What My Father Never Told Me

 

I was listening to a Mother Angelica broadcast on my way home from evening prayers.  She was speaking about Our Father in heaven and how amazing that is … the Creator of everything is our Father!  I don’t know her life’s story, but she mentioned that she never knew her earthly father, and only saw him a few times as a young child, but her heavenly Father is tops --- numero uno!!  And He’s Our Father too!  We need to think more on all He has done for us, how much He loves us, she said.

And I thought about my earthly father.  I was blessed by him also; he was a good man and a good example.  He was just and fair, and I knew he loved me, even those times he had to punish me.  But listening to Mother Angelica tonight, I realized there was one thing my father never told me.  He never spoke about our heavenly Father (or at least I don’t recall that he did).  I went to Catholic schools, Church on Sunday, and we said grace before meals, and I said my bedtime prayers.  And we observed all the Church holidays.  For all the time we spent together an all our conversations, my earthly father never told me about our heavenly Father.  Our faith was practiced and lived, but rarely talked about.  Perhaps that’s a good thing these days, when so many are questioning even the existence of God, but back then it would have been another thing to bring us together. Listening to Mother Angelica speak of her heavenly Father with such love, I think I missed out on something growing up.

My childhood was reasonably happy, but I think it would have had more meaning, more importance, to me if we had discussed God more.  He is Our Father, not some ghost in the room to be afraid of.  He loves us.

I think I would have been a better person if I had God more a part of my growing up.  If I grew up knowing Him as a Father, and as a friend, I think I would have had a happier life, and been a better person --- more as He created me to be.

Families need to pray together more, and talk to their Father, together.  We don’t need “likes” on our phone, we need them in our heart.