A Blessing ceremony is a holy ceremony performed with the wish and intent for the child to be bestowed with all things Good, bequeathing well-being, endowing prosperity, and welcoming the new-born or beloved child into the family, community and world.
Blessings, Naming, Christening, Baptism, or Birth celebrations are all important celebrations in the life of the beloved child. Many cultures believe that it takes a community to raise a child, and these ceremonies endorse the witnesses & guests with the honor of supportive guardians and entrusted guides.
I am thrilled that you would confer upon me the overwhelming privilege to bless your child. I denounce any notion that I or my words are the source of power; God is the source of the power in the blessing.
“Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the make upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness.
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He also loves the bow that is stable.”
— Kahlil Gibran