From : Father Paul

Immediately I recognized that cry. One of the kindergarteners was having a difficult time, and was wailing as I walked near the room. I stopped in and chatted for a moment with the teacher, who was busy soothing another child. I went to my little friend and greeted her, and she instantly poured out her troubles. "I didn't get to go to computer class, and the fing fell off my head!" The thing that had fallen off her forehead were the ashes from that morning's Mass. I condoled with her for a moment and then we prayed in Jesus' name. She lay down for her nap and slept away. Only twenty minutes later, I was at the door of the kindergarten again, leading a prospective school family on a tour. Who met this family's little boy at the door, shining like the sun? The same girl who had been so sad only a short time before. She asked the boy his name and what school he attends, and she practically sang to him the words, "Well we would be SO happy if maybe one day you would come to OUR kindergarten." The boy's face lit up. His parents glowed. She was the same child, and her circumstances had not changed. She still didn't get to go to computer class, and the ashes were long gone from her forehead. Yet she prayed with me in earnest, and when the Lord was ready to grant her peace, she was ready to receive it. -Father Paul Donnelly