Christ Our Light Catholic Church - Loudonville, NY

From Deacon Dick

As we celebrate Father’s Day, we honor and thank all our fathers, grandfathers, godfathers, foster and adoptive fathers, and all those who fulfill the role of father. God bestows upon fathers special graces so that they may be a unique presence of God in the lives of their children. To illustrate this point, allow me to share with you an experience of a nun working in the prisons in Peru.

She said as Mother’s Day was approaching the prisoners kept asking for Mother’s Day cards.  She brought card after card so they could write to their Madre.  As Father’s Day approached she decided to be better prepared.  She bought an entire case of Father’s Day cards, so she could give them to the prisoners when they asked.  She said that case is still sitting in her office because no one asked for a Father’s Day card.  She couldn’t give them away!  It was only then that she understood the source of so much suffering.  She realized so many of the men were in prison because they never had a good father or a father at all.  Sometimes she thinks the “father wound” might be the most common wound on this earth.  She wondered if the jails and prisons of the world would not be much emptier if young boys had fathers to bless them, encourage them, and initiate them into manhood.

And so, today and every day, we thank God for all those who “father’ us.