I want to share the significance of this work to my heart and why it’s part of our shop’s namesake:
After my husband and I got married, we conceived our first baby girl, named Esmée Frances Smith. Esmée means beloved, & Frances is in honor of St. Padre Pio's Baptismal name, Francesco. Around 8 weeks into the pregnancy, the Lord welcomed our sweet little one home. I had what’s called a “missed miscarriage,” which means that Esmée passed away while she was still in my womb.
During this time of tragic loss, I felt a special connection to Our Lady who held her child after His passion & death just like I held mine.
A few things that helped me press onwards during this time were knowing that heaven is real, that Esmée is with Jesus, and that the Lord can welcome her and love her so much better than I can here on earth. It was also very helpful to imagine her with Mama Mary, the angels, and the saints and imagining how deeply loved she is there with them.
I started Pietá Paperie, naming it after the Blessed Mother. I love how Mary’s expression in the Pietà is one of profound serenity and acceptance, knowing that the Lord had permitted this to happen to her baby. In the midst of her many sorrows and pangs of grief, this sculpture depicts her as a young woman who surrendered everything to the Lord because she knows deep within her heart that He is good. Even in the moment of the Pietà, she gives her fiat. Pressing onward in faith.
The Pietà Paperie logo features a beautiful lily flower. At that time, I had no idea that the Lord would bless my husband and I with another sweet baby girl and that we would name her Lily. Her name is inspired by the lily flower that so often appears with the Holy Family in sacred art, and my prayer is that she will always stay close to the Holy Family. It wasn't until months after we chose her name that the Lord revealed these blessed connections to me.
The name Lily means “hope of the resurrection", which is so very fitting in so many ways.
The Lord loves us in the details.