O Lord our Lord: how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth! - Psalm 8:2 As the month of the Most Holy Name of Jesus comes to a close, we revisit the Mass of the Holy Name in a spirit of contemplation.
The Introit of the Mass opens with David's cry praise: “O Lord our Lord: how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth!” Ps. 8.2. The Collect reminds us that David's praise is to become our own as we promise the Holy Name of Jesus our veneration, for He is the Savior of mankind. St. Peter proclaims the healing and saving power of the Name, "for there is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." The Gradual and Offertory praise the Holy Name with joy and ask the Heavenly Father to gather all nations together, so that we may with one voice praise His Everlasting Name. Throughout the Holy Mass glory and grandeur resound. "Behold the Lord the Ruler is come: and the Kingdom is in His hand, and power, and dominion." - Introit: Mass of Epiphany The Christmas season comes to its liturgical culmination (and is the continuation of that mystery) with today's feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. In the word's of Dom Prosper Gueranger:
"The Epiphany is indeed a great Feast, and the joy caused us by the Birth of our Jesus must be renewed on it, for, as though it were a second Christmas Day, it shows us our Incarnate God in a new light. It leaves us all the sweetness of the dear Babe of Bethlehem, who hath appeared to us already in love; but to this it adds its own grand manifestation of the divinity of our Jesus. At Christmas, it was a few Shepherds that were invited by the Angels to go and recognise The Word made Flesh, but now, at the Epiphany, the voice of God Himself calls the whole world to adore this Jesus, and hear Him." |
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