Noah's Incredibly Special Moment of Joy

Noah’s Incredibly Special Moment of Joy

Originally posted in The Parish Pad of the Church of Saint Dominic, Southington, CT.

Editor's Foreword

From the moment I read this remarkable personal account of Jennifer Philips, I recognized it as a deeply moving story of faith, spirituality and love.  I also knew it had to be shared with others and Jennifer enthusiastically agreed. Today is is posted in "The Parish Pad" newsletter of Saint Dominic Church of Southington, CT.   Visit the church website at www.saintdominic.church.com 

Jennifer's story is followed by an "Afterword" by her mother, Susan Piqueira, who has been a gifted occasional contributor to the The Parish Pad during its years as a printed publication from 1997-2009. Susan is also one of the first to have a story on the electronic version of the newsletter.

There's a poignant connection between a recent researched and  history of "Immaculata", the Statue of Mary in St. Dominic Church,  written by Susan Piqueira.  At the conclusion of this story scroll back an issue or two of The Parish Pad to the story of "Immaculata" -- E. Richard Fortunato

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“I just felt like praying in front of the Statue of Mary”

By Jennifer Philips

Statue of Mary
St. Dominic Church

It was about three in the afternoon on April 3, 2013, the Wednesday after Easter. I took my five-month old son, Noah, to church that day. I just felt like praying in front of the statue of Mary. There have been so many miracles surrounding this statue.

With Noah in his car seat, we were right in the front pew. No one else was there and the lights were off but there was still plenty of sunlight filtering in,

Of course, within five minutes, Noah started fussing so I took him out of his car seat and walked around with him. Standing in front of the statue, I had Noah touch Mary’s gown and her feet. Then, he looked up at Mary.

Noah Alexander Philips

Nothing could make him take his eyes off of her face. I was just watching his expression. Now, the bigger than life-size statue is high up. In order to see her face, Noah had to arch his neck way back. I figured that would become uncomfortable for him at some point. But instead, his eyes and mouth turned into a huge smile. He then acted shy and buried his head in my neck. But, right after that, he arched his head back and looked up at her face again. I never looked once looked up at Mary. I just watched him. Same thing. Huge smile and then he would bury his face in my neck. This went on as Noah repeated it about seven times.

Then, I took him to look at other parts of the church. When we came to the altar, his eyes immediately went to the crucifix. I then showed him the plants and flowers but, by that time, he was getting hungry so he was really fussing. I brought him back to Mary, and he immediately stopped fussing, looked up at her face, and another smile spread over his little face. Incredible. It really gave me goose bumps because you would think that this statue would just be an "object" to Noah, not a person. I never looked at Mary while he was smiling, but I do wonder what caused him to smile every time. And huge smiles. The kind he gives to us when he is waking from a nap and sees our faces. Just really beautiful. I just have not been able to stop thinking about that afternoon.

Afterword 

By Susan Piqueira

It’s important for you to know from me, Noah’s grandmother, that he’s going through a stage where he'll only smile for his mother and father. For the rest of the world, he “observes" and ponders whether he'll allow them to come close to him or not. It's like pulling teeth for anyone other than his parents to get even a tiny half smile from him. So, there is no way he'd let his whole face light up from ear to ear by just looking at an inanimate object - and then doing it over and over again … seven times!! I t would have been unheard of for our little Noah at the time to do that. My husband Phil and I believe that Noah was gazing into the face of Mary, in person! As our daughter says, “He's only five months new from heaven so he would definitely know her!“ It’s significant that Jenny never looked up to see exactly what Noah was seeing. Instead she was focused on his face in amazement. Although Jenny was part of this miracle, Mary was appearing for just Noah and didn't enable Jenny to see what he was seeing. This could all be just coincidence and if I didn't know Noah, I might think so as well - that we are making too big of a deal of this. However, for this little baby to crane his neck at a very uncomfortable angle while showing total joy in his face and to have repeated it seven times over is, well, surreal. We feel strongly that Noah experienced the presence of Mary in person - and wanted to share his miracle with all of you!

Editor’s Note : To understand the significance of this story to the fascinating origins of the statue, please scroll down to the recent story in the Parish Pad by Susan Piqueira, entitled “Immaculata”. There’s greater irony and mystery in the fact that Susan wrote her original story years before Noah was born!