14/06/2014

Good morning,

Because it predates mass commercialism and because there has long been the suggestion of children in earlier times making little gifts to take home to their mothers half ways through Lent I’ve never had any real problem with Mother’s Day.

Whereas Fathers’ Day which will be observed in no less than 74 countries right around the world tomorrow - that’s a different matter.

So I was surprised recently to find that its origins go back as far as 1910 when an American woman promoted the idea in honour of her late father, a civil war veteran who single handedly had brought up six small children.

Less surprising to me was the fact that despite her initial success it all more or less completely disappeared within a few years, and it was only 20 years later when she managed to round up the backing of various trade groups who might benefit from such a day - the manufacturers of cards, ties, pipes and so on that it began to establish itself in the calendar With such beginnings then, it is perhaps understandable that Father’s Day should exert such pressure on shoppers everywhere today.

Now none of us is particularly keen on being subject to moral blackmail as the 3rd Sunday on June comes to bridge another gap in the retailer’s calendar

But on the other hand one would have to ask what terrible harm is done by yet another expression of gratitude on our part towards those who were always there for us for whether it be fathers, mothers, or grown up children there is always, in the generosity of giving an opening of the soul and a release of the human spirit

O Lord and Father,you have given us so much, grant us one thing more, a grateful heart. Amen.