"Where's Mary?"

We were at Mass last weekend, at the other parish in our area. We have been there quite a bit in the past few months, so it wasn't an unfamiliar venue for our just-turned-2yo daughter, my Valiant Little Queen.

Shortly after the prayers of Consecration she began her "talking" which can get quite boisterous. I whispered in her ear to watch the priest, and to pray. I said, "we need to be quiet my Valiant Little Queen, Jesus is on the Altar."

She responded with one of her trademarked responses, "Oh."

Then she caught my wife and I both off guard, as she looked around seemingly concerned, she said, "Errs-Moyee?" She did her cute little upturned hand gesture which helps us recognize that she is asking a question.

We both watched her eyes scan the area where there is a painting-which-purports-to-be-an-icon, not finding anything to satisfy her search, she again queried, "Errs-Moyee?"

OH! She's asking: "Where's Mary?" I deduced her thought process was something to the tune of: She knows that Mary is Jesus' Mother, and if He is on the Altar, then she must not be far behind. But on that day, she was no where for my daughter to find.

This incident reaffirmed in me the need for creating our churches as authentic Sacred Spaces that are conducive to our inner child. We need things that inspire our souls, we need to recognize images as signs of Heaven. We need to encounter the Sacred within our churches, if not for ourselves... for our children. We must be able to elevate our mind, through the the guidance and help of those external things which our rich tradition has entrusted to us for that very purpose. We must stop constructing "meeting halls" and start building churches.

So I too must ask, "Where is Mary?"

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