The f-word holiday weekend: Flag Day and Father's Day. I don't have a whole lot of plans. Some time at the office, some time at the baseball diamond (of course). I will also thrash my kids mercilessly until they concede that Father's Day is the most important holiday of the year.
In honor of the big day, my Register blogging column is about blogging fathers. You can find it here (registration required). It begins by contrasting the fathering techniques of Louis Martin (St. Therese's father) and Jean Rousseau (who put his five children into an orphanage with an 80% mortality rate). Excerpt:
Most fathers reading this column know the importance of fatherhood. Unfortunately, I suspect many harbor within a little bit of Rousseau. Rousseau loved the flesh: fame, fortune and the company of pretty women. His intellect, novel theories and writings were his road to carnal delight. No man is immune to such temptations (of this, I'm painfully aware), and only the rare man wrestles them to submission.
None of that is surprising, but perhaps the thing that ought to be understood – the thing that Louis Martin's life underscores – is this: Those who can subdue their fleshly inclinations, those who pray, those who love: Those are the fathers who make the best dads.
In the words of spiritual writer Thomas Dubay, “Husbands and wives have a beneficial impact on each other and on their children to ”¦ the extent of their prayer.”
It's not the man who gives his children a Nintendo Wii, a new car and a trust fund that makes the best father. It's the man who makes himself into a saint.
