18 February 2009

A story about James and St James

On Sunday after Mass, I went to Denver for a two day meeting with several priests from the Vicariate. As I was leaving the meeting Tuesday afternoon, Fr John Connely presented me with a wonderful gift for my 3 year-old son James--an icon of St James, the Brother of the Lord.

This morning I gave the gift to little James. He, of course, recognized it as an icon, and wanted to know who it was. I said, "It's St James." He was very pleased--so pleased, in fact, that he ran to his mother with the icon and said, "Look, an icon of St. Me!!"

Then James looked at the icon more carefully. He noticed that St James was holding something in his hand. So little James said, "What am I holding?" His mother explained that it was a bishop's staff. I expected (and really wanted) him to say, "Oh, am I a bishop?" Thankfully, he did not since we'd been through that phase already when our diocesan bishop had visited last summer.

Anyway, James continued to admire the icon. Finally, he announced to his mother, "I like me!"

1 comment:

Christopher D. Hall said...

All I can say to that is: I like him too. Precious--in the true sense of that word.