What is in a Name?
I think a name can be give or take power from a person. For example, if you called a child “Idiot” as their name it would probably cause problems for them. All names cary some sort of influence for the child.
We got Cazimirs name through a series of steps:
1. Loretta dreamt that his name was “like Kashmir but different”.
2. Loretta’s mother pointed out that the Patron Saint of Lithuania is Casimir (Lithuanian is their heritage).
Once we settled on Casimir we debated whether to spell it with a z or s: Cazimir or Casimir.
Online searches revealed a Polish Church in Baltimore (my mother’s city of birth! Good sign!) called the “Faith Community of St. Casimir”. It is a Catholic Church run by Franciscan Friars, a group of people I like.
The web site has all sorts of cool things like this photo:
I find this man’s face very endearing.
The site also has a lot of cool quotes like this Prayer For Peace by St. Francis of Assisi:
“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.”
—–
If we all embodied that prayer life would be better I believe.
But then I got to the “Prayer in Honor of St. Casimir”. It goes like this:
“O God, the giver of all heavenly grace,
in the angelic young adult, Casimir,
you did unite wondrous innocence,
great prudence, diligent fidelity to duty,
and generous charity with strict penance.
By his merits and prayers grant unto us
who have not followed him in his avoidance
of sin, the grace to imitate him in his
voluntary penance for sin. Amen”
——
These words did not jibe with me:
“diligent fidelity to duty”
“strict penance”
“avoidance of sin”
“voluntary penance for sin”
Woa, lighten up, dude. That’s where me and Catholicism part ways. This is not the kind of energy I like. But I love the name. So we decided to spell it “CAZIMIR” with a Z. The Z is our way of giving Cazimir the freedom to be all the good things that history has imbued in his name while making him unique and individual, free to forge his own path as well. Every time I call his name I will have that meaning in the call. Being treated in that way he will know those options. It will influence him. How much only God knows.
Go Cazimir!!!!!!
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