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Inspiring Catholic quotes about fatherhood

St. Joseph stained glass window

Whether you’re writing out a Father’s Day card or pondering the great vocation, here are 10 quotes from Catholic figures and writings about fatherhood.

 

Every Father’s Day, we recognize and give thanks for the fathers in our lives. It’s a day to honor all men who love and sacrifice for others and to remember the love each of us receives from God the Father. Whether you’re writing out a Father’s Day card or pondering the great vocation of being a father, here are 10 quotes from Catholic figures and writings about fatherhood:

Pope Francis:

“Every family needs a father — a father who shares in his family’s joy and pain, hands down wisdom to his children, and offers them firm guidance and love.”

St. John Paul II:

“In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God, a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family.”

Pope Benedict XVI:

“God is a father who never abandons his children, a loving father who supports, helps, welcomes, forgives, saves, with a fidelity that immensely surpasses that of men, opening up to an eternal dimension.”

Pope Francis:

“A good father knows how to wait and knows how to forgive from the depths of his heart. Certainly, he also knows how to correct with firmness: He is not a weak father, submissive and sentimental. The father who knows how to correct without humiliating is the one who knows how to protect without sparing himself.”

G.K. Chesterton:

“God chooses ordinary men for fatherhood to accomplish his extraordinary plan.”

Father Lawrence Lovasik:

“Fatherhood is a vocation in God’s service to be not held lightly or frivolously, but with the serious determination of serious men.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2214:

“The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor owed to parents.”

St. John Paul II:

“Love for his wife as mother of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood.”

St. Vincent de Paul:

“A man of prayer is capable of everything.”

Servant of God Father John Hardon:

“St. Joseph is the divinely revealed model of human fatherhood.”

Source: EWTN.com

The Truth About Saint Joseph

Fr. Maurice Meschler, S.J.
 
A title of honor belonging to Saint Joseph is "the man according to God's own heart," "His right-hand man"—that is, the man of God's providence. This leads us more intimately into the relationship of Joseph with the Holy Spirit. 
 
Now, the Holy Spirit, because of His procession from the divine will or love, is the mutual, substantial love of the Father and the Son, or, typically expressed, the heart of the Holy Trinity.
 
Since nothing is more active than love, He is the principle of every activity properly ordered to its end. In a word, the Holy Spirit is the principle directing all things to an end, and all created beings must follow Him if they wish to arrive happily at their eternal goal.
 
Saint Joseph, as foster father of Jesus and head of the Holy Family,  had an exalted and most responsible vocation—namely, to open the way for the redemption of the world and to prepare for it by the introduction, education, and guidance of the youth of the God-Man.
 
In this work, Saint Joseph cooperated as the instrument of the Holy Spirit. The latter was the guide; Saint Joseph obeyed and carried out the enterprises. It is attractive, instructive, and edifying to consider how the saint corresponded to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We find in this connection two classes of circumstance in the life of the saint in which his conduct may be a model for us.
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