Out of Darkness Into Light”

“To My Daughter Kaleila-Maida, on the Occasion of Your Christening at Eastertide.”

My Dearly Beloved Daughter, Kaleila-Maida Ngwekhin,

I am pleased to continue the dialogue I have had with you some twelve months now. I say continue, for you will recall that, at your conception thirteen calendar months ago, we — you and I — shared in the delight that soon you would materialize in the flesh and make your physical presence known to the world. In the common parlance of earthly folk, you would be “born.” And yet, before this ‘evolutionary’ process were to have taken place, your ancient spirit, fully cognizant of the arbitrariness of conceptual space and time, long existent on a metaphysically involutionary plane, beseeched me to break the seal that closed my ignorant eyes, and to be a witness to the evermore unfolding mystery of God’s universe transfigured in your innocent eyes. For is not written thus by hand of God in ancient scroll: “Suffer the children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
My dearly beloved daughter, you must forgive me, if I cannot be as eloquent as you are without benefit of words. But do not the Oriental sages aphoristically declare: “He that knows not is willing to declare all; and he that truly knows remains eloquent in his silence.” My dearly beloved daughter, I have chosen the path of the foolish, as a father is often wont to do; for I have tried to be eloquent with you, and found myself wanting. Let it remain thus; for as you grow, both mentally and spiritually, morally and physically, I, too, hope to grow — and learn.
My beloved daughter, I have chosen to grant you an earthly name by which people may recognize you, and by with which they may greet you. I have chosen to call you ‘Kaleila-Maida’ which captures your literal essence — ‘Beloved Maiden Out of Darkness Bearing Light.’ To us then, your father and your mother, and your four brothers; and to all humanity — you are Kaleila-Maida, the Beloved Maiden and Light Bearer. As our Beloved Maiden, our  Light Bearer, our Kaleila-Maida, you will experience many rites of passage throughout this physical world. Today, during Holy Week, April 2, in the One thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty Third Year of Our Lord you, my beloved daughter, have been duly christened and baptized into the church; and the church fathers and congregation have shared in God’s Holy Sacrament, in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper; and in God’s blessings upon you.
From darkness into light…evermore from darkness into light. Peace be with you my child. May God bless you all the days of your life.

Your Father
Karl Constantine Folkes
Parish Hall
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Flushing, New York
Saturday, April 2, 1983