After reading Khalil Gibran’s Children from the Prophet.
Dear family and dear Leo.
Baptism is a special moment in the life of Christian men and women. Baptism means purification, connection, hope, and much more.
For me, being a Christian starts with the desire to integrate the values of kindness, generosity, love, patience, tolerance and compassion…
Baptism is a first ceremony around the desire to have a life aligned with those values, a seed for the child, a reminder for everyone.
Leo was born into two families that are now one, through the marriage of Raul and Gema. It is not because it is us, but we are precious and special families :).
Those Christian values, which are, as I say trans-religious and inter-religious, are spiritual values.
In education it is said: values cannot be taught, only caught. This means that we cannot impose certain values… I often think of some types of modern education as the process of feeding ducks that are forced to eat a certain amount of food.
We cannot force children to learn values, we can only grow in ourselves and hope that that internal reality of each one and of the family context permeates the child’s heart. Children are sponges, they observe, they learn through observation, not through imposition.
That is why I believe that the greatest gift we can give our children and Leo in this case is to be happy, to connect with our own well-being, through coherence with our values.
Leo, we want to give you roots and wings. Roots so that you always have a shadow below this large tree that is your family, a shadow in which to shelter, make mistakes, learn and grow. We also want to give you wings, so you can explore, be successful in whatever you choose, travel, and build your own reality as well, independent and interdependent with ours.
That is why Khalil Gibrán says that children are not ours, and I would add that they are part of us, and they are also independent beings, both at the same time.
Leo, today we baptize you together with the best wishes of all. May you share lot’s of light with the world, may you give at least as much as you will receive, may you be happy within yourself and with all of us, may you spread love, light and laughter. We love you.
Love. 