‘Abba, Father’ is in the first sentence from the fresh lips of the twelve-year-old, even as ‘Abba, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit’ are the last. Skip to content.

Vatican City, May 23, 2012 / 10:42 am. Dads who are absent from their family make it more difficult for their children to understand God as a loving father, Pope Benedict XVI said on May 23.

This isn’t just true of fathers, but the Father as well. St. Paul writes to the Romans that we are “children of God,” having received a “spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba ...