When I pray, I do not call on God of philosophers nor even, in a sense, on the God of theologians. I turn to my Father, or rather, our Father. To be more precise, I turn to him whom Jesus, in complete intimacy and confidence, called Abba. When the disciples asked our Lord to teach them how to pray, he simply replied: ‘When you pray you say: “Abba”…To name God thus is to have certainty that we are loved; a certitude of a different nature from that referred to by scholars, but one derived from innermost convictions (at my deepest core is the desire for an intense love): a certitude of faith at which we have arrived, it seems to us, after periods of reflections, meditation and consideration of our interior inspirations; though ultimately this certitude is a gift. We have complete faith in the love we have in our hearts because it is the Father who has sent us his Spirit, now that his Son has entered his glory.

It is because the Father loves me that I am able to turn to him in complete trust and confidence. I do not turn toward him to stress my virtues (nor to concentrate upon my weaknesses), nor for well-calculated reasons, but trusting in the infinite tenderness of the Abba for his Son Jesus, since he is also my Abba. ‘The Wound of Love’ A. Carthusian