Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127: 3-5
Traditionally Father’s Day was celebrated on March 19 in Catholic countries, a feast day of Saint Joseph The first Father’s Day observance in the US was on July 5, 1908 In Fairmont, West Virginia. It was held to honor the 250 fathers who had been among the 361 miners killed in the Monongah mining disaster in Monongah, West Virginia. The observance received little publicity and it did not start the current Father’s Day. Over the next few decades there would be proposals to have a Father’s Day observance, but nothing took hold. In 1957 Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a bill to establish Father’s Day, stating it was unfair to have Mother’s Day and not a Father’s Day. In 1966 President Johnson issued a proclamation establishing Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. President Nixon in 1972 signed a bill establishing Father’s Day as a national holiday.
My Dad used to say he didn’t need a card or a present on Father’s Day because he had all he ever wanted, his family, a sentiment which I thought basically summed up Father’s Day. The ultimate assessment of a father in this world is whether he is missed after he dies, and although my father departed this Vale of Tears 32 years ago, I find myself missing him more each year.
A happy Father’s Day to all our readers.
I think I’ve got something better than a card for my husband– bacon and eggs!
A man would be hard to please Foxfier who didn’t appreciate bacon and eggs from the mrs!
My son-in-Law made may bacon & pancakes this morning! 😀 I miss my father – a devout Pentecostal to the day he died. He had a heart attack at evening service in church. He departed this Earth from where he wanted to depart (church) doing what he wanted to do (worshiping the Lord). That’s how I hope I eventually die. Yes, I understand completely about the Catholic Church being the fullness of truth. But if my Dad isn’t in heaven (raising someone like me was purgatory enough!), then none of us have a hope of a chance. I love you, Dad.
I know how you feel LQC. I am one of four kids who my father and mother raised in the fifties and sixties and now I have my own 5 adult children. All I’ve ever wanted was to be a fraction of the father my own father was to us. We could not have asked for better. Forever praying his rosary I cannot see where else he could be today except in heaven. Bonne Fete des Peres Papa!
LQC and OC
Amen to that. Dad was devoted to our Lady, his mother and his family. A courageous inspiration to the community.
It’s a blessing beyond measure to have been raised by such faithful parents.
Blessed and fortunate.
After moving on, away from the nest, one realization hit home;
So many broken homes without love.
We didn’t have the newest or latest homes, cars, RV’s or TV’s….but we had love.
I thank God for my parents.
They gave us the greatest gift.
Jesus. Faith. Love.
Happy Father’s day Pa.
RIP
Foxfier, love it! Breakfast was my dad’s favorite meal.
I am grateful to God that my father lived to age 90. My sons and my nephews knew him into their 20s. Even now 15 years after his death
they and my husband will quote dad on some of his rules to live by.
My relationship with my dad during my college years and the months afterwards was not a good one. I lived at home during college, working at a part time job, paying my own tuition (my parents paid my car insurance, I paid for my books). My Dad would blow up whenever one of our cars had trouble, and I always drove clunkers. I struggled to graduate, and struggled to find a job after graduation. I finally left home when I was 25 and I did not want to be there anymore as I had lived at home too long. Dad finally listened to me after I left home. Never before.
Dad was not a very observant Catholic. He often skipped Mass. I never saw him go to Confession and saw him take Communion once. My youngest two brothers were not enrolled in CCD after First Communion and one of them doesn’t go to Mass anymore.
Dad did not get a checkup when his breath grew short, then developed emphysema and congestive heart failure. He has been gone for 25 years.
Lest anyone think that this is a complaint list – not so. Dad took me to Pittsburgh Pirates, Steelers and Penguins games – and we lived 100 miles from Pittsburgh. Dad built an addition to our house and doubled it’s size Dad planted a garden and we had our own vegetables. We had apple, peach, pear and plum trees. We had a swimming pool – nobody else around had one. We went to Cedar Point many times and twice to Myrtle Beach.
My dad’s death came during a time when we lost four family members in five years. I felt so crushed with guilt afterwards that I ended up quitting my job in DC and worked temp for a year while staying at my mom’s before I found a better job in Pittsburgh.
Dad did not live to see his five grandchildren, (we have two boys) or for me to take him to a ball game. I regret that.
What I have tried to do as a dad and a husband is to remember what he did well and what he did not and use enough wisdom to put both in practice. Being a dad and a husband had made me appreciate what he did and tried to do.