A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

We have all hoped and prayed for miracles. No wonder we get excited when we hear that the Vatican has confirmed one.

And the miracle in the news this week is such a beautiful one—resulting in the restored health of a baby who was born prematurely, deprived of oxygen, and was barely breathing with no pulse. The doctors didn’t expect him to survive.

It was then that Dr. Juan Sánchez-Esteban—the physician in the room—turned to the deceased 19th-century Spanish priest Salvador Valera Parra. He told Vida Nueva that he whispered a childhood prayer from his hometown in southern Spain: “Fr. Valera, I have done everything I can. Now it’s your turn.”

Minutes later, the baby started breathing on his own. What happened cannot be explained medically. But God knows.

“It’s your turn.”

What a powerful realization. How often are we able to see that we have done what we can do—but not give up hope completely? We do our part, and then we invite God to do the rest, perhaps asking someone in heaven to intercede on our behalf.

Father Valera had never been to the now-closed hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where the baby was born. He had never even been to the United States. But heaven and earth are not so far away. Prayer connects us all. And today Pope Leo XIV is crediting this 19^th-century priest with a miracle that saved the life of a tiny, premature baby in Rhode Island.

This likely future saint heard and responded, reaching out to God to plead for this tiny baby, born in January 2007.

That child, identified as Tyquan Hall, wasn’t expected to live. Then he wasn’t expected to live a healthy life. But he met all his milestones and apparently is a thriving 18-year-old now.

What a miracle.

What a beautiful reminder for us that anything and everything is possible for God. God’s love and power have no limits. He invites us to trust him, to call on him, and to turn to those in the communion of saints—on earth and in heaven—to pray with and for us, even when all seems impossible.

Perhaps it is when all rational hope is gone, when we are filled with the greatest despair, that we are called to live fully in faith. In those darkest times, when all we can do is pray, we have the chance to turn the situation over to God with faith, with hope—and invite him to act.

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature,” St. Augustine said.

“It’s your turn.” What beautiful words from the doctor in the room that day. They show us the power of prayer, the total surrender of a situation, a final plea for help from heaven. Maybe they are an invitation to us today to recognize a problem we are wrestling with that we simply cannot resolve—but that God can.

Doing our part, with faith and with hope, may we invite God to take a turn in a seemingly insurmountable situation. May we never stop seeking the miracles God offers—in small and large ways—in our daily lives, and in our world.

Venerable Father Salvador Valera Parra, pray for us!

Rhode Island celebrates Pope Leo declaration that baby’s healing was a true miracle

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