Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 517 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 517- Part III. How are we changed by the Our Father?

(Youcat answer) The Our Father allows us to discover joyfully that we are children of one Father. Our common vocation is to praise our Father and to live together as though “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32).    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2790) Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and the Spirit (Cf. 1 Jn 5:1; Jn 3:5). The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit (Rom 8:29; Cf. Eph 4:4-6). In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32).    

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Because God the Father loves each of his children with the same exclusive love, as though we were the only object of his devotion, we too must get along together in a completely new way: peacefully, full of consideration and love, so that each one can be the awe-inspiring miracle that he actually is in God’s sight.   

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2791) For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this prayer to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In communion by faith in Christ and by Baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples (Cf. UR 8; 22).

(The next question is: If the Father is “in heaven”, where is that heaven?)