Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Holy Name of Jesus



God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

- Philippians 2:9-11

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O Almighty God, who hast given unto thy Son Jesus Christ the Name which is above every name, and hast taught us that there is none other whereby we may be saved: Mercifully grant that as thy faithful people have comfort and peace in his Name, so they may ever labour to proclaim it unto all nations; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- Scottish Prayer Book, 1929 

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I’ll give you one piece of advice: don’t neglect his name, “Jesus.” Meditate on it in your heart night and day as your personal and precious treasure. Love it more than your life. Root it in your mind. Love Jesus, because he made you and bought you at a very high price. Give your heart to him, because it is the debt you owe him. Therefore devote your love to this name “Jesus,” which means “salvation.” No evil thing can have any living-space in that heart where “Jesus” is faithfully kept in mind, because it chases out devils and destroys temptations and turns out all wrongful anxieties and defects, and purifies the mind. Whoever really loves it is full of God’s grace and full of virtues, receives spiritual strength in this life; and when such people die, they are adopted into the order of angels above, to behold in unending joy him whom they have loved.

- Richard Rolle (1290–1349), “Ego Dormio” in Richard Rolle, 
The English Writings, pp. 150-51

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We say ‘Jesus’ and we rest in a plentitude and totality that can no longer be taken from us. The name of Jesus then becomes a bearer of the whole Christ. It brings us into His total presence. In this presence are found all the realities towards which the name has served as a means of approach: salvation and pardon, the Incarnation and the Transfiguration, the Church and the Eucharist, the Father and the Spirit. All things then appear to us “gathered together in Christ” (Eph.1:10)…If we cling to the name of Jesus, we shall receive the special blessing that the Scripture promises, “Have mercy on me as is Thy custom toward them that love Thy name” (Ps. 119:132). And may the Lord be pleased to say of us what He said of Saul: “He is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name” (Acts 9:15).

- Fr Lev Gillet (1893-1980), originally from the Preface to 
the Arabic translation of The Jesus Prayer, Revised English edition. New York, 1997

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Jesus! the Name high over all,
In hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before it fall,
And devils fear and fly.

 Jesus! the Name to sinners dear,
The Name to sinners given;
It scatters all their guilty fear,
It turns their hell to heaven.

Jesus! the prisoner’s fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan’s head;
Power into strengthless souls it speaks,
And life into the dead.

O that the world might taste and see
The riches of his grace!
The arms of love that compass me
Would all the world embrace.

His only righteousness I show,
His saving grace proclaim;
’Tis all my business here below
To cry “Behold the Lamb!”

 Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his Name,
Preach him to all and cry in death,
“Behold, behold the Lamb!”

 - Charles Wesley (707–1788)


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