How come you never hear of a devotion to Father Abraham?

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Just something thats been bugging me for awhile, if Abraham according to the Bible is our father in the faith how come no one ever has a devotion to him? :confused: God bless and o if there are any prayers to him can you post them ty CAF 🙂
 
Good question. 👍 I’ve never thought of it, so I don’t really know. 🤷
 
I was thinking about that too today.

In that famous story that we’re so used to hearing, we forget how incredibly significant Abraham’s actions were for us. Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son for God, so God too was willing to sacrifice His only Son for humanity. It’s a vivid illustration of the love that humanity, despite its wickedness, can have for God and of God’s love for sinful humanity.

It is amazing that in the history of salvation, it was actually humanity that with God’s instigation and through Abraham, made a significant first step to reconcile with God. It is almost as though it was through Abraham’s extraordinary expression of love for Him that God, in His mercy, decided that maybe humanity was worth saving after all.

Of course, God in His eternal wisdom had planned for the salvation of mankind from the moment of creation, and He pursued us from the very beginning. No true first step can belong to humanity and all that is good in us is a manifestation of God’s grace. However, Abraham’s immense faith will forever be an example to us, and his actions at the very beginning of Revelation are deeply prophetic, as they foreshadowed the sacrifice of God’s Only Son to save fallen humanity from eternal death.

It was through Abraham that Revelation and man’s reconciliation with God began. Devotion or not, for that we should remember and honour our father in faith.
 
There are many good and worthy people in both the Old and New Testaments who unfortunately are not as well remembered as they should be.

Johanna, one of Jesus’ female followers, comes to mind (has she even been canonized?) Zacchaeus (being short myself, I loved hearing his story as a child) Cornelius, Nicodemus.

Even poor old St Jude Thaddeus got pushed out of the limelight for a very long time simply because of the similarity of his name to that of Judas Iscariot!

Like everything else, there are fashions among the saints. This is of the reasons behind the feast of All Saints, where we honour even the uncanonized, and All Souls, where we honour those who as yet aren’t even in heaven.

By the way, of all the Old Testament figures, Abraham is probably mentioned in the prayers of the Mass more than any other - in fact offhand I can’t really think of any of the others that are mentioned.
 
I think that the Byzantine rites actually do have a devotion to him and many old testament figures. I know there is a feast day for him. Maybe a Byzantine Catholic can give us more information.
 
I’ve noticed in shopping for Eastern Icons online that the Eastern Rites seem to put more emphasis on OT saints… you bring up a good question…
 
hummm… off hand I can’t think of any devotions for other OT icons either. Never occurred to me before.
 
Good point.

Tbh, I focus more on the New Testament rather than the Old. But I should look into it.
 
My grandmother was a Byzantine rite Catholic, and I remember seeing many icons of old testament figures painted on the walls in the church. I have an icon of St. Elias (Elijah) myself.
 
There is icon of Patriarch Abraham. Actually the Abraham is commemorated in Roman Martyrology on October 9th, the same date in Byzantine calendar.
 
onjac said:
Good point.

Tbh, I focus more on the New Testament rather than the Old. But I should look into it.
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Put it his way - part of the function of the Saints is that they serve as role
models to show Christians how to live good lives.

As great as Abraham, Moses et al were, the function of Christian role model is surely best served by someone who actually was Christian.
 
There’s a lot of reasons. Abraham is a good Bible personality to study, because of his faith.

The Catholic Church holds up the example of many apparently holy people who are more modern and who we may be able to emulate better. Focusing on just a few makes it seem like holiness is hard to achieve. Well maybe it is, of course, but more modern day people show us more modern day applications of faith-filled living. We can’t do the things that Abraham alone was chosen to do.
 
There is a feast day of Abraham on the liturgical calendar, as I recall - but I don’t remember what day it is. There is a collect, I think, that you could probably use as a devotional prayer… I have it my daily saint book, but it’s not with me right now. Wish I could be of more help!
 
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