Many countries are soon celebrating Father’s Day, a holiday that is a good occasion to remember 9 keys on how to be a good father shared by Pope Francis.
1. Do not get tired of talking about faith to your children
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Through his received from your fathers.”
2. Be present at home and accompany the children
Pope Francis also advised fathers to be present at home and in their family and assured that it is necessary to “share the joys and sorrows with women, to accompany children as they grow.”
In this sense, he added that “the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son shows us the father who waits at the door of the house for the return of the son who made a mistake. He knows how to wait, he knows how to forgive, he knows how to correct.”
In a similar way, the Pontiff added, “also today, when children return home with their failures, they need a father to wait for them, to protect them, to encourage them, to teach them how to continue on the right path. Sometimes he has to punish him, but he never slaps him in the face.”
3. Teach gently and firmly
Pope Francis, during a General Audience of 2015, pointed out that to be a good father it is necessary to “try to teach what the child does not yet know, correct the errors that he does not yet see, guide his heart, protect him in discouragement and difficulty. All this with closeness, with sweetness and with a firmness that does not humiliate.”
4. Ask yourself what parents you want to be
On another occasion, during an interview With Vatican News, the Holy Father explained that “the children of today who will become the parents of tomorrow should ask themselves what parents they have had and what parents they want to be.”
“They must not let their parental role be the result of chance or simply the consequence of a past experience, but they must consciously decide how to love someone, how to take responsibility for someone.”
5. Knowing how to retire at the right time
Pope Francis He also assured that a good father is when he knows how to retire at the right time so that his son can emerge with his beauty, with his uniqueness, with his choices, with his vocation.”
“In this sense, in any good relationship it is necessary to renounce the desire to impose an image from above, an expectation, a visibility, a way of completely and constantly filling the scene with excessive prominence.”
6. Imitate Saint Joseph
The Holy Father also gave the example of Saint Joseph and his ability to “know how to step aside, his humility, which is also the ability to go into the background, is perhaps the most decisive aspect of the love that Joseph shows for Jesus.” .
“In this sense he is an important character, I would dare say essential in the biography of Jesus, precisely because at a certain moment he knows how to withdraw from the scene so that Jesus can shine in all his vocation, in all his mission. In the image and likeness of Joseph, we must ask ourselves if we are capable of knowing how to take a step back, to allow others, and especially those who have been entrusted to us, to find in us a point of reference, but never an obstacle.
The Holy Father also highlighted the importance of asking “the Lord that families never lack the presence of a good father, who is a mediator and custodian of faith in the goodness, justice and protection of God, as Saint José”.
7. Pray with confidence
“Many times, children will not admit failure, but they need the father as we all need to go to the only Good Father, as the Gospel says, our Father who is in heaven,” the Pope indicated, alluding to the dialogue with God through through prayer.
8. Lean on the Church
Pope Francis assured that “we must have the courage to say that the Church should not only be maternal but also paternal. That is, she is called to exercise a non-paternalistic paternal ministry.”
“And when I say that the Church must recover this paternal aspect, I am referring precisely to the paternal capacity to place children in a position to assume their own responsibilities, to exercise their own freedom, to make choices.”
“If on the one hand mercy heals us, heals us, consoles us, encourages us, on the other hand the love of God is not limited to simply forgiving, to heal, but the love of God pushes us to make decisions, to take off”.
9. Help in failure
“A true father does not tell you that everything will always go well, but that even if you find yourself in a situation in which things will not go well, you will be able to face and live with dignity also those moments, also those failures.”
“A mature person recognizes himself not in victories but in the way he knows how to live with failure. It is precisely in the experience of the fall and weakness that a person’s character is recognized,” said the Holy Father.
This news was originally published on June 17, 2023.
Central Editorial
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