Does your parish do anything to celebrate Fathers?

What do you do to help support fathers in their role (with mothers) as primary catechists of children in the ways of faith?

Does your parish do anything to celebrate Fathers?

No....not besides hearing Happy Father's day from the pulpit....I'm satisfied with that. I think Father's Day is between me and my children.

What do you do to help support fathers in their role (with mothers) as primary catechists of children in the ways of faith?

Wow, I'd like to hear from others on this. If anything, I support my students in catechizing their parents more than the other way around. Some of my kids' parents do function as primary catechists, I can tell from the children. Some parents don't do more than drop the kids off about 2/3 of the time... or less. Aside from emphasizing the importance of marriage and the authority of parents, I suppose I don't really deal with this issue. I just try to take the children of a poorly-catechized generation and catechize them as well as possible in 30 scheduled class meetings.

Our parish does a blessing of fathers during weekend liturgies. We take it directly from the Book of Blessings.

God our Father,
in your wisdom and love you made all things.
Bless these men,
that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters, may honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.

Grant this through Christ Our Lord.




I also use some of the "Taking Action" blurbs in Tom McGrath's Raising Faith-Filled Kids in my parent and family newsletters. Here is one of my favorites:

Be patient with yourself. The only way to acquire patience is to practice that virtue. Do it consciously but not obsessively. And take your time with it. Exercise gentle curiosity. Take note of what emotions come up when you call on yourself to be patient. These can be clues to what's missing in your life or what's out of step in your life--things that spur your impatience. Bringing these inner motivations to the light of God's gaze can help them heal and diminish in power.

We print a "Father's Day Prayer Service" in our bulletin for families to use at home.

"Our parish does a blessing of fathers during weekend liturgies."

Huh...that sounds good. I don't think I've been at a Mass on Father's Day where that happened. Do all the fathers stand up & get recognized?

I'll pay attention this weekend and see what we do.

I've been in a variety of parishes were we have done several different things including a blessing for Fathers on Fathers day as has already been suggested. In one parish we gave the dads a small tie tack with an attached prayer.
One of my favoirte things is what my parents' parish (and several others in this area) does.They put a twist on the traditional pro-life mothers day fund raiser by distributing Baby bottles on Mothers's day and asking peopler to collect their change in them for the local prolife outreach center.Then they are ceremoniously collected on Father's day making the point that both parents are important.

kkollwitz,

Yeah, after the prayer after Communion, the presider asks all the fathers in the congregation to remain standing, and everyone else to be seated. He then gives the blessing, which everyone affirms through a round of applause.

Maura,
I really like what happens in your area. I'll pass the idea along to our pro-life people.