I always thank God for growing up in Christian family. I thank God for each of my parents and grandparents. As a boy, I learned so much from my
father and my grandfather. Now I see how much they both strived to actively live their faith. Their way of life  was of great influence in my vocation     journey. My grandpa, Jean Baptiste, worked with missionaries in building the churches in the area. He also dedicated his time in serving the poor through the “parish caritas.” It was not only by spending his time working at the parish that got him a nick name “padre” (same word used to call a parish priest), but also the fact that he blessed children making a sign of the cross on their forehead anytime they greeted him. I cannot count all the many times he said these words of blessings on me: “May the God of our ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bless you and keep you safe. And I give you the
paternal blessing. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

From both men (grandfather and my father), I had my own way to define a father as “a man who blesses his children.” Today, when I meditate on the life of those two men whose spiritual life has inspired me to be a father, I too want to be, each and everyday, a man who blesses God’s children.
 
On this “Father’s Day” each one is challenged to pray for our fathers and draw at least one lesson from their lives. Our fathers have blessed us, and they still bless us today by everything they do with love to their families. Everyone is encouraged to pray for his/her father. These are three things that I pray for men this weekend: 
 
· Be men of prayer and spiritual leaders of their families. These men have prayer time in their    daily and busy schedule and remember to pray for their spouses and each of their children and   grandchildren. They spend at least ten minutes in    prayer everyday, read the Bible through which God speaks to them a language of love, mercy and compassion. They thank God for each of the people God put in their lives and lead family daily prayer in the morning and in the evening.

· Be men who model their lives to Christ, and love their families as Jesus loves his Church. These men seek to please God in everything they do for each one of their families. They tell their family members everyday how much they love them,   and they commit themselves to tell them that  everyday of their lives.
 
· Be men who are filled with the Holy Spirit and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. These men strive to be saints. The Spirit of God gives them strength to be responsible for their life. They rely on the grace of God when they make major decisions, and most importantly they inspire their children to become devout people.
 
Also on the Sunday after the Pentecost, we celebrate the feast day of the Holy Trinity. We read in the Gospels that Jesus talks clearly of the very nature of God Triune. It is the name of One God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that Jesus asked his apostles to baptize. And so, by our baptism, we have the         presence of God Triune within us. And that presence of God is what defines us. Everything we are and have comes from God. It is only in this way we understand how we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the communion of the Holy Spirit. True life is in the Trinity and from the Trinity. This is the faith of the Catholic Church which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the Apostles and guarded by the fathers of the Church who handed it on to us.   And so today, we acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Saint Athanasius, reminds us that in the Church, God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as the Father, for his principle and source; he is through all things though the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit. This is what we profess in the Creed, and especially when we begin our days, prayers and activities with the Sign of the Cross: in the name of the Father and of the Son and  of the Holy Spirit.