Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 01-03-06, Memorial, Most Holy Name of Jesus

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

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Litany of the

Most Holy Name of Jesus.

LORD, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of heaven,have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, splendor of the Father, have mercy on us.
Jesus, brightness of eternal light, have mercy on us.
Jesus, king of glory, have mercy on us.
Jesus, the sun of justice, have mercy on us.
Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, have mercy on us.
Jesus, amiable, have mercy on us.
Jesus, admirable, have mercy on us.
Jesus, the powerful God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, father of the world to come, have mercy on us.
Jesus, angel of the great council, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most powerful, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most patient, have mercy on us.
Jesus, most obedient, have mercy on us.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, have mercy on us.
Jesus, lover of chastity, have mercy on us.
Jesus, lover of us, have mercy on us.
Jesus, God of peace, have mercy on us.
Jesus, author of life, have mercy on us.
Jesus, model of all virtues, have mercy on us.
Jesus, zealous for souls, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our refuge, have mercy on us.
Jesus, father of the poor, have mercy on us.
Jesus, treasure of the faithful, have mercy on us.
Jesus, good shepherd, have mercy on us.
Jesus, true light, have mercy on us.
Jesus, eternal wisdom, have mercy on us.
Jesus, infinite goodness, have mercy on us.
Jesus, our way and our life, have mercy on us.
Jesus, joy of angels, have mercy on us.
Jesus, king of patriarchs, have mercy on us.
Jesus, master of apostles, have mercy on us.
Jesus, teacher of the evangelists, have mercy on us.
Jesus, strength of martyrs, have mercy on us.
Jesus, light of confessors, have mercy on us.
Jesus, purity of virgins, have mercy on us.
Jesus, crown of all saints, have mercy on us.
Be merciful, Spare us, O Jesus.
Be merciful, Graciously hear us, O Jesus
From all evil,deliver us, O Jesus.
From all sin, deliver us, O Jesus.
From Thy wrath, deliver us, O Jesus.
From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Jesus.
From the spirit of fornication, deliver us, O Jesus.
From eternal death, deliver us, O Jesus.
From a neglect of Thy inspirations, deliver us, O Jesus.
By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation, deliver us, O Jesus.
By Thy nativity, deliver us, O Jesus.
By Thy infancy, deliver us, O Jesus.
By Thy most divine life,have mercy on us.
By Thy labors, have mercy on us.
By Thy agony and passion, have mercy on us.
By Thy cross and dereliction, have mercy on us.
By Thy languors, have mercy on us.
By Thy death and burial, have mercy on us.
By Thy resurrection, have mercy on us.
By Thy ascension, have mercy on us.
By Thy institution of the Most Holy Eucharist,deliver us, O Jesus.
By Thy joys, deliver us, O Jesus.
By Thy glory, deliver us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Spare us,O Jesus!
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Hear us, O Jesus!
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us, O Jesus!
Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.

Let us pray.

O, LORD Jesus Christ, Who has said, 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you!' mercifully attend to our supplications and grant us the gift of your divine charity, that we may ever love you with our whole heart and never desist from Thy praise.

Give us, O Lord, a perpetual respect and love of Thy holy name; for you never cease to govern those whom you instruct in the solidity of Thy love. Who lives and reigns, one God, world without end. Amen.

Indulgence granted by Pope Leo XIII, Jan. 16, 1886. Quoted from F.X.Lasance, My Prayer Book, Denziger Brothers (1908) pp. 460-63. Imprimatur +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, 1908. Click here to view the currently indulgenced version. For information on indulgences click here.

From: 1 John 2:29-3:6

Not Listening to Heretics (Continuation)

[29] If you know that he is righteous, thou may be sure that every one
who does right is born of him.

We are Children of God

[1] See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know
us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved we are God's children now;
it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

A Child of God Does Not Sin

[3] And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

[4] Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is
lawlessness. [5] You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in
him there is no sin. [6] No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins
has either seen him or known him.

Commentary:

1-24. This entire chapter shows how moved the Apostle is when he
contemplates the marvelous gift of divine filiation. The Holy Spirit,
who is the author of all Sacred Scripture, has desired John to pass on
to us this unique revelation: we are children of God (v. 1).

It is not easy to divide the chapter into sections, because the style
is very cyclic and colloquial and includes many repetitions and further
thoughts which make for great vividness and freshness. However, we can
distinguish an opening proclamation of the central message (vv. 1-2)
and emphasis on two requirements of divine filiation--rejection of sin
in any shape or form (vv. 3-10), and brotherly love lived to the full
(vv. 11-24).

1. "We should be called children of God": the original Hebrew
expression, which reads "we are called...", is also used by our Lord in
the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:9): "to be called" means the same as "to be
called by God"; and in the language of the Bible, when God gives
someone a name he is not simply conferring a title but is causing the
thing that the name indicates (cf., e.g., Gen 17:5), for the word of
God is efficacious, it does what it says it will do. Hence St John's
adding: "and so we are".

Therefore, it is not just a matter of a metaphorical title, or a legal
fiction, or adoption human-style: divine filiation is an essential
feature of a Christian's life, a marvelous fact whereby God
gratuitously gives men a strictly supernatural dignity, an intimacy
with God whereby they are "domestici Dei", "members of the household of
God" (Eph 219). This explains the tone of amazement and joy with which
St John passes on this revelation.

This sense of divine filiation is one of the central points in the
spirituality of Opus Dei. Its founder wrote: "We do not exist in order
to pursue just any happiness. We have been called to penetrate the
intimacy of God's own life, to know and love God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also--in that same love of
the one God in three divine Persons--the angels and all men.

"This is the great boldness of the Christian faith--to proclaim the
value and dignity of human nature and to affirm that we have been
created to obtain the dignity of children of God, through the grace
that raises us up to a supernatural level. An incredible boldness it
would be, were it not founded on the promise of salvation given us by
God the Father, confirmed by the blood of Christ, and reaffirmed and
made possible by the constant action of the Holy Spirit" ("Christ Is
Passing By", 133).

"The world does not know us, (because) it did not know him": these
words are reminiscent of our Lord's at the Last Supper: "the hour is
coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me"
(Jn 16:2-3). Divine filiation brings with it communion and a mysterious
identification between Christ and the Christian.

2. The indescribable gift of divine filiation, which the world does not
know (v. 1), is not fully experienced by Christians, because the seeds
of divine life which it contains will only reach their full growth in
eternal life, when we see him "as he is", "face to face" (1 Cor 13:12);
"this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17:3). In that direct sight of God as
he is, and of all things in God, the life of grace and divine filiation
achieve their full growth. Man is not naturally able to see God face to
face; he needs to be enlightened by a special light, which is given the
technical theological name of "lumen gloriae", light of glory. This
does not allow him to "take in" all God (no created thing could do
that), but it does allow him to look at God directly.

Commenting on this verse, the "St Pius V Catechism" explains that
"beatitude consists of two things--that we shall behold God such as he
is in his own nature and substance; and that we ourselves shall become,
as it were, gods. For those who enjoy God while they retain their own
nature, assume a certain admirable and almost divine form, so as to
seem gods rather than men" (I, 13, 7).

"When he appears": two interpretations are possible, given that in
Greek the verb has no subject: "when (what we shall be) is revealed we
shall be as he is"; or, as the New Vulgate translates it, "when he
(Christ) is revealed we will be like him (Christ)". The second
interpretation is the more likely.

3. "Purifies himself": Christian hope, which is grounded on Christ, is
something active and it moves the Christian to "purify himself". This
verb is evocative of the ritual purifications required of priests in
the Old Testament prior to engaging in divine service (cf. Ex 19:10;
Num 8:21; Acts 21:24); here and in other places in the New Testament,
it means interior purification from sins, that is, righteousness,
holiness (1 Pet 1:22; Jas 4:8). Our model is Jesus Christ, "as he is
pure"; he is the One who has never had sin, the Righteous One (1 Jn
2:29; 3:7); a Christian has no other model of holiness, as Jesus
himself said: "Learn from me" (Mt 11:29; cf. Jn 14:6). "We have to
learn from him, from Jesus, who is our only model. If you want to go
forward without stumbling or wandering off the path, then all you have
to do is walk the road he walked placing your feet in his footprints
and entering into his humble and patient Heart, there to drink from the
wellsprings of his commandments and of his love. In a word, you must
identify yourself with Jesus Christ and try to become really and truly
another Christ among your fellow men" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of
God",
128).

4-5. "Sin is lawlessness": although this is not strictly speaking a
definition, it does convey a basic idea: every sin is more than a
transgression of a precept of the moral law; it is above all, an
offense against God, the author of that law, a despising and a
rejection of his will.

To understand the scope of this assertion, one needs to start from the
fact that man has been created by God and is ever-dependent on him. So,
every sin involves a pretentious desire to be like God (cf. Gen 3:5),
to build one's life without reference to, or even in opposition to,
God. Everyone who sins severs his allegiance to God and takes the
devil's side. In this the mystery and "lawlessness" of sin consists.
"This expression," Pope John Paul II explains, "which echoes what St
Paul writes concerning the mystery of evil (cf. 2 Thess 2:7), helps us
to grasp the obscure and intangible element hidden in sin. Clearly, sin
is a product of man's freedom. But deep within its human reality there
are factors at work which place it beyond the merely human, in the
border-area where man's conscience, will and sensitivity are in contact
with the dark forces which, according to St Paul, are active in the
world almost to the point of ruling it (cf. Rom 7:7-24; Eph 2:2; 6:12)"
("Reconciliatio et Paenitentiae", 14).

Moreover, now that Christ has brought about our Redemption, every sin
implies an offense to our Redeemer; it means crucifying again the Son
of God (cf. Heb 6:6). So, St John reminds us about the main purpose of
the Incarnation: "he appeared to take away sins" (v. 5). There is an
echo here of the words the Apostle heard the Baptist say: "Behold the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" (Jn 1:29).

Thus, as we profess in the Creed at Mass, "for us men and for our
salvation he (the Word) came down from heaven". Being true God and
therefore completely exempt from sin (v. 5), he took on our human
nature, to burden himself with our sins and nail them to the Cross.
Therefore, the Christian, ransomed from the power of the devil by the
precious blood of Christ, and intimately united to him by the life of
grace, has broken with sin once for all.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 1:29-34

The Witness of John (Continuation)

[29] The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him,
and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world! [30] This is He of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks
before me, for He was before me.' [31] I myself did not know Him; but
for this I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to
Israel." [32] And John bore witness, "I saw the Spirit descend as a
dove from Heaven, and it remained on Him. [33] I myself did not know
Him; but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, `He on whom
you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit.' [34] And I have seen and borne witness that this is the
Son of God."

Commentary:

29. For the first time in the Gospel Christ is called the "Lamb of
God". Isaiah had compared the sufferings of the Servant of Yahweh, the
Messiah, with the sacrifice of a lamb (cf. Isaiah 53:7); and the blood
of the paschal lamb smeared on the door of houses had served to protect
the firstborn of the Israelites in Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:6-7): all this
was a promise and prefiguring of the true Lamb, Christ, the victim in
the sacrifice of Calvary on behalf of all mankind. This is why St.
Paul will say that "Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed" (1
Corinthians 5:7). The expression "Lamb of God" also suggests the
spotless innocence of the Redeemer (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-20; 1 John 3:5).

The sacred text says "the sin of the world", in the singular, to make
it absolutely clear that every kind of sin is taken away: Christ came
to free us from Original Sin, which in Adam affected all men, and from
all personal sins.

The Book of Revelation reveals to us that Jesus is victorious and
glorious in Heaven as the slain lamb (cf. Revelation 5:6-14),
surrounded by saints, martyrs and virgins (Revelation 7:9, 14; 14:1-5),
who render Him the praise and glory due Him as God (Revelation 7:10).

Since Holy Communion is a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ, priests
say these words of the Baptist before administering it, to encourage
the faithful to be grateful to our Lord for giving Himself up to death
to save us and for giving Himself to us as nourishment for our souls.

30-31. John the Baptist here asserts Jesus' superiority by saying that
He existed before him, even though He was born after him. Thereby he
shows us the divinity of Christ, who was generated by the Father from
all eternity and born of the Virgin Mary in time. It is as if the
Baptist were saying: "Although I was born before Him, He is not limited
by the ties of His birth; for although He is born of His mother in
time, He was generated by His Father outside of time" (St. Gregory the
Great, "In Evangelia Homiliae", VII).

By saying what he says in verse 31, the Precursor does not mean to deny
his personal knowledge of Jesus (cf. Luke 1:36 and Matthew 3:14), but
to make it plain that God revealed to him the moment when he should
publicly proclaim Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, and that he also
understood that his own mission as precursor had no other purpose than
to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

32-34. To emphasize the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Evangelist
includes here the Precursor's testimony regarding Jesus' Baptism (cf.
the other Gospels, which describe in more detail what happened on this
occasion: Matthew 3:13-17 and paragraph). It is one of the key points
in our Lord's life, in which the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is
revealed (cf. note on Matthew 3:16).

The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said in Genesis
1:2 that He was moving over the face of the waters. Through this sign
of the dove, the Isaiah prophecies (11:2-5: 42:1-2) are fulfilled which
say that the Messiah will be full of the power of the Holy Spirit. The
Baptist points to the great difference between the baptism he confers
and Christ's Baptism; in John 3, Jesus will speak about this new
Baptism in water and in the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:5; Titus 3:5).

"The Son of God": it should be pointed out that in the original text
this expression carries the definite article, which means that John the
Baptist confesses before his listeners the supernatural and
transcendent character of Christ's messiahship--very far removed from
the politico-religious notion which Jewish leaders had forged.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006
The Holy Name of Jesus (Memorial)

First Reading:
Psalm:
Gospel:

1 John 2:29 -- 3:6
Psalm 98:1, 3-6
John 1:29-34

He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His Name.

-- Luke i. 49

Catholic Caucus: The 16 Days of Christmas (Christmas to the Baptism of the Lord)

Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas [An Underground Catechism]

Origin of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" [Underground Catechism]

Journeying with the Magi

Catholic Culture

Collect:
All-powerful and ever-living God, you give us a new vision of your glory in the coming of Christ your Son. He was born of the Virgin Mary and came to share our life. May we come to share his eternal life in the glory of your kingdom, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Recipes:

» Initial Cookies

Activities:

Prayers:

January 03, 2006

Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

Today the Church celebrates the optional memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Before the reform of the Roman Calendar this feast was celebrated on January 2. In the liturgical revisions of Vatican II, the feast was removed, though a votive Mass to the Holy Name of Jesus had been retained for devotional use. With the release of the revised Roman Missal in March 2002, the feast was restored as an optional memorial on January 3.

The Church reveals to us the wonders of the Incarnate Word by singing the glories of His name. The name of Jesus means Savior; it had been shown in a dream to Joseph together with its meaning and to Our Lady at the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel.

Devotion to the Holy Name is deeply rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. It was promoted in a special manner by St. Bernard, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. John Capistrano and by the Franciscan Order. It was extended to the whole Church in 1727 during the pontificate of Innocent XIII. The month of January has traditionally been dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.

The Tenth Day of Christmas

Holy Name of Jesus

This feast marks no progress in the development of the Church year. It merely embellishes the occasion just observed when the Child received the Name Jesus as had been foretold by the angel. The feast is meant to impress on us Christians the dignity of the Holy Name. It is a relatively new feast, stemming out of devotional piety. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find in it some liturgical or ancient Christian dogma. What did a name signify originally? The name should express the nature of a thing. Thus Adam in paradise gave the animals names in accordance with their being. Among the Jews God's name expressed His essence, Yahweh, i.e., I (alone) am who am (and cause all else to be). The Jews had the highest respect for the name of God, a reverence that finds continuation in the Our Father: "Hallowed be Thy Name."

Persons who played prominent roles in the history of salvation often received their names from God Himself. Adam — man of the earth; Eve — mother of all the living; Abraham — father of many nations; Peter — the rock. The Savior's precursor was given the name God assigned him. According to divine precedent, then, the name of the Redeemer should not be accidental, of human choosing, but given by God Himself. For His name should express His mission. We read in Sacred Scripture how the angel Gabriel revealed that name to Mary: "You shall call His name Jesus." And to St. Joseph the angel not merely revealed the name but explained its meaning: "You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." The Messiah should not only be the savior, but should be called Savior. With Jesus, therefore, the name actually tells the purpose of His existence. This is why we must esteem His name as sacred. Whenever we pronounce it, we ought to bow our heads; for the very name reminds us of the greatest favor we have ever received, salvation. —The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

The first verse well suited for the Gospel. I first became aquainted with this hymn from the St. Gregory hymnal:

See, Amid the Winter's Snow
by E Caswall

See, amid the winter's snow,
Born for us on earth below,
See, the Tender lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years!
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Lo, within the manger lies,
He who built the starry skies,
He, who throned in heights sublime,
Sits amid the cherubim.
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Say, ye holy shepherds, say,
What your joyful news today?
Wherfore have ye left your sheep
On the lonely mountain steep?
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

As we watched at dead of night,
Lo, we saw a woundrous light;
Angels singing peace on earth,
Told us of the Savior's birth.
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Sacred Infant, all divine,
What a tender love was Thine,
Thus to come from highest bliss
Down to such a world as this.
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
By Thy face so meek and mild,
Teach us to resemble Thee,
In Thy sweet humility!
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail, redemption's happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Link to tune in midi

Thank you!

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	How Malleable Are You in God's Hands?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Tuesday, January 3, 2006

1 Jn 2:29-3:6 / Jn 1:29-34

There's something in us that can't stop wondering what the next part of life will be like. How old will we be? Will we still like to bridge or basketball or whatever? What will our bodies be like? We have all sorts of questions and even more fantastic speculations about the answers. And none of it matters one whit.

In today's gospel, St. John points us in a more useful direction. "What we shall be later has not yet come to light. But when it comes to light, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is." There's some gold hidden in that line, which we could easily miss. John is saying that the very experience of seeing God face-to-face will transform us into God's likeness. The change will not come by force from the outside, but freely from the inside, from the heart which at the sight of God will instinctively let go of anything less than God and give itself into God's hands to be reshaped.

That brings us squarely back to the present, for the ultimate transformation that John is talking about is simply the final stage of what our life and especially our prayer should have been about all along, namely, being reconfigured into God's image and likeness. The process of making ourselves malleable in the hands of our Father is the essential work of every day and of a lifetime. So don't let another day pass.

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

January 3, 2005

Most Holy Name of Jesus

In a world of fiercely guarded corporate names and logos, it should be easy to understand this feast. The letters IHS are an abbreviation of Jesous, the Greek name for Jesus.

Although St. Paul might claim credit for promoting devotion to the Holy Name because Paul wrote in Philippians that God the Father gave Christ Jesus “that name that is above every name” (see 2:9), this devotion became popular because of 12th-century Cistercian monks and nuns but especially through the preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan.

Bernardine used devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus as a way of overcoming bitter and often bloody class struggles and family rivalries or vendettas in Italian city-states. The devotion grew, partly because of Franciscan and Dominican preachers. It spread even more widely after the Jesuits began promoting it in the 16th century.

In 1530, Pope Clement V approved an Office of the Holy Name for the Franciscans. In 1721, Pope Innocent XIII extended this feast to the entire Church.

Comment:

Jesus died and rose for the sake of all people. No one can trademark or copyright Jesus' name. Jesus is the Son of God and son of Mary. Everything that exists was created in and through the Son of God (see Colossians 1:15-20). The name of Jesus is debased if any Christian uses it as justification for berating non-Christians. Jesus reminds us that because we are all related to him we are, therefore, all related to one another.

Quote:

“Glorious name, gracious name, name of love and of power! Through you sins are forgiven, through you enemies are vanquished, through you the sick are freed from their illness, through you those suffering in trials are made strong and cheerful. You bring honor to those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the toiler, you sustain the weary” (St. Bernardine of Siena).

Praying for the thirteen trapped miners in West Virginia. Please, Lord, deliver a miracle. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

Dear Lord, please extend your saving power to the trapped miners in West Virginia. Sustain them and their families at this time of trial. We pray that in this situation and in all things, Lord, that your will be done. Amen.

Thanks...I needed this today.

You are entirely welcome. Some days have been like that for me too.

Story of the Holy Name of Jesus

The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus has been restored by Pope John Paul II on January 3. Here is the story of St. Bernardin and the monogram of IHS.

"But, Mother, this is Our Lord's feast day!" And Lorli, aged five, looked as if she had made a big discovery.

"We have to celebrate it — but how? Do you think Our Lord would like His monogram used as a table decoration?" asked Martina, who had just in that year copied beautifully the "I.H.S." in genuine gold-leaf on a deep cornflower-blue background.

And so it was done. The monogram of the name of Jesus was put as centerpiece on the table, surrounded by flowers. We happened to have company on that day and somebody asked, pointing to the golden letters, "What is that?" And so we told the story:

Around 1400 there lived in Italy a holy Franciscan monk by the name of Bernardin. From the name of his home town, he became famous as Bernardin of Siena, and famous he became for his great eloquence. He was the most renowned preacher of his days and he always had a great love and admiration for the Holy Name of Jesus. Soon his fame had spread all over Italy, and people came from far distances to hear Bernardin preach. All the churches were too small to accommodate the crowds. In Siena he had to use the big piazza. There was one great vice prevalent in his town at that time: card-playing. Every night the men spent all their time and money gambling, and the women did not know how to keep the fathers of the family at home and how to prevent the household money from being gambled away; so they went to St. Bernardin and asked him to do something about it.

On the next Sunday, when the piazza was jammed with people as usual, Bernardin got up in his improvised pulpit and preached with so much fervor against card-playing that the people were deeply affected. At the end of his sermon he asked them to bring their packs of playing cards and put them on a pile in the middle of the piazza, and they really did so, until there was a large pyramid of playing cards. The Saint lit a candle from the vigil light of the altar and set fire to the pile. As he turned around, a man approached him, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Padre," he wailed, "and what is to become of me?" And he informed the Saint that he was the man who had manufactured the cards. "How shall I earn a living now? I'm facing starvation if no one buys my cards any more." The Saint looked startled for a moment. This had never occurred to him. He closed his eyes and sent a silent, fervent prayer to Our Lord asking for enlightenment. When he opened his eyes again, he smiled at the man and said, "Give me a board and a piece of chalk." When the man had produced both, St. Bernardin drew, in the lettering of his time, the letters "I.H.S." (from the Latin "Jesus Hominum Salvator" meaning "Jesus, Saviour of men"). "Print this instead," said the Saint, handing the board to the man. "Golden letters on a blue background, and have them ready next week."

And on the next Sunday, when all the people had returned bringing friends along until there was not a square foot left on the huge piazza, the Saint gave his famous sermon on the efficacy of the Name of Jesus and how we should carry it with us, how we should place it in our rooms over our bed, in our prayer books, over the house doors, how we should carry it in the form of a medal around the neck because it is the monogram of the Name of Him Whom we should love more than anybody or anything else. The people took this advice, and the little man who had formerly sold playing cards sold from now on the famous monogram, which soon appeared cut in stone, carved in wood, modeled in clay, printed on paper, used in illuminations, and which is decorating our table today because of the feast of the Holy Name which it represents.

Activity Source: Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp, Pantheon Books Inc., New York, New York, 1955

**The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus has been restored by Pope John Paul II on January 3.**

I wasn't aware that this was why this Feast Day is coming back. Thank you, Pope John Paul II!

A Voice in the Desert

Tuesday January 3, 2006 Most Holy Name of Jesus

Reading (1 John 2:29-3:6) Gospel (St. John 1:29-34)

In the first reading today, Saint John says a couple of things that could be very disheartening for us, because he tells us, number one, that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by God, and then goes on to say that anyone who sins has never seen the Lord nor known Him because no one who remains in Him commits sin. Well, if we look at that, we realize that we are all pretty much implicated immediately because we are all sinners and we do not always act in righteousness. So what exactly is he saying, that we have no concept of Our Lord? No. What he is saying is that if we truly knew Him we would change our lives. If we knew Him perfectly, we would not do the things that we do.

Now that is what the spiritual life is all about: coming to know the Lord more perfectly. It is being conformed to Christ. In so doing, we become more and more righteous, more perfect; and, in that way, sin is rooted out of our lives. So have we known Him? Not in the fullness of Who He is, not in the fullness of Who we could know Him to be. If you think about it on a human level, it is the same thing. You can know somebody, you can be friends with that person, but it is only over time that the person is revealing more and more of himself or herself to you. You come to know the person more and more as you spend time with them. It is the same with Our Lord. The more we spend time with Him and the more we get to know Him, the more He reveals Himself to us.

Saint John the Baptist tells us that the very reason he came baptizing was to reveal Christ to Israel. Saint John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. In other words, in order to know Him more, we have to get rid of sin. For Him to be revealed more fully to us, the sin has to go. And so it is all working together. We do not know Him completely. In other words, as long as we are still sinning, there is still darkness in our mind and there is still weakness in the will; we are clouded, to differing degrees. One who is steeped in mortal sin, for instance, cannot see clearly at all. One who has venial sins has some cloudiness that stands between that person and the Lord. There is a much clearer view of Christ if one has venial sins instead of mortal sins, yet, at the same time, there is still a veil, there is still a fog between. The more we get rid of the venial sins in our lives, the more the fog lifts and the more clearly we are able to see.

If that is the case, then, we can also understand what Saint John is talking about when he says that the reason the world does not know us is it does not know Him. Well, if we cannot even see Him clearly because of our sinfulness, what are the worldly types going to be able to do? They are completely steeped in the things that this world has to offer, which are all pretty unfortunate, and if we consider the principle I just mentioned–one who is in the state of mortal sin cannot see clearly at all–if we without mortal sin (so we hope and trust) cannot see clearly, if we without mortal sin still have some fogginess there that separates us from Christ, then how can one who is walking in total darkness be able to recognize the Lord? They cannot. And so the more we are conformed to Christ, the less we are going to be recognized.

That is why it is so incumbent upon us to make sure we are not trying to march according to the ways of the world. If we want to fit in with the world then we are not being conformed to Christ. It is just that simple. We need to ask ourselves: Where is eternity going to be spent? It is not going to be spent in this world. It is going to be spent in heaven by those who have chosen Christ and have chosen to become like Him. Saint John says, What we will be has not yet been revealed, but when it is revealed we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him. If that is the case, we need to start working on being like Him. That means we will be rejected by the world, we will not be recognized, and we will not be understood. We need to see that that is a gift, and we need to praise God for that.

Again, put it into context. Saint John the Baptist, who was a man who had Original Sin removed while he was in his mother’s womb and was exceedingly righteous and penitential out in the desert, admits that he did not recognize Christ until the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. So it is not an easy thing to be able to recognize the fullness of Who He is, yet we are invited into that mystery and we should be drawn into that mystery. But that happens only in prayer. So that is what we have to be about. The conformity to Christ takes place in the spiritual life, in the depths of our heart united with the depths of His heart. The more we are united to Him, the less we sin and the more He is revealed in our lives. And the more He is revealed in us, the less we will be recognized by the world.

If we look at our own lives, again, we just ask, “Am I liked by the worldly types? Do I fit in with them? Or do they think that I’m a little odd? Do they give me grief? Do they reject me?” It is that simple to look at. To whom do we wish to be conformed? There are only a couple of choices. We can posit all the different forms of how we can be worldly, but it is all worldly. So it is either to be like Christ, or it is not to be like Christ. If it is not to be like Christ then it is Antichrist and the spirit of Satan. Who do we want to be like? The choice is ours. If we want to be like Him and we want to be with Him forever then we need to be like Him in this world. And if we are going to be like Him in this world, it means to be righteous in the way that we act and to remove sin from our lives.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.