The man whom I lovingly call "Pappa"

My dearest Pappa has turned 76 years old today.  I called him last night to wish him Happy Birthday!  It is always a joy to hear his fatherly voice on the other end.  I sometimes feel like I am the most luckiest girl in the world to have a father like him.  He was a man of strong faith.  All my life I have only seen him working deliberately to build up the kingdom of God.  

When I was young I never saw my Pappa come home early from work.  He would always go after work to help conduct a retreat, or help a family who is going through crisis.  He would share the word of God with them and he has helped so many families to grow closer to God.  Those days he would come home late and I would wait for him to tell me stories.  I remember he would lay in his bed so tired from working all day at his office and the extra hours he spent with people who needed the love of God.  He would sacrifice the time at home to build up the Kingdom of God.  I did not know any of this back then and I would ask him to tell me stories.  Despite being so tired and exhausted he would tell me stories...till today those are the greatest stories I have heard.  Stories of him flying on a helicopter above the forests of Africa and how his helicopter crashed and he fell on top of a Gorilla..hahaha  and he made friends with the Gorillas of the African forests... the story went on...  I can still see the scenes which I imagined in my mind as a 4 year old little girl fully believing in every single word he said.  He would fall asleep in between the stories and he would tell me that I could tickle him and wake him up if he sleeps and that's exactly what I did.  He would wake up immediately to tell me the rest of the story.  I go back down my memory lane and I don't remember a single time my pappa getting frustrated or angry at me for not letting him sleep or for continuously bothering him.  

Sports man

As I start getting older I continued to see my dad working every free time he gets, weekends, holidays for the Lord.  I don't remember him missing a single day of mass.  He would go to mass, drop us off at school and then go to work.  I remember he would wake us all up early in the morning to pray with him.  Even though it was hard to wake up I still cherish those days spending time in prayer.  He gave each of us children a Psalm to memorize and we would say our psalms every morning with him.  He gave me Psalm 127.  I still remember the entire psalm by heart.  He would tell us about Jesus all the time and his Love for us.  His signature quote of all times is "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything shall be added unto you".  How blessed am I to have a father who tells me to go give up everything for God instead of telling me to study and word hard to earn a living!!  When all the dads worried about whether their children will become a doctor or engineer my dad was praying for us to give our lives fully for Christ.  

I would sometimes tell him that you are the New Testament Abraham.  I have never seen a faith so strong in my life.  And to be able to witness that in my own father is just amazing.  Even in the darkest moments of our lives I have never heard a word of desperation from him but only continuous praises.  I cannot remember a single time my dad said something bad about others.  If at all one of us were to say something like that he would stop us immediately.  When Pope Francis recently talked about the role of a father in a family I remembered the example my pappa put in front of us.  It was easy for me to understand God's love because my own father loved me so much. 

I thank the Lord for blessing me with a dad like him.  I wouldn't be where I am today if it was not for him and his sacrificial life.  I thank him for the faith he passed on to me.  He helped me fall in love with my Jesus, he helped me to understand the importance of going to daily mass.  Every morning he would check upon me whether I did my personal prayer. 

A proud moment - Becoming a Citizen of America

One thing which sticks out about him in my mind is how he would gather all of us together during our family prayer and he will go around each one of us apologizing for everything he did and asking us to forgive him and at the same time forgiving us.  He encouraged each on of us to do the same.  It touched me a lot and inspired me to learn about the beauty of forgiving one another within our own families.  

There is so much more to write about him.  I can never stop.  I am so blessed to be his daughter.  And my children are even blessed to have a grandfather like him. 

My dear pappa, I don't know how to express my thanks to you for taking care of me and loving me the way you did.  I wish I could learn and practice your wisdom and gentleness you had with each one of us.  I am not anywhere close to that but I hope I will reach there one day with yours and mummys blessings.  

Looking forward to seeing you and spending many more years with you my pappa.....we love you very much and May God pour his abundant blessings on you this coming year.