MVP...Most Valuable Patron Saint

I think I'm doing a pretty good job raising my kids to be good Catholics. I take them to Church...most of the time. We say prayers before dinner, at the start of the day and before bed. I teach them about God and read or tell them stories from the Bible. They know some of the basic prayers by heart. By God, you should hear them rattle off grace before dinner...it's barely intelligible they say it so fast. So, you see,I thought I was doing a pretty darn good job. Maybe, I shouldn't be so quick to give myself some props.

Our church is housed in an old supermarket. Don't tell anyone, but we jokingly refer to it as "Our Lady of the Plaza" (chuckling and cringing as I wait for the lightning bolt to smite me dead). The powers that be have done a very nice job converting it to look on the inside like an actual church. I especially like the alter. It has a small pool of water with a little waterfall and flowers all around it. Our Priest told us that they used to have small fish swimming in there but they had the horrible habit of leaping out to die during his sermons. The people in charge of decorating the alter always do something special with this little water feature and my kids always have to check it out...up close. So unlike the entire rest of the congregation, instead of rushing for the exits upon the end of Mass, they race to the alter to soak up the beauty (hopefully not ever literally) of the little pool. The other day after admiring for a bit, we were making our way out and passed by the large statue of Mary near the front of the church. Katie looked up at it and said, quite loudly of course, "Wow! Look at that trophy! Who's trophy is that? They must won a lot of games because that is the biggest trophy ever!"

I couldn't help myself...I laughed.