The_Christian_Father.pdf
7.9 MB
"The Christian Father"
-What he should be and what he should do.
Benzinger Brothers, 1883
The appearance of "The Christian Father" in an English dress we hail with sincerest pleasure, and we doubt not that it will meet a warm welcome from the English speaking community. Its companion volume, "The Christian Mother," has met with well-deserved favor, and has found its way into many a Christian home, to cheer and to bless it. "The Christian Father" must be equally popular and equally beneficial, for it is equally admirable for its practical good sense, winning simplicity, and deeply religious lessons. It is no mere ideal father we have here, aspiring after unattainable or fanciful saintliness. It is a father such as God intended all fathers to be, such as should and might be found at the head of every Christian family. It is a genuine Christian father faithfully discharging the obligations of his state and sanctifying himself in the ordinary every-day duties of life.
#fatherhood
-What he should be and what he should do.
Benzinger Brothers, 1883
The appearance of "The Christian Father" in an English dress we hail with sincerest pleasure, and we doubt not that it will meet a warm welcome from the English speaking community. Its companion volume, "The Christian Mother," has met with well-deserved favor, and has found its way into many a Christian home, to cheer and to bless it. "The Christian Father" must be equally popular and equally beneficial, for it is equally admirable for its practical good sense, winning simplicity, and deeply religious lessons. It is no mere ideal father we have here, aspiring after unattainable or fanciful saintliness. It is a father such as God intended all fathers to be, such as should and might be found at the head of every Christian family. It is a genuine Christian father faithfully discharging the obligations of his state and sanctifying himself in the ordinary every-day duties of life.
#fatherhood
What is a Father
1.Fatherhood as a path to Sanctity
"..That is the importance of fatherhood, to become less and less important until one is not important at all. There is really nothing new in this. It has been perceived by all truly great men."
He is one who is striving to make himself unneeded. It is his task, and his wife's, to see that the youngsters are ready for whatever their destiny may be.
The men were greatest when they had made themselves least. Christ said it:The last shall be first. St. John the Baptist realized it: 'I must decrease, Christ must increase. It is the essence of the lives of all the saints. And a saint is what a father should be, so that his children will see how to be saints too. That's what fatherhood is for- to make saints. When Father has contrived to make himself nothing, he is then really something. When he is a nobody, he is emphatically a somebody-and the generations will rise up and call him blessed.
The father, everybody says, is the head of the family. But St. Paul puts that leadership in proper perspective. A husband, says Paul, is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church, delivering Himself up for it. What goes for the wife goes, of course, for the children. A father is to love his family as Christ loved the Church. He's the family head, all right, as Christ is head of the Church-but that means he's to serve the family as Christ served the Church. He is to be, in other words, a saint.
The father, of course, starts somewhere down the ladder of sanctity, and climbs up. It takes time. But he's got a head start. He gets his start through baptism and the other sacraments, and especially through the marriage sacrament.
His wife confers that on him, and he confers it on her. He doesn't 'get married' - and neither does she. He and she marry. It's not something passive; it's something active.When the bridegroom and the bride walk down the aisle, they are a couple of priests approaching the altar to consecrate each other.
A priest at the altar says, 'This is My Body', and Christ is present in the sacrament of Communion. A bridegroom and a bride say, 'I take thee', and Christ is present in the sacrament of marriage.
Marriage is a great vocation -a way of life -a means of going to God; and it should no more be chosen without prayer than should the priesthood or the Brotherhood or the Sisterhood..or single life in the world.
But God's providence is in the picture, too, all along.
Providence has a great deal to do with who meets whom, and in what circumstances. It certainly has something very important to do with the mysterious attraction of two persons which causes them to want each other for life; to feel that they can make each other happy and cannot be happy without each other. There is an inexplicable exclusiveness about this matter. This young man wants this young woman for his wife, and no other; and this young woman wants this young man and no other.
The future of mankind will be profoundly affected by what he and his bride make of their marriage.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
2. Fatherhood-a life of prayer and servitude
3. The father is an example
#fatherhood
1.Fatherhood as a path to Sanctity
"..That is the importance of fatherhood, to become less and less important until one is not important at all. There is really nothing new in this. It has been perceived by all truly great men."
He is one who is striving to make himself unneeded. It is his task, and his wife's, to see that the youngsters are ready for whatever their destiny may be.
The men were greatest when they had made themselves least. Christ said it:The last shall be first. St. John the Baptist realized it: 'I must decrease, Christ must increase. It is the essence of the lives of all the saints. And a saint is what a father should be, so that his children will see how to be saints too. That's what fatherhood is for- to make saints. When Father has contrived to make himself nothing, he is then really something. When he is a nobody, he is emphatically a somebody-and the generations will rise up and call him blessed.
The father, everybody says, is the head of the family. But St. Paul puts that leadership in proper perspective. A husband, says Paul, is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church, delivering Himself up for it. What goes for the wife goes, of course, for the children. A father is to love his family as Christ loved the Church. He's the family head, all right, as Christ is head of the Church-but that means he's to serve the family as Christ served the Church. He is to be, in other words, a saint.
The father, of course, starts somewhere down the ladder of sanctity, and climbs up. It takes time. But he's got a head start. He gets his start through baptism and the other sacraments, and especially through the marriage sacrament.
His wife confers that on him, and he confers it on her. He doesn't 'get married' - and neither does she. He and she marry. It's not something passive; it's something active.When the bridegroom and the bride walk down the aisle, they are a couple of priests approaching the altar to consecrate each other.
A priest at the altar says, 'This is My Body', and Christ is present in the sacrament of Communion. A bridegroom and a bride say, 'I take thee', and Christ is present in the sacrament of marriage.
Marriage is a great vocation -a way of life -a means of going to God; and it should no more be chosen without prayer than should the priesthood or the Brotherhood or the Sisterhood..or single life in the world.
But God's providence is in the picture, too, all along.
Providence has a great deal to do with who meets whom, and in what circumstances. It certainly has something very important to do with the mysterious attraction of two persons which causes them to want each other for life; to feel that they can make each other happy and cannot be happy without each other. There is an inexplicable exclusiveness about this matter. This young man wants this young woman for his wife, and no other; and this young woman wants this young man and no other.
The future of mankind will be profoundly affected by what he and his bride make of their marriage.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
2. Fatherhood-a life of prayer and servitude
3. The father is an example
#fatherhood
Telegram
Ecce Verbum
What is a Father
2. Fatherhood- a life of prayer and servitude
..Then the husband and the wife walk out of the church to see each other through life to eternal life. Their life together is to be a prayer-a sacrament; a sacramental way of life, as a priest's…
2. Fatherhood- a life of prayer and servitude
..Then the husband and the wife walk out of the church to see each other through life to eternal life. Their life together is to be a prayer-a sacrament; a sacramental way of life, as a priest's…
Ecce Verbum
What is a Father 1.Fatherhood as a path to Sanctity "..That is the importance of fatherhood, to become less and less important until one is not important at all. There is really nothing new in this. It has been perceived by all truly great men." He is one…
What is a Father
2. Fatherhood- a life of prayer and servitude
..Then the husband and the wife walk out of the church to see each other through life to eternal life. Their life together is to be a prayer-a sacrament; a sacramental way of life, as a priest's life is a sacramental way. Their union of souls is a prayer, and their union of bodies is a prayer too. They rise into very high prayer when they bring forth a child for God, and rear it for God. They give God a great gift, as He gives them a great gift. And they give their child the gift of existence and of eternal destiny with God.
Even after his youngsters have departed to go with God toward their own destinies, he watches over them in prayer. Sometimes, too, he gently counsels them and he is a happy man if he has been the kind of father to whom they return seeking advice and companionship because he is a grand and lovable person.
The father is the person who watches over all these treasures through the years. He watches for God- and God helps him watch. If he walks the floor with baby, he is walking the floor for God. God won't forget the sleepless hours, the going to work and coming home, the do-it-yourselfing to provide what the mother and children need, the sacrificing to feed and clothe and educate the little ones. God won't forget one bit of it-not any more than He forgets what the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph did for His onlybegotten Son. He'll never forget the man who stands in His place in a home. Especially He won't forget the father who, understanding the paradox and the mystery of fatherhood, works to make himself less and less until at last he is nothing-at which point he is really something.
Father is decreasing, Christ is increasing. That, then, is what a father is- a man growing greater and greater by making himself smaller and smaller. How, specifically, does he go about it? What do marriage and fatherhood do to him? And what does he do with his marriage? The two things go together; they interact. If a man is basically sound-and most men are-marriage makes him humble and realistic and dedicated. It transforms, little by little, his male egoism and his pride in his own strength into humility and dependence on God. It begins this process when he sits waiting, helpless, as his wife goes through childbirth. It begins also through the gentle but persistent influence of his beloved. Marriage, too, washes away gradually the vanities and trivialities of young malehood.
A husband-father slowly turns his interest from himself to those who look to him for protection. Where he could not be overcome by strength, but would fight strength with his own strength, he is powerless to resist the appeal of helplessnes. From demanding to be served, he turns to wanting to serve. And in serving he grows in spiritual stature and real manliness.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
1.Fatherhood as a path to sanctity
3. The father is an example
#fatherhood
2. Fatherhood- a life of prayer and servitude
..Then the husband and the wife walk out of the church to see each other through life to eternal life. Their life together is to be a prayer-a sacrament; a sacramental way of life, as a priest's life is a sacramental way. Their union of souls is a prayer, and their union of bodies is a prayer too. They rise into very high prayer when they bring forth a child for God, and rear it for God. They give God a great gift, as He gives them a great gift. And they give their child the gift of existence and of eternal destiny with God.
Even after his youngsters have departed to go with God toward their own destinies, he watches over them in prayer. Sometimes, too, he gently counsels them and he is a happy man if he has been the kind of father to whom they return seeking advice and companionship because he is a grand and lovable person.
The father is the person who watches over all these treasures through the years. He watches for God- and God helps him watch. If he walks the floor with baby, he is walking the floor for God. God won't forget the sleepless hours, the going to work and coming home, the do-it-yourselfing to provide what the mother and children need, the sacrificing to feed and clothe and educate the little ones. God won't forget one bit of it-not any more than He forgets what the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph did for His onlybegotten Son. He'll never forget the man who stands in His place in a home. Especially He won't forget the father who, understanding the paradox and the mystery of fatherhood, works to make himself less and less until at last he is nothing-at which point he is really something.
Father is decreasing, Christ is increasing. That, then, is what a father is- a man growing greater and greater by making himself smaller and smaller. How, specifically, does he go about it? What do marriage and fatherhood do to him? And what does he do with his marriage? The two things go together; they interact. If a man is basically sound-and most men are-marriage makes him humble and realistic and dedicated. It transforms, little by little, his male egoism and his pride in his own strength into humility and dependence on God. It begins this process when he sits waiting, helpless, as his wife goes through childbirth. It begins also through the gentle but persistent influence of his beloved. Marriage, too, washes away gradually the vanities and trivialities of young malehood.
A husband-father slowly turns his interest from himself to those who look to him for protection. Where he could not be overcome by strength, but would fight strength with his own strength, he is powerless to resist the appeal of helplessnes. From demanding to be served, he turns to wanting to serve. And in serving he grows in spiritual stature and real manliness.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
1.Fatherhood as a path to sanctity
3. The father is an example
#fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
What is a Father 2. Fatherhood- a life of prayer and servitude ..Then the husband and the wife walk out of the church to see each other through life to eternal life. Their life together is to be a prayer-a sacrament; a sacramental way of life, as a priest's…
What is a Father
3. Fatherhood- a mirror of Love
Children, are especially drawn toward God when they are drawn toward their father. And this is natural enough, although it is also supernatural-because the father is the embodiment in his home of the Fatherhood of God. The father, therefore, must mirror God as accurately as possible.
Let him remember always that God's first approach to man is not the approach of fear, but the approach of loving man and of wanting to be loved in return. The first thing God did toward man, after creating him, was to place him in a paradise.
He provided everything for man's happiness, for his joy, for his comfort. He was lavish in meeting all man's needs. There was food and warmth and security in paradise; and beauty for eye and ear; and everything to delight man so that his days and nights were things of joy and cheer. Only when man rejected God was there trouble. What happened was that man refused to trust God. Man believed the tempter who said that God was lying in saying that there was one thing man must not do. But children will not think that their father, who gives them home and food and clothing and jollity, is a liar. If he approaches them with love, they will respond to love. Truth will attract their minds. Goodness will attract their wills.
Punishment should be his last thought, not his first. And he should never resort to it unless it is dictated by love as being necessary. He must never punish in anger, nor should strive to act as St. Joseph would act. even in cold calculation. He has no right to punish at all unless he punishes in love. This means that he first gets the whole story; he tries to understand; he puts himself in the child's place and comprehends the child's childlikeness and inexperience and impetuosity. A father should be as considerate and courteous toward his children as he would be toward the most respected and exalted person in the community.
The father should emulate God in approaching God's children and his by making of the home a little paradise for them, and making of himself a mirror of God's goodness toward them. A father should insist in prayer that God have a hand in everything he does for his children. The father should not ask,What do I want for my children? He should ask, 'What does God want?
The father who does that will have few problems with his children, assuming that his judgment about what is good for them is a right judgment.
Forming that right judgment is part of his obligation as a father. And that means that he forms himself rightly-he lives up to himself as an image of God, as a partner with God in fatherhood, and as a brother of Christ in virtuous manliness.
The children should be attracted to virtue, first through seeing virtue in their parents; and then also, of course, by being taught virtue through gentle explanation. Few fathers realize the tremendous effect upon children of virtue in themselves. When the child sees such strength united with patience, tenderness, kindness, understanding, thoughtfulness and helpfulness, the youngster, even though subconsciously, is profoundly moved.
One of the effective ways of showing virtue to children is through good books. A father should read to them, should help them to learn to read, and within his financial means should see to it that they have the right things to read. A child will be what he reads and sees and hears and feels-plus what in him is unique because he is a person in his own right; a being who will never be duplicated.
If he schemes for their happiness they will embrace virtue. It is a father's business to surround his youngsters with everything possible that is good for them, as God surrounded man with good things in paradise. No father knows what destiny awaits his sons and daughters. but one thing he can know-and one thing he should deeply realize: each child sent to him has a work to do which is important in the divine plan.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
#fatherhood
3. Fatherhood- a mirror of Love
Children, are especially drawn toward God when they are drawn toward their father. And this is natural enough, although it is also supernatural-because the father is the embodiment in his home of the Fatherhood of God. The father, therefore, must mirror God as accurately as possible.
Let him remember always that God's first approach to man is not the approach of fear, but the approach of loving man and of wanting to be loved in return. The first thing God did toward man, after creating him, was to place him in a paradise.
He provided everything for man's happiness, for his joy, for his comfort. He was lavish in meeting all man's needs. There was food and warmth and security in paradise; and beauty for eye and ear; and everything to delight man so that his days and nights were things of joy and cheer. Only when man rejected God was there trouble. What happened was that man refused to trust God. Man believed the tempter who said that God was lying in saying that there was one thing man must not do. But children will not think that their father, who gives them home and food and clothing and jollity, is a liar. If he approaches them with love, they will respond to love. Truth will attract their minds. Goodness will attract their wills.
Punishment should be his last thought, not his first. And he should never resort to it unless it is dictated by love as being necessary. He must never punish in anger, nor should strive to act as St. Joseph would act. even in cold calculation. He has no right to punish at all unless he punishes in love. This means that he first gets the whole story; he tries to understand; he puts himself in the child's place and comprehends the child's childlikeness and inexperience and impetuosity. A father should be as considerate and courteous toward his children as he would be toward the most respected and exalted person in the community.
The father should emulate God in approaching God's children and his by making of the home a little paradise for them, and making of himself a mirror of God's goodness toward them. A father should insist in prayer that God have a hand in everything he does for his children. The father should not ask,What do I want for my children? He should ask, 'What does God want?
The father who does that will have few problems with his children, assuming that his judgment about what is good for them is a right judgment.
Forming that right judgment is part of his obligation as a father. And that means that he forms himself rightly-he lives up to himself as an image of God, as a partner with God in fatherhood, and as a brother of Christ in virtuous manliness.
The children should be attracted to virtue, first through seeing virtue in their parents; and then also, of course, by being taught virtue through gentle explanation. Few fathers realize the tremendous effect upon children of virtue in themselves. When the child sees such strength united with patience, tenderness, kindness, understanding, thoughtfulness and helpfulness, the youngster, even though subconsciously, is profoundly moved.
One of the effective ways of showing virtue to children is through good books. A father should read to them, should help them to learn to read, and within his financial means should see to it that they have the right things to read. A child will be what he reads and sees and hears and feels-plus what in him is unique because he is a person in his own right; a being who will never be duplicated.
If he schemes for their happiness they will embrace virtue. It is a father's business to surround his youngsters with everything possible that is good for them, as God surrounded man with good things in paradise. No father knows what destiny awaits his sons and daughters. but one thing he can know-and one thing he should deeply realize: each child sent to him has a work to do which is important in the divine plan.
Bernard O'Connor, Imprimatur:
Archbishop Justin D. Simonds, 30th April, 1965.
#fatherhood
"Fatherhood is a great honor, a great proof of God’s trust. For all fatherhood on earth comes from God’s fatherhood, and the fulfillment of a father’s duties resembles God’s fatherhood so much that we are convinced that our fathers are the representatives of God’s will for us."
"In a man’s soul masculine values must determine quick decision and expressive will in the process of mental inquiry and great achievements. But woe to the man of great mind and powerful will if he were heartless."
Bl. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
#fatherhood
"In a man’s soul masculine values must determine quick decision and expressive will in the process of mental inquiry and great achievements. But woe to the man of great mind and powerful will if he were heartless."
Bl. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
#fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
Ven_Mary_of_Agreda_The_Admirable_Life_of_the_Glorious_Patriarch.pdf
Fatherhood of St. Joseph.pdf
2.3 MB
The Fatherhood of Saint Joseph
Rev. Joseph Mueller S.J
Theological discussions about St. Joseph.
"It is hoped, that the work, originally intended for theologians, and therefore, couched in somewhat technical and theological may yet be of interest to other educated men and women.."
#stjoseph #fatherhood
Rev. Joseph Mueller S.J
Theological discussions about St. Joseph.
"It is hoped, that the work, originally intended for theologians, and therefore, couched in somewhat technical and theological may yet be of interest to other educated men and women.."
#stjoseph #fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
What is a Father 1.Fatherhood as a path to Sanctity "..That is the importance of fatherhood, to become less and less important until one is not important at all. There is really nothing new in this. It has been perceived by all truly great men." He is one…
Men as Husbands and Fathers
Within the conjugal and family communion-community, the man is called upon to live his gift and role as husband and father.
In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God's intention: "It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a helper fit for him,"(Gn 2: 18) and he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."(Gn 2: 23)
Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: "You are not her master," writes St. Ambrose, "but her husband; she was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife.... Reciprocate her attentiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love."(St. Ambrose, Exameron, V, 7, 19: CSEL 32, I, 154.) With his wife a man should live "a very special form of personal friendship."(Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae Vitae, 9: AAS 60 (1968), 486). As for the Christian, he is called upon to develop a new attitude of love, manifesting towards his wife a charity that is both gentle and strong like that which Christ has for the Church."(Cf. Ef 5: 25).
Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood. Above all where social and cultural conditions so easily encourage a father to be less concerned with his family or at any rate less involved in the work of education, efforts must be made to restore socially the conviction that the place and task of the father in and for the family is of unique and irreplaceable importance. (Cf. John Paul II, Homily to the Faithful of Terni (March 19, 1981), 3-5: AAS 73 (1981), 268-271).
As experience teaches, the absence of a father causes psychological and moral imbalance and notable difficulties in family relationships, as does, in contrary circumstances, the oppressive presence of a father, especially where there still prevails the phenomenon of "machismo," or a wrong superiority of male prerogatives which humiliates women and inhibits the development of healthy family relationships.
In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God,(Cf. Eph 3: 15) a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family: he will perform this task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived under the heart of the mother, by a more solicitous commitment to education, a task he shares with his wife,(Gaudium et spes, 52) by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability, and by means of the witness he gives of an adult Christian life which effectively introduces the children into the living experience of Christ and the Church.
Familiaris Consortio
#fatherhood
Within the conjugal and family communion-community, the man is called upon to live his gift and role as husband and father.
In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God's intention: "It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a helper fit for him,"(Gn 2: 18) and he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."(Gn 2: 23)
Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: "You are not her master," writes St. Ambrose, "but her husband; she was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife.... Reciprocate her attentiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love."(St. Ambrose, Exameron, V, 7, 19: CSEL 32, I, 154.) With his wife a man should live "a very special form of personal friendship."(Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae Vitae, 9: AAS 60 (1968), 486). As for the Christian, he is called upon to develop a new attitude of love, manifesting towards his wife a charity that is both gentle and strong like that which Christ has for the Church."(Cf. Ef 5: 25).
Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood. Above all where social and cultural conditions so easily encourage a father to be less concerned with his family or at any rate less involved in the work of education, efforts must be made to restore socially the conviction that the place and task of the father in and for the family is of unique and irreplaceable importance. (Cf. John Paul II, Homily to the Faithful of Terni (March 19, 1981), 3-5: AAS 73 (1981), 268-271).
As experience teaches, the absence of a father causes psychological and moral imbalance and notable difficulties in family relationships, as does, in contrary circumstances, the oppressive presence of a father, especially where there still prevails the phenomenon of "machismo," or a wrong superiority of male prerogatives which humiliates women and inhibits the development of healthy family relationships.
In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God,(Cf. Eph 3: 15) a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family: he will perform this task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived under the heart of the mother, by a more solicitous commitment to education, a task he shares with his wife,(Gaudium et spes, 52) by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability, and by means of the witness he gives of an adult Christian life which effectively introduces the children into the living experience of Christ and the Church.
Familiaris Consortio
#fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
Men as Husbands and Fathers Within the conjugal and family communion-community, the man is called upon to live his gift and role as husband and father. In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God's intention: "It is not good that the man should be alone,…
Challenges of fatherhood
"Today [there is] a need for fathers who are able to fulfil their role, balancing tenderness with seriousness, forbearance with strictness, comradeship with authority" (Saint Joseph - Man of Work and Prayer, "L`Osservatore Romano" No. 3 (39) 1983)
Today, unfortunately, we are repeatedly witnessing a father identity crisis. It is often associated with a crisis of masculinity. It manifests itself above all in spiritual and emotional immaturity, in indolence and in a lack of self-confidence. An attitude of casual enjoyment of life and a fear of entering into lasting relationships and making lifelong decisions is also dangerous. Painful consequences for the wife and children arise when the father often identifies himself more with his profession or business than with his own family. One cannot fail to mention here the physical absence of the father from the family and "as experience teaches, the absence of the father causes mental and moral imbalance and considerable difficulties in family relationships" (Familiaris Consortio 25).
The father's participation in the child's faith development process is also fundamental. This is because they form an image of God through the example of their father's behaviour. The Holy Father referred to this in his work entitled The Gift and the Mystery: "Sometimes I woke up during the night and found my Father on his knees, just as I always saw him on his knees in the parish church." (Gift and Mystery, p. 23). Perhaps this is why, years later he asked: "And you fathers, do you know how to pray with your children, with the whole household community, at least from time to time? Your example - of right thinking and action - supported by common prayer is a lesson of life (...) Remember: in this way you build up the Church" (FC 60).
The fullness of the revelation of God as Father was brought by Jesus Christ. His unique relationship with the Father is based on the love which God solemnly confessed to his Son at his baptism in the Jordan (cf. Mk 1:9-11) and in the act of transfiguration on Mount Tabor (cf. Mk 9:2-8). Christ, in his dialogue with the Father, responds with the tender word Abba (cf. Mk 1:36), which we can render as Dear Father. With this expression, the Lord Jesus also reveals his deepest respect towards the Father, a relationship full of peace and mutual understanding, and a total and voluntary placing of himself at the Father's disposal in the work of salvation. "There is a reciprocity between the Father and the Son in terms of what they know of each other (cf. Jn 10:15), who they are (cf. Jn 14:10), what they do (cf. Jn 5:19; 10:38) and what they possess" (Jesus' bond with the Father - revelation of the Trinitarian mystery, General Audience, 10 March 1999). The profound Father-Son relationship gives rise to the certainty that the Son will always be heard by the Father.
The most important characteristic of God's fatherhood is "the capacity for infinite love, for offering Himself without reserve and without measure" (Jesus' bond with the Father...). The expression of God's particularly deep, enduring and compassionate paternal love towards man was His salvific interventions in the history of His chosen people.
Karol Wojtyla, in a drama he wrote, points the way to overcoming the crisis of fatherhood: "After some long time I managed to understand that You do not want me to be a father without becoming a child. That is why your Son was born" (Radiation of Fatherhood, p. 263). In Christ we become children of our Father in Heaven, loneliness and uncertainty give way to a bond and a sense of stability. A man thus discovers an authentic image of the Father which he can realise with his life, even in the absence of the right role models from the family home.
Letter from the Polish Bishops' Conference, 9th of June 2018, fragments
#fatherhood
"Today [there is] a need for fathers who are able to fulfil their role, balancing tenderness with seriousness, forbearance with strictness, comradeship with authority" (Saint Joseph - Man of Work and Prayer, "L`Osservatore Romano" No. 3 (39) 1983)
Today, unfortunately, we are repeatedly witnessing a father identity crisis. It is often associated with a crisis of masculinity. It manifests itself above all in spiritual and emotional immaturity, in indolence and in a lack of self-confidence. An attitude of casual enjoyment of life and a fear of entering into lasting relationships and making lifelong decisions is also dangerous. Painful consequences for the wife and children arise when the father often identifies himself more with his profession or business than with his own family. One cannot fail to mention here the physical absence of the father from the family and "as experience teaches, the absence of the father causes mental and moral imbalance and considerable difficulties in family relationships" (Familiaris Consortio 25).
The father's participation in the child's faith development process is also fundamental. This is because they form an image of God through the example of their father's behaviour. The Holy Father referred to this in his work entitled The Gift and the Mystery: "Sometimes I woke up during the night and found my Father on his knees, just as I always saw him on his knees in the parish church." (Gift and Mystery, p. 23). Perhaps this is why, years later he asked: "And you fathers, do you know how to pray with your children, with the whole household community, at least from time to time? Your example - of right thinking and action - supported by common prayer is a lesson of life (...) Remember: in this way you build up the Church" (FC 60).
The fullness of the revelation of God as Father was brought by Jesus Christ. His unique relationship with the Father is based on the love which God solemnly confessed to his Son at his baptism in the Jordan (cf. Mk 1:9-11) and in the act of transfiguration on Mount Tabor (cf. Mk 9:2-8). Christ, in his dialogue with the Father, responds with the tender word Abba (cf. Mk 1:36), which we can render as Dear Father. With this expression, the Lord Jesus also reveals his deepest respect towards the Father, a relationship full of peace and mutual understanding, and a total and voluntary placing of himself at the Father's disposal in the work of salvation. "There is a reciprocity between the Father and the Son in terms of what they know of each other (cf. Jn 10:15), who they are (cf. Jn 14:10), what they do (cf. Jn 5:19; 10:38) and what they possess" (Jesus' bond with the Father - revelation of the Trinitarian mystery, General Audience, 10 March 1999). The profound Father-Son relationship gives rise to the certainty that the Son will always be heard by the Father.
The most important characteristic of God's fatherhood is "the capacity for infinite love, for offering Himself without reserve and without measure" (Jesus' bond with the Father...). The expression of God's particularly deep, enduring and compassionate paternal love towards man was His salvific interventions in the history of His chosen people.
Karol Wojtyla, in a drama he wrote, points the way to overcoming the crisis of fatherhood: "After some long time I managed to understand that You do not want me to be a father without becoming a child. That is why your Son was born" (Radiation of Fatherhood, p. 263). In Christ we become children of our Father in Heaven, loneliness and uncertainty give way to a bond and a sense of stability. A man thus discovers an authentic image of the Father which he can realise with his life, even in the absence of the right role models from the family home.
Letter from the Polish Bishops' Conference, 9th of June 2018, fragments
#fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
Challenges of fatherhood "Today [there is] a need for fathers who are able to fulfil their role, balancing tenderness with seriousness, forbearance with strictness, comradeship with authority" (Saint Joseph - Man of Work and Prayer, "L`Osservatore Romano"…
True Human Fatherhood
Whether we view fatherhood as fundamentally a biological act or fundamentally a spiritual vocation
depends decisively on whether or not we seek to know and love God. For true human fatherhood —fatherhood that is loving and strong, consisting of the sincere gift of the self — must necessarily point beyond itself, allowing itself to become oriented toward something larger and better than the fragile human male. In this sense, true human fatherhood must always consist of what the Holy Father, when he was the playwright Karol Wojtyla, once called the “radiation” of fatherhood. That is, men must seek to let the perfect paternity of God the Father radiate through the frail man, understanding that the human father is genuinely authoritative only to the degree that he himself is under authority, recognizing himself as God’s obedient son.
From "Fatherhood Uprooted: A Sociologist Looks at Fatherlessness and its Causes,” by David Blankenhorn
(www.americanvalues.org), writing in in the January/ February 2001 issue of Touchstone.
#fatherhood
Whether we view fatherhood as fundamentally a biological act or fundamentally a spiritual vocation
depends decisively on whether or not we seek to know and love God. For true human fatherhood —fatherhood that is loving and strong, consisting of the sincere gift of the self — must necessarily point beyond itself, allowing itself to become oriented toward something larger and better than the fragile human male. In this sense, true human fatherhood must always consist of what the Holy Father, when he was the playwright Karol Wojtyla, once called the “radiation” of fatherhood. That is, men must seek to let the perfect paternity of God the Father radiate through the frail man, understanding that the human father is genuinely authoritative only to the degree that he himself is under authority, recognizing himself as God’s obedient son.
From "Fatherhood Uprooted: A Sociologist Looks at Fatherlessness and its Causes,” by David Blankenhorn
(www.americanvalues.org), writing in in the January/ February 2001 issue of Touchstone.
#fatherhood
Ecce Verbum
Observe Aristotle on the Magnanimous Man: “he therefore to whom even honour is a small thing will be indifferent to other things as well... haughty towards men of position and fortune, but courteous towards those of moderate station... He will not compete…
The example of the Father
Zygmunt Krasiński, a poet
"I ask you to pay attention to every word I say here, to remember that your fate and the fate of other hearts, maternal and paternal hearts, depend on it. Remember that if you do not control and temper your bad inclinations, you can never do your country any service. You do not know what life is like, what external distractions and obstacles there are! If, apart from these, there is still an eternal obstacle within your own breast, where can you think of removing the others?
Get used, I beseech you, to exemplary kindness with women. You're missing out on it; it's neither Polish, nor Christian, chivalrous, nor noble. Politeness, on the other hand, is the first sign of a brave knight. Whenever you are tempted to rudeness, remember that the Mother of the Saviour of the world, now reigning in the heavens, was a woman and that your own mother is a woman. Let the first of these memories stand to your right, the second to your left, and let two musical chords of angelic sweetness tune your heart from a hard tone to a tone of gentleness and charity, always and everywhere.
My dear boy, I beseech Thee, keep my words in Thy memory, for in them Thy goodness, for in them Thy nobility, for in them is the love that men have for Thee, for in them is everything that Thou alone canst make beautiful one day, and everything that Thou alone canst make auspicious or salutary!
Letter to his son Władysław, August 1858
* Raising a boy to be a man is a paternal responsibility. Masculinity has clearly defined qualities, which many fathers today forget, so that their sons can never really grow up and therefore are unable, when the time comes, to be responsible husbands and fathers. Masculinity is shaped in the ability to control the sphere of feelings, especially feelings of fear and lust. Masculinity is also a subtle respect for every woman along the lines of respect for the Mother of God and the birth mother. Faith, Scripture and the lives of the Saints give us the best examples.
#fatherhood #men
Zygmunt Krasiński, a poet
"I ask you to pay attention to every word I say here, to remember that your fate and the fate of other hearts, maternal and paternal hearts, depend on it. Remember that if you do not control and temper your bad inclinations, you can never do your country any service. You do not know what life is like, what external distractions and obstacles there are! If, apart from these, there is still an eternal obstacle within your own breast, where can you think of removing the others?
Get used, I beseech you, to exemplary kindness with women. You're missing out on it; it's neither Polish, nor Christian, chivalrous, nor noble. Politeness, on the other hand, is the first sign of a brave knight. Whenever you are tempted to rudeness, remember that the Mother of the Saviour of the world, now reigning in the heavens, was a woman and that your own mother is a woman. Let the first of these memories stand to your right, the second to your left, and let two musical chords of angelic sweetness tune your heart from a hard tone to a tone of gentleness and charity, always and everywhere.
My dear boy, I beseech Thee, keep my words in Thy memory, for in them Thy goodness, for in them Thy nobility, for in them is the love that men have for Thee, for in them is everything that Thou alone canst make beautiful one day, and everything that Thou alone canst make auspicious or salutary!
Letter to his son Władysław, August 1858
* Raising a boy to be a man is a paternal responsibility. Masculinity has clearly defined qualities, which many fathers today forget, so that their sons can never really grow up and therefore are unable, when the time comes, to be responsible husbands and fathers. Masculinity is shaped in the ability to control the sphere of feelings, especially feelings of fear and lust. Masculinity is also a subtle respect for every woman along the lines of respect for the Mother of God and the birth mother. Faith, Scripture and the lives of the Saints give us the best examples.
#fatherhood #men