Father Talk
(Speaker goes to apex of the candles and stands in front of the fourth candle, facing West)
The Order of DeMolay honors womanhood as one of its seven cardinal virtues. And we
realize our more important duty to honor motherhood; but we as young men also need to
recognize the other portion of Filial Love that shapes our growing years: Fatherhood.
Tonight, my Brothers, we dedicate this evening to our fathers; men who desire to guide
and mold theirsons to emulate or better their manhood years. A son, to rear a son; that is
one of the splendid things of life. A son is as good as an absolute assurance of immortality.
To take your son by the hand when he is young, to lead him out into the spring, to show
him the glories of God, the way he will go.
Well, you should know how it is. A father wants to leave the best part of himself to
someone else, his son. And we as sons may be aware of our father's desires to do so, or
may seldom even appreciate the task that he tries to accomplish.
We, growing up in a confused world as an adolescent, find it unusually difficult to really
communicate with our dad. He does not seem to understand us, our beliefs, our speech,
our behavior, our wants. We think him and perhaps his beliefs are wrong, or he is unable
to help us with our big problems. But later, we as grown men, will eventually see his side
of the story and face the problems in raising our own sons, even though it is hard to
believe now.
It is the Order of DeMolay that enables us to grow up to be better men, better citizens for
tomorrow's world. Our Chapter dads also try to aid us if we think our fathers unable to do
so. Or perhaps we lost a father and then look to an advisor as a father substitute. Such as
the founder of our Order when Dad Land saw fatherless Louis Lower groping for an adult
guiding hand. DeMolay, based on such a foundation, has given three and a half million
young men a helping and guiding hand along the path. We, therefore, wish to extend to
our fathers and Chapter dads the most heartiest token of our appreciation as sons and as
DeMolays'.