If you pay attention, you will notice that the more devout a soul, the more often one such soul will say the name of Jesus. The opposite is also true. Wherever the name of Jesus is avoided, souls become lukewarm and fall away from the will of the Father. Over time, this simple little formula will always yield predictable fruit.
The name of Jesus is the prayer of the humble heart. It is like water for a parched soul, both for the one who hears it and for the one who utters it. It blesses and sanctifies. When the name of Jesus is spoken, it travels beyond us to parched and weary lands, accomplishing infinitely more than we could by our prayers of supplication and by our acts of charity.
In the Scriptures, Jesus tells us that when we pray, we should not babble on like the Pharisees and scribes who think that “by their many words they will be heard.” Do not be like them, Jesus says, “for your father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Benedictine priest Father Boniface Hicks writes that God will never answer a prayer that makes us need him less. The name of Jesus serves to purify our will and align it with the heart of the Father. Inasmuch as it is spoken with reverence, the Holy Name will remove far from us any residual prayers that seek to avoid suffering or grasp for the illusion of “self-sufficiency.”
Instead of praying for our desired outcome over and over again, we need to simply say: Father, thy will be done. Then, to assure the Father of our intentions, we need to corroborate our desires with the Holy Name of Jesus spoken slowly and with great devotion.
In his book The Wonders of the Holy Name, Father Paul O’Sullivan writes of a devastating plague that broke out in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1432. Killing nearly every poor soul it touched, the epidemic grew with ferocity and claimed thousands with cruel infection rates and sudden deaths.
A holy bishop of the day named Monsignor Andre Diaz urged the people to call on the Holy Name of Jesus. The bishop pleaded with those who had not yet been taken down by the disease to write the name of Jesus on cards and carry them on their person; “place [the cards] at night under your pillows; place them above your doors; but above all, constantly invoke with your lips and in your hearts this most powerful name.”
In a few short days, the plague came to an end and the city was completely freed from the horrific scourge of sickness. For many centuries, this devotion has continued in Portugal and has spread into France and Spain.
St. Paul tells us that “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth and in hell.” The name has absolute authority because there is no other name by which the human race has been saved if only they repent and believe in God’s Son. X
Not only does St. Paul tell us about the power of the name of Jesus, but he also tells us how to use it: “Whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He adds: “Whether you eat or whether you drink, or whatever else you do, do all in the Name of Jesus.”
Sometimes it is necessary, especially in times of great confusion and upheaval, to recall the simple truths of our faith and to return to our first love: Jesus. May we all be humble enough to learn what we already know and to pray like the children that we are.