Convicted by a Three Year Old

Today when I was in Adoration, a woman and her young children came in and knelt behind me.

I heard a cooing baby and a spunky toddler and wanted so badly to casually glance over my shoulder (who can resist chubby cheeks?). But my siblings informed me when I was a little kid that if you look behind you in church you see the devil's face. A few decades later, and I'm still not takin' any chances.

From the little girl came a squeaky stage whisper, "Mother Mary looks a little bit upset in that picture. Why?"

I stifled a guffaw. She was referring, of course, to Our Lady of the Angry Stare -- the stern-faced modern stained glass image of the Blessed Mother in our Adoration chapel. Because we're grateful to have stained glass at all in these days of warehouse churches, nobody ever comments on the fact that the ones we do have are rather... um... well... "a little bit upset."

"Is somebody being naughty to the Baby Jesus? Is that why she's upset?"

Wow. I knelt corrected and convicted.

Henceforth, I will never again be able to look at that image without offering prayers of reparation for myself and the world. Whoever you are, little girl: thank you.