Another "Little Flower of St. Francis"

Finally back after a very busy school year. Not that I had any extraordinary work load (though according to the National Association of Schools of Music's report evaluation of our department, I did) but that I've been involved in a number of personal endeavors, which have really kept me occupied. Last Fall, I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Friendly City Food Cooperative, a great honor, indeed, but with a time commitment. I have also been dealing with the hurdles of bureaucracy as we are planning (hoping) to move out of the city to the country side. But what has kept the whole family busy, and, of course, celebrating for almost eight months now was the arrival of Samuel Francisco on October 4, 2010.

Life is a miracle but our Samuel touches down as divine in our home.  We chose his middle name the day, St. Francis of Assisi's feast day. That solved the quarrel over the baby's name as for months Maria, Amanda and I had struggled to find a name that we all agreed upon. But the miracle that had just happened didn't really reveal itself until a few days later when our friend Laura Thomas came to our home to meet the baby.   "So what middle name did you finally pick?" she asked casually. "Francisco," I responded. Laura paused and quietly asked: "why did you choose that name?" I explained that October 4th what the feast day of St. Francis, so we named the baby after his patron. At that point Laura went quiet and tears immediately filled her eyes and rolled down her face. We looked at Laura with astonishment. Her two daughters, Sophia and Cecilia, and her husband, Tim, looked at her with worried but quiet faces. "I'm so sorry," Laura said. "What is it, Mom?" one of the girls asked. Long seconds went by before Laura explained with a sobbing voice.


Samuel was born nine years after our first daughter, Amanda. We never intended to wait this long but it just had not happened. Maria had suffered several miscarriages, each one of them leaving a deeper scar in our souls. In the spring 2007, we had lost a baby at eighteen weeks into pregnancy. That was a very hard hit as we had just made it public that Maria was expecting and most sources indicated that the likelihood of miscarriages diminishes significantly during the second trimester. Well, we beat the odds and were devastated when we found out during a routine check up that the baby had no pulse. We mourned the lost of yet another baby baby, one that Maria had to carry in her womb for three more days after the news.

Those were sad days for our family and for our friends. Laura had been so supportive but she was also just about to go on a trip to Italy. She and her family left for Rome and during a visit to Assisi, as Laura recalled, she went into St. Francis Basilica and prayed. She prayed for healing for our souls and a healthy baby in our lives. A silent prayer in time of sorrow answered three years later on the very feast day of St. Francis. We didn't know Laura had prayed for us at the Assisi. We didn't know the little baby we were holding on October 4th, and who we named Francisco, was a true grace.