A Father’s Love for His Child

by | Jan 20, 2017 | Family Life, Parenting

I can recall how as an infant my older sisters, whilst reading me bedtime stories, would reassure me on moonlight nights about “the man in the moon” as if to reassure me of an abiding presence of care and protection from above.

This thought occurred to me this week when I heard of the death of Eugene Cernan, the last astronaut to have walked on the surface of the moon.

According to the news, he wrote the initials of his daughter Tracey in the lunar dust, so that the letters “TC” are still up there, undisturbed since he first wrote them on that Apollo mission.

When I heard that, I thought how beautiful a father’s love is for his child, and how especially precious an authentic paternal love is for a daughter.

Now, when I think of the moon, and its symbolic meaning of it’s reflected light reminding us of Gods divine presence in our lives, I will recall those initials in the lunar dust. Those initials remind us of a father’s love for his child because as Isaiah tells us God, “has written (our) name in the palm of His hands.”

Edmund Adamus

Edmund Adamus

Edmund is currently Education Consultant for the human sexuality formation programme A Fertile Heart, Receiving and Giving Creative Love a theology of the body oriented resource for Catholic schools and families. He has worked professionally within varied leadership roles in the Church since 1990. Edmund was Private Secretary to two diocesan bishops. From 2003-2016 as Director of Pastoral Affairs in Westminster. He has contributed to various Vatican publications and addressed the VIth World Meeting of Families in Mexico in 2009. In 2007, he established the St. John Southworth Fund grants scheme on behalf of the Archdiocese of Westminster awarding more than £2m to help alleviate poverty for families across London. He helped establish Caritas Westminster in 2011. He addressed the 2014 annual conference of the American Academy for Fertility Care Professionals on Fertility Awareness –a Male Perspective; and was a guest speaker at the "Re-Engaging Humanae Vitae" conference at Ave Maria University, Florida in 2016. He has been actively involved in Catholic education for over 30 years and is UK representative for the GoodLove Foundation a global platform of sexuality formation resources for parents sponsored by the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. Among his most notable achievements is the establishment of the annual Mass of Thanksgiving for Matrimony at Westminster Cathedral, London, which since 2008 has gathered more than 15,000 couples to renew their marital commitment.  

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