Mary Beth Werdel

The goal is not children who can sit in Mass and not bother anyone, but children who can learn to create space in their hearts.

When my oldest son Peter was almost 4 years old, we arrived at Sunday Mass, hurriedly walking in a few minutes late, when he noticed the prayer candles in the back corner of the church. He was mesmerized. He asked, “Mommy, what are those?” As the mother of a child who had been labeled as