My spirit rejoices in God my savior...

When the mother of our Lord Jesus, Mary, discerned that she would give birth to a child of wonder and promise, the gospel of Luke tells us that she sang a song we have come to know as the Magnificat:

My soul proclaims the goodness of the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...

I came to adult faith after delivering my daughter, Jesse, in a small house on Mariposa Street in Los Angeles.  We were with the United Farm Workers union and without back-up medical support.  We were hippies and young and thought we knew everything. After all, I had read Spiritual Midwifery and the Bradley and Lamaze books.  

So, after a very long labor, when Jesse entered the world and looked about with serenity, I tied and cut her cord and gave her a warm bath to welcome her into this world.  Then I went to the bathroom and cried my eyes out at the awe and beauty of this sacred child.  It was at that moment that I realized there was a love greater than my imagination that gave shape and order to all of creation.  As I would come to understand much later, grace guides and saturates the cosmos.

I experienced this same truth in a different way when Michal was born two years later.  And now, having met Louis Edmund, my grandson not even 24 hours after he joined this realm, that same awe, gratitude and joy has touched me once again.  A prayer from the liturgy for thanksgiving of a child only hints at the depth of the blessings:

O God, you have taught us through your blessed Son that whoever receives a little child in the name of Christ received Christ himself: we give you thanks for the blessing you have shared with this family in giving them this child. Confirm their joy by a lively sense of your presence with them as they seek to bring Louis into a love that is true ad noble, just and pure, excellent and admirable...

We're taking a little rest now and will return to Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn later this evening. Tomorrow, all things moving well, Jesse and Louis and Michael will return to their home.  We will retreat and give our loved ones some space as they settle into their new life together.