Catholic Fatherhood: Fathers Lead Families to Christ
Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight
Inspired by Pope Francis' declaration of 2021 as the 'Year of St. Joseph,' The Daily Knight will produce weekly articles to share and clarify the vocation of 'Catholic Fatherhood.' Our mission, at the Sacred Military Order of Knights of the Republic and the Most Victorious Heart of Jesus, is to defeat modernism, the synthesis of all heresies, in the domestic church (the family), the parish, and society at large. Building your domestic church is the quintessential foundation for fostering the faith and rebuilding Christendom.
Prayer to St. Joseph by Pope Leo XIII:
To thee, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also. Through that charity which bound thee to the immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which thou embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg thee to graciously regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with thy power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful Guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be propitious to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness; and, as once thou rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by thy constant protection, so that, supported by thy example and thy aid, we may be able to live piously, to die holy, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.
~ From the Raccolta #476 & Enchridion #6.
Fathers Lead Families to Christ
Fathers, as the priest, prophet, and king of the home, it is spiritually meritorious for the salvation of the family to lead a strong life of the faith and bring them to Christ. As the Supreme Pontiff is the Barque of St. Peter, you must be the confident captain to guide the family through the stormy waters of the world. Let your faith and sanctifying grace, merited from the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, be the light that brings your children to shore.
A study on a Fathers' Influence on Salvation, conducted by the Leadership Journal, determined that 93% of families will follow the spiritual influence and guidance of the father of the home. This fatherly leadership as priest of the family is extremely efficacious to the Catholic formation of the children and the spiritual health of the marital bond between the husband and wife.
Far to many families, endangered by lukewarm Catholicism and poor catechesis in modernist novus ordo parishes, suffer from fathers who abstain from faithful acts and have abdicated their leadership and authority on spiritual matters. The same has occurred in parish life where women were forced to take a larger role due to the absence of male leadership.
In 2019, the Barna Group, a research firm for faith and culture, published a study that polled Catholic priests on the topic of spiritual formation and development for children. An overwhelming 96% of priests agreed that the family, and the father as head of the family, holds the chief responsibility of the spiritual education of the children.
Furthermore, the study reported that priests affirmed that the family, as the domestic church, and the Church held nearly an equal positive influence on children's spiritual formation.
It was once explained during a homily, that to raise children to be saints, parents must be equal to or greater than in sanctity. As Fr. Chad Ripperger has eloquently explained, the affect cannot be greater than the cause in metaphysics. It would only be by Divine Providence that a great saint would rise from abysmal spiritual formation.
Like the fall of man, all good is fleeting outside the unitive condition with God. If a father wills his children to be saints, he must be a greater saint. If not, a saint will yield the blessed; blessed the venerable; venerable the faithful; faithful the lukewarm; lukewarm the non-believer; so on and so forth. By this degradation humanity fell, was washed by the flood, and once again was washed by the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. By our Lord, we are all called to be Christlike, to be united in Him, and Him in us.
Seize the role as the spiritual leader in the home, become the priest of the family and guide your children through the formation necessary to merit them numbered among the elect in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In Christ Crucified and the Most Victorious Heart of Jesus.
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