How Long Island congregations celebrate Father's Day

Father’s Day, first celebrated nationally 51 years ago, and this year marked on June 18, is among the newest of holidays, but it’s a worthy companion to Mother’s Day, which dates to 1914. This week’s clergy discuss how their congregations acknowledge and support fathers and celebrate the day honoring them.

RABBI ART VERNON

Congregation Shaaray Shalom, West Hempstead  

Fatherhood does not come easily for most men. Siring children is easy; raising them requires skills that most men today did not learn from their dads. I include myself in this category. (I have four children and 12 grandchildren, most of whom are currently residing in Texas or in Israel.)

This is why Father’s Day is so important. Men who have accepted the challenge not only deserve acknowledgment, but also high praise for their commitment and effort.

We dedicate our Shabbat morning the day prior to Father’s Day to recognizing the dads. Our men’s club coordinates their participation in the service. The dads lead parts of the service and are honored by being called for the reading of Torah, our scripture. I devote my homily to the challenges of fatherhood and the benefits and blessings of success. We break bread together following the service and share our fatherhood experiences. Even when one’s children are adults and have their own children, we continue to be fathers to our children, albeit on a different level. I am grateful to God for the opportunity and privilege of being a father, but even more for being my children’s dad.

THE REV. DOUGLAS R. ARCOLEO

St. Catherine of Sienna Roman Catholic Church, Franklin Square

In his 1972 proclamation establishing Father’s Day as a national holiday, President Richard M. Nixon wrote: “To have a father — to be a father — is to come very near to the heart of life itself.”

The month of June, dedicated as it is to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, affords us an opportunity to enter into that heart and discover the Father’s love for us; the love that took flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb, advanced under the protection of Saint Joseph, offered itself once for all on a cross, and rose from the dead to breathe the spirit of love into broken hearts. That Father’s love compels the church not only to celebrate Father’s Day with our fellow Americans as “an occasion for renewal of the love and gratitude we bear to our fathers,” as Nixon proclaimed, but also as an occasion to renew the love and gratitude we owe “Our Father, who art in Heaven” for giving us His Son, through whom a nine-day Novena of Holy Masses, beginning on June 18, will be offered at Saint Catherine’s for fathers who have shown us the Father’s love, so that we may have life and have it to the full.

MARIE MCNAIR

Secretary, Regional Baha’i Council of the Northeastern States

On Father’s Day, members of the Baha’i Faith, like their friends and neighbors, express their love and appreciation for their fathers by sharing a meal, giving gifts and spending time together. For Baha’is, however, that appreciation is not about one day in the year but instead their understanding of the family as the nucleus of human society with spiritual responsibilities for each member. That relationship goes beyond ties of blood to the kind of love that is a connection of hearts and souls. For example, Baha’i parents continually pray for a child’s spiritual development, even before birth.

It is in the home that acquiring virtues begins, both parents having the responsibility for educating their children in that regard and modeling those virtues as they create a loving, unified environment for family life. It is within the family that children first understand Baha’i teachings such as the oneness of humanity, freedom from prejudice, the equality of women and men, and the use of consultation to arrive at harmony in decision-making. Meanwhile, the children honor the parents with courtesy and respect in a lifelong tribute to a relationship based on the sanctity of the family and the rights and privileges of all members.