Fathers
Dear Parishioners of the Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes,
A happy Father’s Day to everyone! Let us be grateful for the gift of life we have received from our fathers. One way to celebrate the goodness of life is to have a good time with our dads! Dads are amazing! They aren’t perfect, for sure, but they help us to understand that we are loved, and they push us to be all that we can be. And we hope they show us how to learn from our mistakes, to get back up when we fall, and always try to do better.
Dads are the source of life psychologically and spiritually, as well as physically. Studies show that children have a much greater chance of continuing to practice the faith as adults if their father practices the faith with them. Studies also show something else, which is really, really interesting to me. A father’s emotional health has an even greater influence on children in the womb during pregnancy than the mother’s emotional state (if the father happens to be around during pregnancy). That is incredible to me; it’s very interesting scientifically... and it really shows how influential fathers can be. Let’s hope that fathers are there for their children and start loving them from the moment of conception!
This week, I’d like to thank all of those who contributed to making our celebration of the Sacred Heart solemnity a great success. Julie Borgerding led the OLODP choir and they sounded amazing. Dominic our seminarian “pulled out all the stops” while playing the organ and received many compliments. Fr. George helped tremendously with the set up and coordination. Special thanks to all the servers who showed up, and added an extra level of special to the liturgy. I was happy to see people from all of our five parishes there; the turnout was very good! It was encouraging to join with the bishops across the nation to consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart and make reparation for the injustices and sins that have been committed against peace and justice.
Though all human fathers are imperfect, all of us have a perfect Father in Heaven, who gives us eternal life. Let us be grateful to Him above all, and learn from Him how much we are loved and valued!
In the Sacred Heart, with Mary,
Fr. Henry Hoffmann
Did you know…
Do you know why Catholics call priests “Father”? It’s because the Bible says that priests share with God the Father the power of giving spiritual life. For example, see 1 Corinthians 4:14-15. As human beings, we priests aren’t biological fathers (because of celibacy), but through the sacrament of the priesthood, we share in God’s spiritual fatherhood.
