What Does the Name of Jesus Mean?

IHS with nails

The Holy Name of Jesus is, first of all, an all-powerful prayer.  Our Lord Himself solemnly promises that whatever we ask the Father in His Name we shall receive.  God never fails to keep His word.

When, therefore, we say, “Jesus,” let us ask God for all we need with absolute confidence of being heard.

For this reason, the Church ends her prayer with the words “through Jesus Christ,” which gives the prayer a new and divine efficacy.

But the Holy Name is something still greater.

Each time we say, “Jesus,” we give God infinite joy and glory, for we offer Him all the infinite merits of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul tells us that Jesus merited the Name Jesus by His Passion and Death.

Each time we say, “Jesus,” let us clearly wish to offer God all the Masses being said all over the world for all our intentions.  We thus share in these thousands of Masses.

Each time we say, “Jesus,” it is an act of perfect love, for we offer to God the infinite love of Jesus.

The Holy Name of Jesus saves us from innumerable evils and delivers us especially from the power of the devil, who is constantly seeking to do us harm.

The Name of Jesus gradually fills our souls with a peace and a joy we never had before.

The Name of Jesus gives us such strength that our sufferings become light and easy to bear.

~ Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, O.P., The Wonders of the Holy Name

 

Sorrow, Beauty, Poetry

Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.

~ Edgar Allan Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition

Stabat Mater dolorósa
Juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
Dum pendébat Filius.

Cujus ánimam geméntem,
Contristátam et doléntem,
Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigéniti!

Quae maerébat, et dolébat,
Pia Mater, dum vidébat
Nati poenas inclyti.

Quis est homo, qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si vidéret
In tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristári,
Christi Matrem contemplári
Doléntem cum Filio?

Pro peccátis suae gentis
Vidit Jesum in torméntis,
Et flagéllis súbditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum
Moriéndo desolátum,
Dum emisit spíritum.

Eja mater, fons amóris,
Me sentíre vim dolóris
Fac, ut tecum lúgeam.

Fac, ut árdeat cor meum
In amándo Christum Deum,
Ut sibi compláceam.

Sancta Mater, istud agas
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo válide.

Tui nati vulneráti,
Tam dignáti pro me pati,
Poenas mecum dívide.

Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolére,
Donec ego víxero.

Juxta Crucem tecum stare,
Et me tibi sociáre
In planctu desídero.

Virgo vírginum praeclára,
Mihi jam non sis amára:
Fac me tecum plángere.

Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
Passiónis fac consórtem,
Et plagas recólere.

Fac me plagis vulnerári,
Fac me Cruce inebriári,
Et cruó re Fílii.

Flammis ne urar succénsus,
Per te, Virgo, sim defénsus
In die judícii.

Christe, cum sit hinc exíre
Da per Matrem me veníre
Ad palmam victóriae.

Quando corpus moriétur,
Fac, ut ánimae donétur
Paradísi glória. Amen. Allelúja.

Stabat Mater

Missale Romanum
Cincinnati: Benziger Brothers, 1956.