Pride Issues.........
Preparing our religion lesson for tomorrow is a no-brainer. So why am I anguishing?

I’m wrestling with the temptation to start talking to the boys tonight to start thinking of who might be their favorite saint. This would be done on the off-chance that Mass tomorrow would have one of those All Saints’ homilies in which the priest walks into the congregation and asks the eager children to volunteer their favorite saint. It is apparent to me right now that our saints discussion would be priming the boys to show off and make me look good. I know this is not right. I also know that at least one of my children has social anxiety to the extent that he would raise his hand to speak during Mass only to, perhaps, save a life. Mater’s aggrandizement does not fall within these parameters. Nor should it.

Yet I think.......what if Father should ask them, “who is their favorite saint?” I certainly wouldn’t want them to clutch. This year finds St. Jerome as the default saint for Chuck. Whenever I ask him a question about the saints and he doesn’t know the answer he will blurt out, “St. Jerome!” There are saints that we had more ‘fun’ studying and our school is named for St. Benedict. But St. Jerome keeps popping up. So........maybe we should spend the evening reviewing our facts about St. Jerome. Or maybe prudence dictates that I save any discussion for after Mass and resist the temptation to use my children to show off.