One of my dearest friends and most long-standing musical collaborators, a member of my parish choir, had a heartbreak last year when she thought she lost the baby boy she was expecting.

We grieved with her and walked with her as we could through that heartbreak. There were some moments of great sorrow for all of us in that journey.

Unexpectedly, months later, she announced that - surprise! - she had not lost the baby. The imaging had been obstructed and the baby boy had been happily growing, unobserved, for some time, and had of late become, well, too much to ignore. It was an unbelievable moment of profound joy.

He was born happy and healthy and baptized last Saturday, and my wife and I were honored to be asked to stand as godparents. The name is a reference to Lazarus, for obvious reasons, and the initials on purpose -- a kind of "Isaac" for the 21st century.

For a gift, I composed the following small motet. We're singing it for Communion this Sunday, with verses of the Psalm, Domine probasti me sung between repetitions of the antiphon.

The recording is a touched-up read-through we did at rehearsal last night.