The Holy Name of Jesus

On the 3rd January we celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.

The invocation of the Holy Name has been a continuous practice from the earliest days of the Church. Its veneration in liturgical celebrations dates from the fourteenth century. The spread of the devotion in Italy and then throughout Europe was due to the efforts of St Bernadine of Siena and his disciples, and the liturgical feat was sanctioned in the sixteenth century. In 1530 Pope Clement VII granted an indult to the friars minor to celebrate the office of the Holy Name.

On this day we remember Fr. Ray Matus, Fr. Christopher Hilton, Brother Richard Bailey and Brother Andrew Lyons who staff the Church of the Holy Name, Oxford Road, Manchester as they celebrate their Patronal Festival. Pray fervently that if it be the Lord's will the Congregation of the Oratory might be founded in that church.

From the sermons of St Bernardine of Siena (Sermon 49. Art 1 (Op. Omnia 1V)

This most Holy Name was the object of all the deepest longings of our fathers in the faith, the restless waiting of centuries, long years of weariness and prayerful expectation. Now in the era of grace it has been made know to us.

The name of Jesus is an indispensable foundation of the faith since he it is who makes us children of God. Our Catholic Faith is grounded in the knowledge and light of Jesus Christ, the light of the soul, the door to life, the secure foundation of eternal salvation. Not to have the faith or to abandon it is, so to speak, to step out into the darkness of the night without a light, stumbling headlong into hazards with eyes closed. However well developed human reason may be it is a blind guide for man's mind to follow in his attempts to understand the secrets of heaven. It is to build a house without foundations, or ignore the door and make an entry through the roof.

The name of Jesus us the crowning glory of the preacher, for it is Jesus who illuminates and strengthens, and gets a ready hearing for the preachers words. What, after all, is the source of the extraordinary burning light and attraction of this name. To the enlightened, who in that light see light, the words of the Apostle may be aptly applied: Once you were all darkness, now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of the light.