Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) | Page 5

that he
has, and when he dies leaves them his possessions. Now, in all these
ways, and in a much truer sense, God is our Father. He created us and
gives us all that is necessary to sustain life. He gives light, heat, and air,

without any one of which we could not live. He provides for us also
food and clothing, and long before we need or even think of these
things God is thinking of them. Did you ever reflect upon just how
much time and trouble it costs to produce for you even one potato, of
which you think so little? About two years before you need that potato,
God puts it into the mind of the farmer to save the seed that he may
plant it the following year. In the proper season he prepares the ground
with great care and plants the seed. Then God sends His sunlight and
rain to make it grow, but the farmer's work is not yet ended: he must
continue to keep the soil in good condition and clear away the weeds.
In due time the potato is taken from the ground, brought to the market,
carried to your house, cooked and placed before you. You take it
without even thinking, perhaps, of all this trouble, or thanking God for
His goodness. This is only one article of food, and the same may be
said of all the rest. Your clothing is provided for you long before you
need it. The little lamb upon whose back the wool is growing, from
which your coat is someday to be made, is even now far away on some
mountain, growing stronger with the food God gives it till you need its
wool. The little pieces of coal, too, that you so carelessly throw upon
the fire were formed deep down in the earth hundreds of years ago.
God produces all you use, because He foresees and knows you will use
it. Moreover He protects us from danger; He teaches us by the voice of
our conscience and the ministers of His Church, our priests and bishops.
He loves us too, as we may learn from all that He does for us, and from
the many times He forgives us our sins. He shares what He possesses
with us. He has given us understanding and a free will resembling His
own. He has given us immortality, i.e., when once He has created us,
we shall exist as long as Himself--that is, forever. When Our Lord died
on the Cross, He left us His many possessions--His graces and merits,
the holy Sacraments, and Heaven itself.
It is surely, then, just and right to call God Father. Our natural fathers
give us only what they, themselves, get from God. So even what they
give us also comes from Him.
Before the time of Our Lord, the people in prayer did not call God
Father. They feared Him more than they loved Him. When He spoke to
them--as He did when He gave the Commandments to Moses--it was in
thunder, lightning, and smoke. (Ex. 19). They looked upon God as a

great and terrible king who would destroy them for their sins. He sent
the deluge on account of sin, and He destroyed the wicked city of
Sodom with fire from Heaven. (Gen. 7:19). They called Him Jehovah,
and were afraid sometimes even to pronounce His name. But Our Lord
taught that God, besides being a great and powerful king--the Ruler of
the universe and Lord of all things--is also a kind and good Father, who
wishes His children not to offend Him because they love Him rather
than because they fear Him, and therefore He taught His disciples and
all Christians to call God by the sweet name of Father.
"Who art in Heaven." The Catechism says God is everywhere. Why
then do we say, "Who art in Heaven," as if He were no place else? We
say so to remind us, first, that Heaven is our true home, and that this
world is only a strange land in which we are staying for a while to do
the work that God wishes us to do here, and then return to our own
home; second, that in Heaven we shall see God face to face and as He
is; third, that Heaven is the place where God will be for all eternity
with the blessed.
"Hallowed" means made holy or sacred. Halloween is the name given
to the evening before the feast of All Hallows or All Saints.
"Thy kingdom come." This petition contains a great deal more than we
at first see in it. In it we ask that God may reign in our hearts and in the
hearts of all men by His grace in