Archive 

Father Peyton: Messenger of Hope for Youth 

He continued, speaking about the responsibilities of married couples, including the responsibilities to the children that will likely come from such a union.  He said: 

“They form the shrine into which Almighty God infuses a soul that will never die. The children that they bring into this world they are obliged to educate -- and that word educate means to develop them in body and in soul. On their bodies they have to put clothing and to feed them; and they must take care of their little souls, before priests and brothers and sisters they are likewise bound to feed, to develop and to rear so that they will be not only good citizens of earth but of heaven as well, where there they will have as companions the angels and the Saints. And incidentally in the rearing of children who will become courteous, kind and generous and prayerful, the greatest help is example in the father and in the mother. The greatest instrument to bring up a boy and girl and to make them courteous and kind and everything they should be as Christian boys and girls those very qualities are seen by that boy and by that girl when they first opened their eyes to the use of reason. Those very qualities of courtesy and kindness and of mutual help they will see in their father and in their mother…” 

Father Peyton cited that the example that parents provide to children in their behavior was as important as feeding and clothing them.  Throughout his priestly life, he provided hope to youth by extolling the merits of daily family prayer, particularly the Rosary, to unite families in imitation of the Holy Family of Nazareth and to receive the benefits given to a family that prays together.     

-David Goodrich- Archiver