Happy Father's Day
Lord God, loving father of us all, guide and instruct my husband in your ways that he may be a good earthly father to our children.
Help him to be wise and prudent in carrying out your designs for him as a father, and aid him that in all his ways his inspiration and example will direct our children's thoughts to You.
Grant him patience in carrying out the difficult and burdensome taks of being a good father.
Teach him a strength and firmness that is tempered with gentleness and is never harsh or forbidding.
Teach him to be kind without being yielding or indulgent.
Give him the understanding that a father should have -- an understanding that will invite the confidence of his children.
Give him the cheerful strength that is so often needed in times of trial; and may his love for our children, and my love for him, sustain him in these times of stress.
Give him a childlike trust in you, and may that trust in you be rewarded by a mirroring of your fatherhood in him. And so may his children know an increase of joy and love as they are brought closer to You through him. Amen.
from Mothers' Manual by A. Francis Coomes, S. J.
