HOLY NAME OF JESUS-10TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
Exodus, Chapter 14, Verse 13
But Moses answered the people, “Do not fear!
Stand your ground and see the victory the LORD will win for you today. For
these Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again.
At
Christ’s transfiguration Moses along with Elijah appeared with Him. The purpose
of the transfiguration was to fortify Peter and the other apostle’s faith for
pain and hopelessness they must have felt at the loss of their friend
Jesus on Good Friday. They must have felt much like the throng with Moses,
noted in this verse, standing by the Red Sea awaiting the certain death by the
Egyptians.
I
wonder did the apostles hear a quiet voice saying in their soul-Do not fear;
stand your ground and see the victory of the Lord.
·
Holiness
consists in friendship with God. If we would be in any sense the friends of
God, we must have at least that
desire for holiness without which such friendship would be impossible; growth
in the knowledge of God is the deepening of this friendship.
·
To
know God is to know self and if we know ourselves well, we know have one or two
prominent sins that have dogged our life’s path for years, and against these we
struggle bravely and are conscious that God is helping us.
·
Sin
and sanctity reveal us to ourselves; therefore, if there is to be any spiritual
growth, there must be a growth in
self-knowledge. We cannot make any serious attempt to conquer our sins until we
know what who we are and who’s we are.
·
The
greatest advancement we make is when we learn to examine ourselves in the light
of Christ.
To examine ourselves in the light of Christ a good
place to begin is with the seven heavenly virtues: Humility, Charity, Chastity,
Patience, Temperance, Diligence, and kindness.
Read "But the one name that contains
everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation; JESUS.
The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming humanity the
Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus,"
"YHWAH saves." The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man
and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is
to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains
the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name
of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for
him. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2666)
Reflect "May he—who did not shrink from taking a
beginning like ours—perfect in us his gifts, and may he also make us children
of God, he who for our sakes wished to become a child of man." — St.
Augustine, Sermons, 184
Pray Today we remember and honor the Most Holy
Name of Jesus. Take time to read the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.
Act Make reading the daily readings a part of
your New Year's habits this year.
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. 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.
His
name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived in
the womb."
LUKE ii. 21.
1.
It is not difficult to meditate upon the Holy Name, or to use the Holy Name in prayer.
More than any other name, perhaps alone among all proper names, it is
appropriate to the One Who owned it. Usually the names of men are given at
random; they mean nothing in themselves; a man who happens to be called John
might just as well have been called Thomas or William; the mere name tells us
nothing about him; it is a convenient means of distinguishing him from others,
a label put upon him and little or no more With a few human beings it has been
otherwise: Adam, Abraham, Josue, John the Baptist were given names that
signified the men on whom they were bestowed. But with none is this so true as
it is with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With care the Angel impressed it
on His Mother's mind: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus," he said, and
there followed the description of His future greatness. With care it was
repeated to Joseph: Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins.
2.
The Name stands as a complete summary and description of our Lord's character
and office, and it is under this aspect that it has been regarded by thousands
of saints, whose hearts have melted at its mere sound. To them Jesus is their
God, Jesus is their King, Jesus is their Redeemer, Jesus is their Mediator,
Jesus is their Savior, Jesus is their great Priest, Jesus is their Intercessor,
Jesus is the Captain under Whom they fight, Jesus is the Leader Whom they
follow, Jesus is their Teacher, Jesus is the Giver of their law, Jesus is the
Spouse and Shepherd of their souls, Jesus is their Light, Jesus is their Life,
Jesus is the Judge before Whom they rejoice to think that they must one day
stand, Jesus is their final and eternal Reward, for which alone they live.
3.
But He is also to them the mirror of all the most glorious and winning virtues.
He is, and His Name tells them that He is, unbounded Charity, infinite Mercy,
extremist Kindness, deepest Humility, most devoted Piety, transparent
Simplicity, uttermost Poverty, Chastity without a stain. It is the prerogative
of love to transform those who love into the likeness of Him Whom they love;
and as the mere name of one who is loved cannot sound in the ear or be thought
of in the mind without adding to the love which is already there, so the
thought of the Holy Name and the mention of the Holy Name have a kind of
sacramental power in the hearts of His saints. They seem to convey the grace
which enables men to think like Him, to speak like Him, to act like Him, to
sacrifice themselves like Him, and to Him, and for Him, and along with Him, to
make Him known to others, not by word only, but also by reproduction of Him in
themselves, and to win all men to love Him.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is
within thee bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget
all He hath done for thee. Ps. cii. i, 2.
Today is the tenth
day of Christmas the 10 Lord’s a leaping are a sign for the Ten
Commandments.
Enemy of God, Enemy of the Family
14. Satan, the enemy of God and of all of His creation, is profoundly aware of the centrality of the family in God’s plan and its irreplaceable role as an icon of the Trinity. We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that this leader of the evil angels would aggressively target the family with all of his cunning and resources. St. Paul assures us that it is Satan who is behind the great battles that we face, “Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with…the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12)
“...in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him who loved us.” ROMANS 8:38
16. Sister Lucia’s words are alarming, but also encouraging. The final war has already been won! Nevertheless, the battle raging around us is real. On every side, and painfully even within our own families, we experience destructive attacks that only a short time ago would have seemed unimaginable.
17.
Despite these real challenges, this is not the moment for us to become
discouraged or lose heart, for that would be to forget that “where sin
increases, grace abounds all the more,” (Romans 5:20) and that “in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:38) The
breaches in the civilization of love and culture of life are many, but they
call us not to despair. Rather, they challenge us to unflagging trust in the
Lord and Giver of life, to radical reliance on God’s grace and mercy, and to
personal engagement in the domestic church on behalf of love and life.
During
this Christmas season let us take up the nature of God by reflecting on these
traits that make us a model for our children and our sisters and brothers in
Christ. Today reflect on:
Resourcefulness
vs. Wastefulness
Wise use of that which others would normally overlook
or discard (Luke 16:10)
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Love
for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their selfish
use:
Come now, you
rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have
rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and
their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You
have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who
mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the
harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the
earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of
slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not
resist you.
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Created "in the image of God," man also
expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of
his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression;
beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living
creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being's inner
riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art
is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the
truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent
that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness
to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is
not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate
end of man.
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
The world admires only spectacular sacrifice, because it does not
realize the value of sacrifice that is hidden and silent.
Daily Devotions
[1] Maturin, Basil
W. Christian Self-Sophia Institute
Press.
[4]Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896.
[5]https://family.dphx.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018-Complete-My-Joy-Apostolic-Exhortation-English.pdf
[6]http://graceonlinelibrary.org/home-family/christian-parenting/49-godly-Tcharacter-qualities/
[7]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
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