On the duties of parents

Not every day do you find a good king, good not in terms of ability to fulfill his duties but good in the moral sense. It is even rarer that you find a saintly king, but in King Louis IX of France we find both.

Born in 1214, Louis was crowned King in 1226 at the tender age of twelve. His mother governed as Regent until Louis attained the age of twenty-two. He and his wife, Queen Margaret, had eleven children (five boys and two girls). Saint Louis died while on Crusade near Carthage in northern Africa in 1270.

Much could be said of King Louis' life, but I want to focus only on a few lines the saintly king left for his son. He wrote,

My dearest son, my first instruction is that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength. Without this there is no salvation. Keep yourself, my son, from everything that you know displeases God, that is to say, from every mortal sin.

One might well expect a reigning monarch's first advice to his son to be something concerning the governance of the realm. One might even expect it to concern ruling beside other kingdoms or even living alongside and with a queen.

None of these valid and worthy - even necessary - concerns are Louis' first concern for his son. His first concern, his first instruction, is that his son live the faith of Jesus Christ. Would that every parent felt this way!

Too often parents are concerned first with worldly affairs, be they sports, academics, work, etc. All of these concerns are good in and of themselves, but they should never receive priority among what we hand on to children.

The Rite of Baptism reminds us that parents are "the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith" (105). Too many have forgotten this and have neglected this sacred duty.

Let us implore the prayers of King Saint Louis IX, that he might show parents how to have as their first instruction, their first concern, for their children the ways of faith.