The Origin
It was the First Friday in July 2009. The church bells echoed loudly from the steeple announcing the noon hour. I was kneeling quietly in the church, making a holy hour with Our Lord. After the third clang of the bell, I prayed the following, "The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Spirit."
In my mind, I saw Preborn Jesus within the womb of His Mother. However, instead of an umbilical cord connecting the Mother and Child, I saw Our Lord encircled by a rosary.
Several weeks prior to this event, I had asked one of my sons to draw an image of Jesus within the womb of Mary. He agreed and said that, although he would be able to draw the Virgin Mary, he would need a model of a baby in order to draw Jesus within Mary's womb.
On the computer, I did an image search of Mother and Child. To my amazement, a page came up entitled "Mother and Child in High Renaissance" by Leonardo da Vinci. My eyes scanned four or five beautiful prints of the Madonna and Child, but stopped abruptly at the third row, last column. Suddenly, Our Lord made apparent to me the very image that he wanted my son to use: Da Vinci's astounding anatomical sketch of a fully developed child within the womb!
For many weeks I had been contemplating Our Savior as a hidden child within the womb of Mary. The following thoughts kept coming to me: "We meditate on Jesus as Risen Savior, as Crucified Lord, as Babe in the manger, but not as Preborn Jesus within the womb!"