My mother leads prayer

My mother teaches middle school kids at a private Catholic school in the city. She leads her homeroom in prayer every morning. My mother in many ways is a very patient woman. However, she has little patience for some of the "special intentions" her students make during prayer time, many of which, I'm afraid, cause her to roll her eyes at the sheltered lives her students lead.

For instance, once a girl asked to pray "that my grandmother have a nice birthday at the Bulls' game tonight!"

My mother said: "Well, is there any chance that she WON'T have a good time at the Bulls' game tonight?"

The girl thought about this and said, "Well, no."

And my mom replied, "Well then, I'm not sure we should pray for that, then."

Over the years, my mom has also heard many prayers for animals and pets. She created a separate category called "Prayers to St. Francis," to keep prayers for animals in a different category from prayers for people, or say, an end to war, famine, and pestilence, for example. (Not that her kids every pray for those latter things.)

Mostly, my mom keeps her cool about these things and lets them go by. But not always, as you can see from the story above. And this week, she told me, a girl prayed "that my kitty will stop climbing the Christmas tree."

My mother lost it: "I'm afraid in this case, [Sally], St. Francis can do nothing to help you."

[Sally]: "Oh, ok. My mother gets mad."

Mom: "Just tell her to relax."