Daily inspiration before Father's Day |
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Vision:
To Foster Catholic Men's Spirituality in Chicago Southland
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Note: With Father’s Day this weekend, I know you’ll enjoy this fresh look at the important role that dad's play in family life! We're taking this week to send you encouragement about what it means to be a Dad. A Catholic Dad. Your Kid's Dad. ... and a father figure to the youth in our society, even for those of you who do not have a son or daughter in the flesh, to the children who do not have a father present in their lives. So that, by Father's Day, we can all have useful and powerful tools in our Manhood tool box to be even more the man, husband, and father that God calls us to be. Look below for today's edition. You can also bookmark this webpage to come back to, or move these (and all CMCS) mails to their own special email folder for archiving. If you were forwarded this E-mail and you like it, sign up here. Thank you very much! Happy Father's Day! Frank J Casella
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What We Learn From Our Children As Catholic Dads
(From the 2015 CMCS archives)
You might think that, in talking about what we as Catholic Dads learn from our children, I would share with you the lessons of patience, humor, imagination, creativity, persistence, taking risks, enthusiasm, unconditional love, blind faith, and positive attitude. Yes, these are important, but there is more to it. You might think that what we learn from children is a reflection of, or has to do with, the 15 Ways To Be The Man God Calls You To Be. Yes, but there is still more to it.
Doing an online search, here are what I found as the top 12 lessons we learn from our children: 1. Be yourself 2. Just be happy 3. Skip 4. Make friends 5. Say what you mean, mean what you say 6. Smile 7. Relax… take a nap 8. Be fearless 9. Sing 10. Wonder about everything 11. Explore 12. Play. I don’t know about you but, I am still working on some of these and, wonder if this is can be reality. Read on ….
Here is some hope. If you look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it reads at 2228: “Parents’ respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up, the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.” …. 2227: “Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.” Does this sound familiar? I think it humanizes all that I said above.
In other words, when you look at Bishop Perry’s Virtues of a Catholic Man, the first item is that “A Catholic man has some sense of what or whom he would die for if necessary” … and the sixth item is “A Catholic man practices presence with his wife and children”. So, what we learn from our children I think is the great responsibility, and gift, God gives us as a Father to make a direct impact on our present generation and the generations to come. As I often say, when you foster a man in holiness, the adjustments that man makes can be felt for three generations. Our children are the report card how good we are at doing this. The time we spend with our family should never be a second thought. It should always be our first thought. Yes we fall short at times but, we only fail when we give up.
Fathers are, and should be, an positive example to our children and our culture of who Jesus is. So, it should not be a burden to be a Father but, rather, a privilege to carry the torch for what Christ’ example did for us all. As many good teachers will tell you, the positive lessons shared with our children, what they give back ( like Jesus ) is way more than what we could ever give.
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Catholic Men Chicago Southland
"Living the Goodness of a Catholic Man"
Aplostolate of Bishop Joseph N Perry
Executive Director, Frank J Casella
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Catholic Men Chicago Southland | Vicariate VI Office - 3525 South Lake Park Avenue | Chicago, Illinois 60653
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