During my lunch break I went to pray a rosary with a sick little boy who had just arrived. Chenidel, is 17 months old and weighs 2.8 kg. All the weight is in his head; his tiny body is so fragile that he doesn’t have the strength to hold his head or sit. As I started praying, the baby from the crib beside started crying, so with one hand I started patting his back. Soon enough, he settled. The baby in the crib in front also began to cry, so I moved and followed the same technique, a pat on the back. Sure enough, he was silent before I knew it; well before I knew it, all the babies in the room, like 20 of them, had found the trick. So there I was, holding Chenidel with one hand, going around from crib to crib, patting the babies. When I was in the 5th mystery of the rosary, 15 minutes had passed, when I realized that all the ladies of the staff were having the laughter of their time, watching me with carrying little Chenidel in one hand and going around patting the kids that obviously they were playing with me.
A simple pat on the back. I started thinking. Was it my patting or the fact that I was praying the rosary out loud and it was the soothing sound of the Hail Mary, or it was Mary herself, the Mother of all the babies, patting them on the back?
Wow, it was a beautiful image that came to mind, Mary walking around all her sick babies, patting them on the back to calm down their pain.
When we get cranky, or sad, or lonely, or we feel sick, we just need to give a little cry and Mary will pat us on the back and with a soft, gentle voice she will whisper: Do not be afraid my child, everything is going to be ok, am I not here, that I am your Mother? And then all will be ok, just like for the babies, soon enough we will calm down and be happy in our “little cribs”.
