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Views from the Choir Loft

The Hallowed Name 1

Fr. David Friel · January 3, 2017

N THE CATHOLIC tradition of many centuries, the month of January has been dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. Today, in particular, the Church celebrates the great Name of salvation as an optional memorial in the Ordinary Form.

This occasion is celebrated as a second class feast in the Extraordinary Form on the first Sunday of the year or on January 2. The celebration was removed from the calendar in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, although a votive Mass in honor of the Holy Name was retained. The feast was restored, as an optional memorial, by the 2002 revision of the Roman Missal.

I am struck each year by the beauty of the orations for today’s Mass in the Ordinary Form. Neither in the Collect nor the Prayer over the Offerings nor in the Prayer after Communion does the name “Jesus” appear. What a marvelous reservation of the Holy Name! Catholics of a certain age would remember the custom of preachers avoiding the overuse of the Divine Name, substituting instead equivalents such as “our Blessed Lord,” “Christ our Savior,” etc. By limiting their employment of that most sacred and powerful Name, the preachers of old and the prayers of the new Roman Missal intend to cultivate a practical reverence for the Son of God.

This is not, however, the only tradition. In fact, the three orations of the Mass formula in the Extraordinary Form do include mention of the Name. The man, moreover, who is most responsible for spreading the Holy Name devotion in the Church, St. Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444), was also responsible for the insertion of the Name, “Jesus,” into the prayer, Hail Mary. Therefore, the approach of St. Bernardine was to increase the frequency of the Name’s utterance. A similar example is found in the missionary work of the North American martyrs, who wrote the Name, “Jesus,” on trees throughout the forest as an aid to the conversion of the Iroquois people.

It would seem, then, that there are two legitimate traditions. This diversity, in itself, is a beauty of the Church. But perhaps what is most significant is not which of these traditions we choose to follow. Whether we withhold our expression of the Divine Name or speak it frequently, our purpose should be the same: to render honor unto Him Whose Name it is.

Laudetur Iesus Christus — Nunc et in aeternum!


Editor’s Note : I hope Fr. Friel will not mind the addition of an excerpt from the life of Saint Isaac Jogues, wherein this holy priest talks about his captivity by the Iroquois:

“How often, though in a strange land, have we sung the canticle of the Lord; and the woods and the mountains about resounded with the praises of their Creator, which never—since their creation—had they heard. How often on the stately trees of the forests did I carve the most SACRED NAME of JESUS, so that, seeing it, the demons might take to flight, and hearing it, they might tremble with fear?”

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Roman Missal Third Edition Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Oh, what sighs I uttered, what tears I shed, to mingle with the waters of the torrent, while I chanted to Thee, O my God, the psalms of Holy Church in the Office of the Dead!

— ‘Isaac Jogues, upon finding Goupil’s corpse (1642)’

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