By Corazon Damo-Santiago
At the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, Philippians 2:10 says.
Jesus is the name of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. It was the angel Gabriel who instructed the Blessed Virgin Mary that the child she is conceiving would be named Jesus.
“Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus,” Luke 1:30-31 says.
Is it a wonder, then, that the name Jesus is the heart of Christian prayers? Likewise, all liturgical prayers end with the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Doctrine of Indulges issued by the church designated a partial indulgence by invoking the name “Jesus”.
Feast of the Holy Name
The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is celebrated in January. Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus was probably introduced in the 15th century.
In the Latin Rite Catholic Church it was observed as an optional memorial on January 3 by Franciscans, Jesuits and Carmelites; on January 15 by Dominicans; and second Sunday after Epiphany by Carthusians.
With the reform of the liturgical calendar on February 14, 1969, the feast of the name of Jesus is commemorated on the Octave of Christmas.
The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, celebrated on January 1, takes the place of the festival of the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to New Book of Festivals and Commemoration by Philip Pfatteicher.
When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb, according to Luke 2:21.
The Jesus Prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
Have mercy on me.”
Saint Theophan, the Recluse, considers the Jesus prayer stronger than all other prayers by virtue of the Holy Name.
“The Jesus Prayer” and the veneration of the Holy Name went back to devotions of early Christians, according to Leslie Houlden in Jesus: the Complete Guide 2006. A “short formulaic prayer, it is continuously repeated as an ascetic practice to enhance stillness.
Its most likely origin is the Egyptian dessert where monastic fathers lived. Antoine Guillaumont reported inscriptions of the prayer in the ruins of a cell.
Saint Bernardine of Siena associated the prayer with the IHS and introduced the Litany of the Holy Name in the 15th century.
The early Christians who responded to God’s call and withdrew from worldly life did not use many words to pray.
In simplicity they would stretch their arms and say, “Lord have pity on me,” and frequently cry out “Deus in adjutorium meum intende [O God come to my aid], for they only knew the most rudimentary lithurgy,” Thomas Merton narrates in Contemplative Prayer.
Monks of Oriental Churches in Greece and Russia use Philokalia, a handbook of prayers, which is concerned with the prayer of the heart, or Jesus Prayer.
As Saint Macarius said, “There is no other perfect meditation than the saving and Blessed Name of Jesus dwelling without interruption in you.”
To the saint, to invoke the name of Jesus with profound attention in the heart considered as the root and source of one’s own inner truth manifests intensity of faith.
A sinner am I
“Lord Jesus Christ
Son of God
Have mercy on me, a sinner.”
This Eastern version acknowledges in humility that one is a sinner. Panagiotis Christou in Unifying the Mind with the Heart and Man with God justifies the addition of the word “sinner.”
He said, “It is addressed to God but not a means of self-deifying or self-deliverance but a counter example of Adam’s pride—repairing the breach it produced between God and man.”
Father Archemandrite, a spiritual father of the Romanian Orthodox Monastic Spirituality, said this is a prayer of the lips, mouth, tongue, voice, mind and heart. An active, all-seeing, contemplative prayer, it is the prayer advocated by Apostle Paul.
Saint Theophan, a 19th-century Russian spiritual writer, stated that spiritually can be an oral and focused prayer. It is a prayer of the heart itself “ when prayer is no longer something we do, but who we are.”
In the Eastern Tradition, a cord with many knots is used as a guide. Repeated for every knot, the prayer is accompanied with a sign of the cross or prostrations. A spiritual guide supervises that the prayer is repeated with rhythmical breath.
Saint Augustine summarized the three dimensions of Jesus prayer. He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head and is prayed to us as our God. Therefore, let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.
Talking to God
Prayer is communication with God. It can be vocal or silent, alone or with others. And that singing is twice praying. Saint Teresa of Calcutta prays by listening to God quietly.
In the tradition of the Catholic Church the purposes of prayer is to adore God, to ask forgiveness for sins, to thank God for blessings and to ask for His grace and help. Labeled as Adoration, Contrition, Thankfulness and Supplication, Christians are encouraged to follow this pattern, instead of solely supplications or requests.
***Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.