Paternal Presence: Alvaro de Vicente on "Being There"

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive · Apr 4, 2023 · 44m

In G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, he tells a sort of parable in which children are given space to play on a mountain top surrounded by steep precipices on all sides. At first the children are left to play on the mountain top without any walls. Fearful of falling off one of the edges, they all huddle up in the middle. Then, walls are erected, and the security that such walls provide gives the children the confidence they need to play without fear of falling.

A father's loving presence can act like such walls in the lives of his children. Yet, at times, the practical realities of life make it…