"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" -William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
Sophia Thérèse
By any other name, I'm sure she'd be as sweet, but her name makes me love her all the more. Sophia (Greek) - Wisdom My inner-theological nerd loved telling people that her first name is biblical. I never said it was a biblical name, only that it is biblical. I love that people would scour their bible trying to figure out what her name would be. (Before she was even born she was getting people to read the bible!) I also never told people that the translation of the bible I was referring to was the Greek one. She's got a whole book named after her...just not in the English translation! Throughout Scripture a person's name describes their mission in life. Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, indicative of the fact that he (Peter, meaning rock) would be the rock on which the Church would be built. Sophia, then, is indicative of our hopes for our daughter: that she would be wise, love wisdom, pursue wisdom, and share wisdom with others. I never really imagined that we'd name our children overly popular names (Sophia has ranked #1 or #2 for the past few years among girls names in the US), but we love the name Sophia and we love what it means, what it stands for, and the purpose and direction we hope that it gives to her life. We had the names picked out before we found out the gender, so as we drove home, I blasted - on repeat - a song that I've loved since college. We didn't name her after the song by any means, but for the musical person in me, its an added bonus that there's a song that shares her name, written by a Catholic, about wisdom herself (in Scripture, wisdom is personified as a woman to be sought after). I first discovered this song by Matt Maher when I was in college. A friend told me about it as I was navigating the dating world and I loved it instantly. Once we knew we were having a girl, I started playing this song even more often. Below, Matt (who also wrote the song we had our first dance to, and three of the songs at our wedding Mass) talks about the song. {Lyrics here}I hope people look at our Sophia and that she makes people want to be like Jesus.
Thérèse (yes, with the accents) (French) - Harvester
Anyone who knows either Anthony or me isn't surprised that we chose Thérèse for our daughter's middle name. Even when we got engaged at the National Shrine (now Basilica!) of St. Thérèse people told us we'd have to name a daughter after this great saint. She's been so instrumental in our love story and to my own prayer life that we couldn't deny Thérèse would be a part of our daughter's name, we knew it long before we even got married. St. Thérèse died at only 24 years of age but is a Doctor of the Church and one of the greatest saints of our time. (St. Thérèse's own parents, Zélie and Louis Martin will be canonized together in October - the first time in the history of the Church that a married couple will be canonized together.) Her "little way" of holiness is an inspiration not only in our lives, but in the lives of countless others. We hope that St. Thérèse inspires our little Sophia Thérèse.
In July of last year I began praying a novena to St. Thérèse, asking her to help us get pregnant if it was God's will. The novena ended the day before my birthday. On the morning of my birthday Anthony surprised me with a dozen red roses (roses are often St. Thérèse's way of sending an answer to a prayer/novena). I suspected, but didn't want to get too excited. Six days later, on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, I knew for sure that Thérèse had answered my novena. It is simply undeniable that our first daughter would bear the name of this great saint who continues to intercede in our lives.
Our Sophia Thérèse was born March 25, 2015 (on the Annunciation!) at 9:53pm, weighing in at 7.5lbs and was 19.75 inches long. We are so in love!
May St. Sophia and St. Thérèse intercede for our daughter throughout her life, and may they inspire her to live a life of simple holiness.
"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be." -St. Thérèse of Lisieux
