Dear OSJ Family.
Happy Fathers Day to all of our dads, living among us and those living among the saints of heaven!
This Father’s Day the Jesuit Leadership Conference of the US and the Ignatian Solidarity Network—inspired by Pope Francis’s call for justice for immigrants—are joining interfaith immigration partners in calling on President Obama and his administration to stop breaking apart families through our country’s broken immigration detention and deportation system. You can find the details of this initiative here: http://ignatiansolidarity.net/fathers/
The sign-on letter to President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson highlights the stories of several fathers who will not celebrate Father’s day with their families, and points to a reality faced by thousands of fathers and others being held in detention. It draws on our faith’s values of forgiveness and the significance of family unity.
The American Jesuits thought that this appeal could be a particularly poignant advocacy action to undertake in Jesuit parishes across the East coast, and an opportunity for religious education and peace and justice leaders to join together. Jesuit parishes around our country are undertaking this initiative together! At OSJ, this gives us all an opportunity to engage in faith-justice work with our sister Jesuit parishes.
I offer now a prayer for our Fathers:
A Prayer for Christian Fathers
Heavenly Father,
you entrusted your Son Jesus,
the child of Mary,
to the care of Joseph, an earthly father.
Bless all fathers
as they care for their families.
Give them strength and wisdom,
tenderness and patience;
support them in the work they have to do,
protecting those who look to them,
as we look to you for love and salvation,
through Jesus Christ our rock and defender.
Amen.-Unknown
God Bless,
Fr. Phil Florio S.J.
