The Holy Name of Jesus - VISITE À RICHELIEU

OPTIONAL MEMORIAL

THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

O God, who founded the salvation of the human race on the Incarnation of your Word, give your peoples the mercy they implore, so that all may know there is no other name to be invoked but the Name of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Some thoughts for the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus from Fr. Aaron Pidel, SJ, who blogs at www.whosoeverdesires.wordpress.com:

Given the significance of the Holy Name, we might do well to reflect a bit on the commandment corresponding to this gift—“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.”  Since the Lord’s name is a token of both majesty and nearness, observing this commandment means approaching God from two sides.  On the side of majesty, we reverence God’s name.  We don’t call upon Him flippantly or emptily.  The Catholic liturgy models this reverence when it calls for the priest to bow his head slightly at every mention of the name of Jesus.  This is one side of the second commandment.

But there is another side that perhaps we consider less often–the side of nearness.  God has revealed his name to us, it seems, with a very definite purpose: to persuade us that He is the sort of God who sees, who judges, who has concrete plans for our lives, who expects us to call upon Him and to enter ever more deeply into His friendship.  An important way of not using God’s name in vain, therefore, is to respect this purpose—i.e., to cultivate friendship with Him.

But how does one go about cultivating such a friendship?  St. Ignatius used to describe the sort of prayer most suited to a God with a name as “colloquy” or conversation.  He first encouraged the one praying to review Jesus’ words and deeds in the Gospels, and then—like Mary—“to reflect on these things in her heart.”  After reflection, the one praying, in a way both intimate and reverent, was to talk to God about what stirred within him.  In St. Ignatius’ words,

The colloquy is made by speaking exactly as one friend speaks to another, or as a servant speaks to a master, now asking him for a favour, now blaming himself for some misdeed, now making known his affairs to him, and seeking advice in them (Ex. Sp. #54).

As a servant to a master.  Yet as one friend to another.  It’s for such reverent friendship that God revealed his Holy Name.  It’s left to us to see that He not have revealed it in vain.

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Visite aux prêtres retraités à Richelieu

 

De gauche a droite: Pere Latourelle, Mgr Quesnel, Pere Tache

 

Le 27 décembre pendant un séjour à Montréal avec ma parenté et les jésuites de Loyola, je suis allé à Richelieu pour une visite à Mgr Roger Quesnel de notre archidiocèse et aux oblats et jésuites dans leurs infirmeries là-bas.  J’ai célébré l’eucharistie avec mes confrères jésuites et j’ai diné en compagnie de Mgr Quesnel, et les pères Alexandre Taché, omi et René Latourelle, s.j.

Voici quelques photos :