Profile: Gen Xer who has grown up (mostly). I earned a PhD in Psychology, and work in marketing research, but my faith and my family are most important to me.
I am neither liberal nor conservative. I am Catholic and that makes all the difference. I am pro-life, and pro-family. I am intelligent and open-minded (but not so open minded that my brain falls out). I am opinionated. I laugh (a lot).
I live with my wife and three kids in beautiful Southern California. We like exploring and taking pictures together (outdoors, missions, flora).
I pray everyday to follow the will of my Lord, to love my wife more dearly, to teach my children well, and to leave the world a better place.
Being a dad is sometimes a scary thing. As head of a family, a dad is charged with the care of unique, irreplaceable persons. That care takes so many forms – shelter, food, clothing, education, but most of all salvation. Sometimes the other issues – shelter, food, clothing, education, (not to mention our own selfishness and sin) can get in the way of our most important task related to salvation. Sometimes we can let our responsibilities weigh us down. Times are tough for a lot of families . These times provide moments where we can live or deny our primary call to salvation, ours and our families.
Someone who had a tremendous impact in my life, a priest, died recently from cancer. He was still young, in his 60’s. I understand that there was a group he met with until right before he died. When he was getting to the point when he was unable to meet with them anymore, he told them that he was getting ready to die and that he wanted to show them how a Christian is supposed to die.
I wasn’t there when he said that, but the words echo in my mind, and I can’t help but apply those words to my own life as a father. A father is called to lay down his life for his wife and children like Christ. We must show them how a Christian dies, how a Christian suffers, how a Christian loses his job, how a Christian loses his home, how a Christian sacrifices to provide. Whatever the cross, we must bear it like Christ and die to ourselves. When times are tough, we must go through our dark valleys as Christians – walking in Christ’s own
Fr Z at WDTPRS has sent a call to take action about those who are attacking the Church in Denver. The issue is whether the Church has the right to choose disallow into her schools those whose parents take a public stand against Church teaching.
Read what Fr. Z has to say at the link below, and then follow up with his action items.
ACTION ITEMS
1. Right now… now… stop and pray the St. Michael Prayer for Fr. Breslin and Archbp. Chaput.
2. Immediately after pray the Memorare for the conversion of the couple of that child.
3. VOTE in that poll from the denverpost.com .
4. Then vote in the second poll farther down on the right side.
Clarification, the parish preschool in dispute is in Boulder Colorado, which is in the Archdiocese of Denver.
Leon Suprenant, Catholic author and Catholic Dad member, is blogging at Catholic Hour – a blog for the e-learning company My Catholic Faith Delivered. The blog is only a couple months old, and I have become aware of it only recently. While all of the posts look exceptional, I know I will be checking in frequently for Leon’s Lenten postings. He already has two up:
Give it Up – a discussion of some of the pitfalls we can fall into during Lent
Today begins another Lent. Lent is a time of turning to God, a time of repentance, and sacrifice. Lent has figured prominently in my own spiritual life. Through the Lenten experience, and my cooperation with God, I was granted grace to overcome certain sins. Other times I was drawn closer to our Lord through prayer and spiritual discipline. Sometimes, I must admit, I squandered the call by merely checking the Lenten requirement box without entering into the grace God offers through really living this season.
With this in mind, I call all Catholic Dads to enter into this season seeking to move forward in their own spiritual journey. We do this through surrender and repentance. It is only when we give up control and realize that God alone satisfies all we need; that God alone can lead us out of our wilderness; that all our struggles are empty without God that we can truly move in the direction of our call.
As part of this, I ask that you share with us some of your journey as well as any advice you can give to one another.
Christian Basi is a free lance writer for Family Foundations, a magazine distributed by the Couple to Couple League, a Catholic organization dedicated to Natural Family Planning.
Family Foundations has asked him to write a cover story for their July/August issue that focuses on Catholic dads and the challenges and joys they experience in raising their family and passing the Catholic faith to their children.
He has asked that I post an announcement here to find dads willing to contribute their stories.
Specifically, he is looking for Catholic dads who practice Natural Family Planning (NFP) and would be interested in discussing the following topics/questions:
What has been one of your greatest challenges as a father practicing NFP? (Defending the practice? Explaining the Catholic teaching to your children? or??)
How has/did using NFP affect how you addressed sexuality with your children as they grew up?
How have you discussed your convictions with your children in such a way that they did not reject it or go away from the church?
Welcome new Catholic Dads member, Steve Miller who hails from Beauty for Ashes. Here is what Steve writes”
Howdy! I am very interested in becoming a member of Catholic Dads! I have been Catholic for 10 years now, am a 3rd degree member of K of C council 10505,am studying to become a Secular Franciscan and I am a Den leader for Cub Scouts. Most importantly, I am the proud father of two sons.
Reader Michael Krafick points us to an inspiring article about a baseball player who has left a shot at the big leagues for a shot at the REALLY big league of the priesthood.
Sometimes these messages of hope can help when facing situations that can seem more troubling. Here is what he writes.
“I thought I would submit this article in response to your latest request on Catholic Dads.
Matter of fact, my family discovered that a family relative (well loved by all of us) passed away on Tuesday. His name was Fr. Elgar and ran two parishes in Minnesota – St. John the Evangelist and St. Benedicts. Both are around 150 years old in a rural town called New Prague. He served for over 25+ years I believe. Finding a new priest willing to serve out there will be very tough, if they can even find one. It’s a shame to think such beautiful works of art (the buildings) could be closed and the congregation could be scattered. (Fr. Elgar’s Church Website – http://stjohnstbenedict.com/default.aspx).
So as much as I mourn the loss of our family’s priest, I have hope when I read this article.”
Thanks for the message, Michael. In addition to praying for Grant Desme, I will be sure to pray for your family in their time of grief, the parishioners in their time of need, and your priest relative that he see the beatific vision and God welcome him as a good and faithful servant.
This is the year for the priest, and we have had little here discussing priests and their impact on our role as Catholic dads. I am sending out a challenge to everyone to consider a post on this topic.
If you are not a Catholic Dad but think you have a post you would like included, contact me ( robk@kaiserfam.com )and if appropriate to the blog, I will post it for you.
If you can’t make the March for Life, at least join the Virtual March for Life. You can join at http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/join/. There are already over 60,000 online – this is in addition to the thousands and thousands at the main event. Join now!
Today begins another Lent. Lent is a time of turning to God, a time of repentance, and sacrifice. Lent has figured prominently in my own spiritual life. Through the Lenten experience, and my cooperation with God, I was granted grace to overcome certain sins. Other times I was drawn closer to our Lord through prayer and spiritual discipline. Sometimes, I must admit, I squandered the call by merely checking the Lenten requirement box without entering into the grace God offers through really living this season.
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