Here is an article from Suzanne Venker urging women to make family a priority.  “Make family a priority.”  It sounds trite when most people say it.  It does not sound trite when she does, because she gets a lot of opposition and because she is urging women to make real sacrifices of real possibilities of career and worldly success.

Triteness is a function of lip service.  Conventional expressions with no commitment behind them.

Mothers’ Day seems shopworn to lots of people.  But when I talk about my wife and my  mother, no one thinks it trite, because the steel shows through.  I know their flaws but I also know their goodness and in extremis I will fight and kill and die for them.

So many among the Saints live heroic lives of sacrifice.  You would never know it to hear them.  They speak tritely, as if only giving lip service.

Saints, do not hide your greatness.