{"id":34144,"date":"2016-10-09T14:12:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T18:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=34144"},"modified":"2016-10-09T14:14:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T18:14:07","slug":"st-abraham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2016\/10\/st-abraham\/","title":{"rendered":"St Abraham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34145 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"sacrifice-of-abraham\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham-768x1031.jpg 768w, https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham-763x1024.jpg 763w, https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Sacrifice-of-Abraham.jpg 1030w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a>In the <em>Roman Martyrology<\/em> today, is the feast day of St. Abraham, patriarch and father of all believers, who is celebrated by all three of the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). \u201cThe LORD took Abram outside and said, \u2018Gaze into the sky and count the stars\u2013if you are able to count them!\u2019 Then he said to him, \u2018So will your descendants be.\u2019\u201d (Genesis 15:5)<\/p>\n<p>As you know, the <em>Roman Martyrology<\/em> is the official list of saints recognized by the Catholic Church. Several times on this blog I have drawn our attention to various OT prophets that we commemorate as saints and now Abraham brings us closer to the reality that the Church transcends time as well walks on earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Orthodox Church commemorates Father Abraham on August 21 with\u00a0Isaac, and Jacob. With the help of the Orthodox we can appreciate the place of Abraham in our theology from a\u00a0hymn sung on the second Sunday preceding Christmas, the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers:<\/p>\n<p><em>Come feast-lovers, let us extol with hymns the assembly of the forefathers \u2013 Adam the first father, Enoch, Noah, and Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and those after the Law \u2013 Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Samuel; and with them Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve Prophets, with Elijah and Elisha, and all the rest.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The author at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stspyridons.org\/saints-of-the-old-testament\/\"><strong>St Sypridon Church&#8217;s<\/strong><\/a> web writes this that I believe is helpful for Catholics, too:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThe Church\u2019s high esteem for the Old Testament saints is also seen in her custom of depicting the forefathers and prophets around the base of the interior central dome of a church. And by remembering these saints in her liturgical calendar, the Orthodox Church demonstrates her understanding <strong>that the Body of Christ transcends limitations of time and space.<\/strong> This awareness is clearly expressed at <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">every Divine Liturgy<\/span>: \u201cAnd again we offer unto You this reasonable service for all those who in faith have gone before us to their rest: patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Roman Martyrology today, is the feast day of St. Abraham, patriarch and father of all believers, who is celebrated by all three of the monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). \u201cThe LORD took Abram outside and said, \u2018Gaze into the sky and count the stars\u2013if you are able to count them!\u2019 Then he said &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2016\/10\/st-abraham\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">St Abraham<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31923,1759],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34148,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34144\/revisions\/34148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}