ST ABRAHAM, PATRIARCH - 9 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 9th of October

 Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST ABRAHAM, PATRIARCH 

The Father of all believers, and the progenitor, according to the flesh, of the Hebrew nation. He is also the father of Ismael, from whom the Ismaelites or Arabs are descended. 

When seventy years of age, he went forth from Babylonia, his native land, at God’s bidding, to dwell henceforth in Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey promised to his seed. There, he led a pastoral and nomad life. 

Moreover, God made a covenant with him, changing his name from Abram to Abraham (Father of nations), promising at the same time that his descendants should be more numerous than the stars of Heaven and that in his seed all peoples should be blessed. Of him Our Lord said: "Abraham rejoiced that he might see my day ; He saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).

All through their eventful history it was the glory of the Jewish people to claim descent from him and from his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. To them, in words spoken to Moses (Exodus 3:6), God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Patriarch died in Palestine at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years (B.C. 1821). 

(From The Book of Saints, 1921, by the Monks of Ramsgate)

[🎨 In God's request that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:2) we find the second of two Eucharistic types in the book of Genesis. The first is the bread and wine offered by the priest king, Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), who is memorialised in our first Eucharistic Prayer.]