lesson, kiry laison, kiri laysan. That's to the Holy Spirit, because the Father is still Lord. The Holy Spirit is still Lord. But in the Mass we would have gone to today at St. Louis, you know, it's just Kirie Laysan, Christe Laysan, Kiryale San, or Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. All three of those are directed to Jesus. Um then we can think of the Gloria, glory to God in the highest. And there's a couple lines in there where we're directly speaking to Jesus, right? And it's important. If we're gonna be more like him, we want to talk to him and welcome him into our hearts in worship. And um so we had the I'll let you look into the to that hymn, um, the Gloria. And then we can also, there's gonna be several, but we can think of the Annustei, Lamb of God. Now, in um in Latin it's uh Annustei, qui tolis peccata mundi, mise erodinobis. So qui means who? Um it doesn't mean you or me, right? Uh but but in English we'll say, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. It's not like it's an awful translation. Either way, we're talking to God, but it's we are we're talking to Jesus, right? We're definitely talking to Jesus. And we want to keep that in mind as sons, because we're sharing in his sonship. So we need to regularly talk to him to be more like him. And then um the domine non sum dinus, or Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. And of course, in the Eucharist, we're really thinking primarily about Jesus. He's not separate from his father or the Holy Spirit, but he is the one that became incarnate, and he says, This is my body, right? So he's the one we're really thinking about with the Eucharist, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. Um when we say, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof, we're talking to him, we want him to come. So the more we're gonna enter into these mysteries, we want to recognize they're not meant to be hidden, they're meant to be revealed and understood, not exhausted, and we don't want to presume to be experts, uh, because we need to remain humble. But in humility, we open up and say, God, come into my life, reveal yourself more and more, unpack these mysteries for me. I can't on my own. I want your help. And so Jesus is our our like amazing guide. Um applause, questions or comments so far? Any any thoughts? Any disagreement? Um is it is it worth uh worth anything?

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Does roof mean like a house or is it the interior part of your mind?

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Okay, that's an awesome question. So where does this um so the question was does roof, the word roof, R-O-O-F, does it mean uh like the the lid of the house, essentially, the top part, or is it our mind? That's something I think we could maybe meditate on for the next few centuries. Uh that's that's a great question. Um I'll pause it back, I'll pose it back to you. What what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 21:06

But not everybody here has an obvious or anything is not the time for whatever you're saying that they're all you still I think it's also okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Great. So um we could look at it a couple ways, I suppose. You're saying that not everyone has an actual domicile, right? Um, a living place. We think of the homeless, right? We're called to go out and be Christ for them. Um and sometimes homeless can be extraordinarily welcoming, right? If you ever sit down on a bench next to them, maybe they open up to us, they will they let us in. And so we don't want to worry about do we have an apartment or a mansion or somewhere in between, or you know, maybe a tent. Um so it's one way to serve people that are in need. Maybe you ask them, do you do you have a place to stay? You can buy them a tent or something, right? But uh You could consider there you let somebody in. And I was saying earlier we're we're temples of the Holy Spirit. The temple first was what was the structure? Was it made of stone or cedar wood or the Lebanon cedar? Right? No. It was a tent, very mobile. And we're mobile. So we're temples that are very mobile. We're not made of stone. We're living stones, right? Peter tells us. So we're the new, newly made, uh, built up from the dead by our baptism. We're built up into a living structure for God to dwell in. So it's primarily the spiritual sense. But but it's real. It's not like spiritual in the sense of like scare quotes. Well, kind of. No, no, really. Absolutely. He's present in our roof. And he's quoting, you said the Bible. I think we're talking about the centurion, right? So because Jesus really goes and does he go and heal? He doesn't actually go, right? Not physically. But is there any healing apart from God? Can you think of people being healed without the power of God? No. So the power of God, Jesus is able to send his power, maybe in a mystical way, we could say, a spiritual way. So he doesn't even need to go physically. But but I want to consider the ministries we have in the parish. Some people bring communion to others. They physically drive with the Eucharist in a picks, right? To go to maybe a nursing home or the hospital. And so there's physical structures. And of course, you're going to go home after this at some point, maybe not like immediately after, maybe go to mass. Then you eventually go home for the day. And remember, you're a living, living tabernacle, right? You really are going to bring Christ into your under your roof. And so that's why I think it's something we can continue pondering because that's what we're always doing. We'll be doing that for the rest of eternity, is carrying Christ with us, God willing in heaven. Yeah, I'm really glad you asked that. It's a wonderful uh distinction that we want to make. So if I can say it back, I think everybody heard about it for the sake of this. Um when I said before to r to pray that the Lord would reveal uh himself to us, is that a danger? Is it like divination or like Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness? And I'll say, no, our intention matters. So when I when I say this, what I mean is show your love to me. And I'm a son, right? I'm a son of God the Father. So when I ask him to reveal himself, I'm looking for love, uh, which is not a command of God, it's a request of God. And so if I say, reveal yourself, you know, obviously there's a there's a tone that shows I'm not being a good son. Um and but if I'm opening my hands and saying, Lord, show your mercy to me, show in your your face on me. These are the Psalms, right? All the time we see um this is uh diurnal or like daytime prayers every day of the week, according to the monastic tradition, so the Benedict, say you can think of St. Benedict, right? Um really a 5th, 6th century uh saint, not a priest, um, was not ordained a priest, but he he came up with this cycle of praying the psalms throughout the week. The desert fathers, who were mostly laymen uh and women, they weren't ordained priests. They would, because they could easily flee the city and go out and live in a cave or something. If you're a priest, you're probably like tied to a parish, right? You have a lot of work to do. But if you're not bound by that, you can go out and live in the desert, uh, be very thirsty and tired all day, and and do nothing but pray the psalms. So they would pray 150 psalms a day.

unknown 26:25

St.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Benedict made it easy to say, we'll say 150 over the week. Right. But every day they they begin with Psalm 66. It says, May God show us grace and blessing, may his face shine upon us and he be gracious to us, that we may know thy way upon the earth, thy saving power among all nations. Let the nations praise thee, O God, let all the nations praise thee. And that continues for like a couple more sentences, but you can see that tone, that perspective, shining your face on me. I'm basically, I want to see God face to face because he's my father. I love my father. And so be like any child running after mom or dad and saying, Can I get a hug? So when I say reveal yourself to me, that's what I'm looking for. Not turn these, you know, stones into bread, bow down and worship me, throw yourself off the temple mount, command angels to rescue you. No, no, that's that's a different perspective. That is satanic. So what we don't want to do is tell God what to do ever, right? But we do want to ask him with utter trust, like any child would ask for food or water from their parents. Uh and that's really why we can baptize babies, right? They don't they don't ask, hey mom, can I get uh baptized today? But we know what they need. They need nourishment, milk, water, nutrients, right? And what do we need more than bread and water? Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, and that comes through baptism. Because then Christ is in us. Uh the whole Trinity is in us. So, really, that mystery, uh, again, it's meant to humble us, but to allow us to meditate on it, to think on it deeply and then live it out. So we don't want to be shy away from the mysteries. We want, and then, and then there's a spirit of humility that I don't know at all. God help me to understand the faith so I can live it. That's that's really got to be the posture of a disciple. Uh teacher, teach me how to pray. In fact, the Our Father, um, the reason Jesus gives us the Our Father or the Lord's Prayer is his disciples say, Lord, teach us to pray. It's a similar attitude or posture. Reveal yourself. Reveal the words. I don't have the words. If if I attempt on my own, I won't have anything. But teach me to reveal yourself. Show me, because what else do I need than God? I want him. Does that does that help? Okay, you're welcome. Thanks for asking the question. Um, so I I've been talking about fatherhood and sonship because like ultimately it's one of the most important things in our faith, or in the universe, really, in in beyond the universe. Um page 80 in the book, you'll see the word Abba. Now the word Abba sometimes is um we're told some and in the book it says daddy, right? But that's it's actually not uh accurate. So I'm not not poo-pooing the book, we're gonna continue using the book, right? But um we trust the word of God, right? The scriptures are infallible, they're inerrant, and whenever we see Abba um in let's say uh New Testament transcript, right? Or um even in the English, it'll say Abba. You always see father right after. It's never Abba Dad, right? Uh and dad, like I talked about my dad before. I love my dad, right? I'm a son of my dad. Um I'm excited to be a dad, right? So the word dad is not like a bad thing, but the word itself, abba, just means father. It can also mean teacher or master, lord, chieftain, it can be a lot of things. Um, but you'll never see a translated dad, especially in the scriptures. So what we have seen maybe is people that have, let's say, been to Israel in their their goodness, and I've been there, it's a wonderful place. You will hear Israelis, you know, young kids saying Abba, Abba, and what does that mean? Oh, daddy. You know, so it's just a normal, let me explain it to you real quick. But it's not like a etymological or deeply like philological explanation. So the word, I want to maybe you write that in your book. The word means um father, and we'll always see. So Abba uh is Chaldean, right? Or Chaldee. So that's you could think of the Chaldeans in Iraq. Um it's this ancient word, and then that got translated, we'll say, into Hebrew Ab. Um and then Ab uh gets translated into Greek pater. Uh, and then in Latin it's the same word pater. Um so you'll always see in these ancient scripts the translation of Abba into Father. And where do we see that? Maybe the the greatest sign is the our father. Jesus says Abba when he's using that prayer. And they didn't get it wrong, right? We're not messing it up at Mass when we say our Father who art in heaven. That is absolutely the correct translation. Um, there's nothing wrong with it at all. So, what we wouldn't want is to be like, well, now I need to say, our daddy who lives in heaven, hallowed be thy name, right? You're some I've I've heard that at some Catholic Masses. I'm like, that's odd. Um it's not wrong because we love our dads, you know. But um, but we can we can speak with confidence that he's our father. And uh I've got a lot of things I was gonna do with the handouts, but again, my fault for not printing early enough, it wasn't working this morning. But uh, if you're interested in that, I've got a ton of resources on that. So maybe you're thinking it's a minor issue. Um I definitely don't think it's a stumbling block to the faith. But uh but if you're interested in these words uh from the Hebrew or the the Greek or the Latin, I've got some good resources from that. Um thoughts on that? It's one of the most important words in a sense because like that's who we are. We're sons in Jesus of the Father in heaven. So we want to have a good relationship with our Father. So I don't think there's a periodicity or frequency that we can point to. Um in general, the uh as the language goes, the prayers have always been updated in a sense. An example of this that I was hoping to share today is the Our Father. So, hallowed be thy name, that's clearly like a British way of speaking. If it had been translated from Latin into English 10 years ago, we probably wouldn't have said, hallowed be thy name. Um there's nothing wrong with hallowed be thy name, but that I believe is what the sheet I have, the research says from the time of King Henry VIII. And um it's not like he got it wrong, but but we wouldn't use that style of writing now or speaking. So some of the prayers, you mentioned the creed, we believe in what you know. We used to use the first person plural. Now it's I believe, right? Or the dominion non sum de my roof. That's not how we said it before, right? Yeah. Um the Our Father, Pope Francis actually encouraged some countries to change that. We did not. I was actually in Greek studying the Our Father. As I know, I was taking a Greek class, it's like my third year of Greek, and um we were intensely studying the Our Father, and my professor who's a Dominican pre- is a Dominican priest, we were like, uh, you know, love Pope Francis, he's the Pope, but like I don't think he's got this right. There's no problem with uh the Greek or the Latin or the English. They've been they got it right over the centuries. What they changed, for instance, with the Creed, we believe versus I believe, um the early Creedal one statements were in the plural, uh, but a lot of times, like I think the Mass in for our Mass might have been the 800s or later that the Mass started using the Creed. The Creed existed from the fourth century, right? So uh we were getting in the weeds a little bit, but I can't answer your question with an easy like every 10 years, but in general, as the language changes, if we're speaking in vernacular, we want to make it so that people know what's going on. Yeah, I think yeah, so 10 minute answer for a two-second answer. Sorry. Um other concerns or questions? Yeah. So that's a great question, and that's relates to what this chapter goes into. Uh we can speak about evolution, how we can read um the first three chapters of Genesis. Uh there is you'll you'll see all sorts of stuff on the internet. Um it's always good if it's like official church teaching and not just maybe a maybe even a priest or theologian. We can we can make mistakes. Um, but when the church defines things, that's what we can trust. So the this is called the replies of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on Questions of Sacred Scripture. So great question. Um, translated by E. F. Sultcliffe, Society of Jesus. And then it gives abbreviation. So you'll see ASS or um AAS, so the Octa Apostolica Cedis. So the Apostolic C when it pronounces something, we can trust it, absolutely, and it's recorded in like a yearbook. So every year there's a new publication of the AAS, um, and it's online, it's available for free, but it's also an actual book that gets published. Um, and this is like what new teachings came out? Not new teachings like the fourth person of the Trinity. No, we don't change the teachings, but but there might be new ways of expressing what we've always believed, and we need to hold to those new teachings officially. So uh this covers from 1906 on the mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. You can't deny that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. The five books of Moses are called that for a reason. Now you can you can believe according to the this is the Pontifical Biblical Commission. So at that time it had a weight of authority that it currently does not. It's no longer a teaching office, it's more like a um think about things like a think tank almost for the Vatican. But before it had like, you couldn't deny it or you'd be denying the faith. And so what they pronounced back then we still cannot deny. So you can say, did a later scribe, like for instance, it talks about Moses dying and being buried. Did Moses write that? No, right? Uh so we already see some holes, um, but not holes that are like holes in the faith. But the theory that Moses wrote every single word can easily be explained away with the scripture itself. Um so if Moses talks about something that happened after he died and you know went to purgatory essentially, uh, or the bosom of Abraham, um we don't have to think that he wrote that after he died or or prophesied it. But then on it also continues concerning the historical character of the first three chapters of Genesis, uh, questions like um, do I have to read everything literally only? So we have to read it literally, but we can also read in some spiritual sense. So six days, it could be something different. I personally like to hold the six days, but but you don't have to, right? You can if you want to. You can believe, because we're gonna get into evolution. Um you can believe certain theories of evolution, there are certain ones we cannot and still be Catholic. So the idea that we all came from Adam and Eve is essential to Catholicism. You cannot deny the origin of man from one single man and woman. Uh, and that's not just like my opinion. I wouldn't say that if it's just my opinion. That's that's Catholic teaching. Um, and that's in the current catechism, too. So we can easily find like verify, you know, trust but verify. So I could go down maybe a rabbit hole with that, but I think in general, we there are there are ways we can read the scriptures in more than one sense, including a spiritual sense, so that not everything is only literal. Does that answer your question?

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Okay. Um we're uh we're in time to to conclude. Um so why don't we why don't we say um do you know the Regina Chailey by chance? Do some of you know the Regina Chailey? Uh I instead of singing until you I always like to sing, but um I will speak that as our prayer and we'll we'll conclude. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Queen of heaven, rejoice, hallelujah, for he whom thou wast chosen to bear, hallelujah, has risen as he said. Hallelujah. Pray for us to God, hallelujah. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, hallelujah. For the Lord is truly risen. Hallelujah. Let us pray. O God, who didst deign to give joy to the world through the resurrection of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech thee that through his mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, and God bless you.