As I look at my children every night before going to bed, I wonder what their futures will be: what type of vocation they’ll have, what kind of relationship they’ll have with each other. I wonder what kind of relationship they’ll have with God. And then, as I slowly leave the room and quietly close the door, I realize that the answers to those questions are contingent upon me, their father. 

As a Catholic father, I have even greater demands on me, and these expectations are something I must fulfill, particularly because I vowed to follow through at each of my children’s baptisms. Now I’m far from being the father of the year (I pray that our Lord will allow me to raise my children well everyday), but with Father’s Day coming up, I’ve been thinking about how fathers, and Catholic fathers in particular, need to be bold. What does it mean to be a good Catholic father in this day and age?

I only have about four years’ experience of being a father, so this may not be much that I’ve picked up, but here are four ways we as fathers can really live out our vocation in a heroic way. Because that’s what we’re called to do: to give a heroic witness to our children.