...and you shall call his name JESUS.

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

January 3

 

 

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through Him.  Col 3:17

 

   

“Each time we say, ‘Jesus,’ we give God infinite joy and glory, for we offer Him all the infinite merits of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.  St. Paul tells us that Jesus merited the Name Jesus by His Passion and Death. Each time we say, ‘Jesus,’ let us clearly wish to offer God all the Masses being said all over the world for all our intentions. We thus share in these thousands of Masses.”

Fr Paul O'Sullivan, O.P.

 

 

St. Paul was in a very special way the preacher and doctor of the Holy Name.  St. Thomas Aquinas says of him:  "St. Paul bore the Name of Jesus on his forehead because he gloried in proclaiming it to all men; he bore it on his lips because he loved to invoke it; on his hands, for he loved to write it in his epistles; in his heart, for his heart burned with love of it.  He tells us himself:  "I live, yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me."

 

 

Thoughts of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (wrote hymn "Iesu Dulcis Memoria")

which is sung today on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus:

 "The sweet Name of Jesus produces in us holy thoughts, fills the soul with noble sentiments, strengthens virtue, begets good works, and nourishes pure affections. All spiritual food leaves the soul dry, if it contain not that penetrating oil, the Name Jesus. When you take your pen, write the Name Jesus: if you write books, let the Name of Jesus be contained in them, else they will possess no charm or attraction for me; you may speak, or you may reply, but if the Name of Jesus sounds not from your lips, you are without unction and without charm. Jesus is honey in our mouth, light in our eyes, a flame in our heart. This name is the cure for all diseases of the soul. Are you troubled? think but of Jesus, speak but the Name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? so that you fear death? invoke the Name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy Name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name. Are you surrounded by sorrow and danger? invoke the Name of Jesus, and your fears will vanish."

MORE on Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus:  http://www.fisheaters.com/holyname.html

 

MORE on the Wonders of the Holy Name of Jesus:

http://www.olrl.org/pray/wonders.shtml

 

MORE on spreading devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus:

http://www.nahns.com/

 

 

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son,

and you shall call His name Jesus.  ~ Luke 1:31