A little girl's prayer

Every night, after turning out the lights, we take a glow-in-the-dark crucifix and pass it around during family prayer time. It has been funny to see what the kids are thinking about in relation to God.

For a while now during prayers, Joshua, who is usually very verbal, has been keeping his prayers short. In fact he only wants to pray for the people in our house at the moment. "I pray for Mom, Dad, Maria and Sam." During the week Anna's sister Catherine stays with us while she attends University nearby...Joshua has asked during prayers, "is Catherine home?" If she is, he'll include her. If she's gone he doesn't want to pray for her.

Maria on the other hand prays for everything and everyone! Last night we had to help her close out her petitions because she showed no signs of stopping. She'll include people, animals and even inanimate objects: "I pray for birds, for Fr. Ed, for sheep, for suckers, for cars, for bunnies. I pray for Mom, for the groceries, for pizza, for Josh..." and so on. Anna and I were practically in stiches last night just listenting to the things she was coming up with and the matter of fact way she was praying.