Most Holy Trinity and Father’s Day

06-15-2025Letter from the PastorFr. Don Kline, V.F.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As human beings, we need one another. We are united as God’s children. We are family. As such, it is good to understand that being a beloved child of God the Most High, we are called to seek a holy and lifegiving relationship with God and one another. Since each of us is created in the image and likeness of God, we are able to be a sacred reflection of the Most Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity celebrates the most powerful mystery of who God is as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, today reminds us of the relationship God shares with us, His beloved children. While we cannot completely understand God, Sacred Scripture and through the teaching of Jesus, God has revealed to us that He is Trinity – a community of Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God wants to share this triune relationship with us. Of course, we sin and therefore distort our ability to experience God’s love completely. Yet God has gone out of His way to ensure that we can still seek Him with a sincere heart if we so choose. God sent His Son Jesus to restore what sin destroyed. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

In baptism, we are made God’s beloved children in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Through baptism, we are united to God and to each other. The Most Holy Trinity is a communion of selfless love between Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Through the Most Holy Trinity we are shown the selfless love that we are called to have for each other. We are made to love and the love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows us how to love.

One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me is their example of love and the gift of prayer. They taught me how to love by loving and how to pray by praying. They put into practice the saying of Father Patrick Peyton: “The family that prays together stays together.”

My dad was and still is a man of prayer who is not afraid to pray publicly. I once read that “the man is greatest when he is found on his knees!” A memory of my dad praying on his knees is something I will always remember from my childhood. I will always treasure that fact that we would pray together as a family – a gift I will never take for granted because it is not something every family does. But for me, prayer always included the blessing of the meal (even at restaurants), the family Rosary and Sunday Mass even when we were on vacation, which is of course the greatest of all prayers.

I see my dad and all good fathers adopting the posture of Moses. Remember, it was Moses who elevated his arms so that the Jews could win the battle against their enemies. Fathers, I encourage you to pray daily for your family for their protection from all evils - physical, moral, and spiritual. Pray for your family’s holiness and foster a desire for heaven within your family. An authentic Christian father should have his eyes always fixed on heaven while being aware of the snares and tangles of the enemy who seeks to destroy the family.

The greatest desire of the father (and a mother) for their family should be the salvation of their children’s souls. Jesus said, “What would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul in the process? What can we offer in exchange for our immortal soul?” I truly believe that until the vital role of the father is restored in the family, the family and our world will suffer deeply. The one who is called to the vocation of marriage aspires to a lofty calling from God. Marriage assumes an extremely important responsibility. The end of the vocation is holiness of life and the heavenly reward among the Saints with God for all eternity.

Let us turn to the best of earthly fathers, the virtuous Saint Joseph, and beg for his powerful intercession. I encourage you to pray this beautiful prayer to St. Joseph for fathers.

St. Joseph, guardian of Jesus and chaste husband of Mary, you passed your life in loving fulfillment of duty. You supported the holy family of Nazareth with the work of your hands. Kindly protect all the fathers who trustingly come to you. You know their aspirations, their hardships, their hopes. They look to you because they know you will understand and protect them. You too knew trial, labor and weariness. But amid the worries of material life your soul was full of deep peace and sang out in true joy through intimacy with God’s Son entrusted to you and with Mary, his tender Mother. Assure those you protect that they do not labor alone. Teach them to find Jesus near them and to watch over him faithfully as you have done.

- St. John XXIII

God Bless,

Fr. Don Kline