See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. (1 Jn 2:29-3:6)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010323.cfm
Because of God’s great love for us in Jesus, we, too, are children of God. Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus dates to the early church. As Saint Paul declares that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:1-11). Today is the titular feast of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). My grandmother thought that the abbreviation I-H-S stood for “I Have Suffered.” Actually, they are the first 3 letters of the name, Jesus, in Greek.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Most Holy Name of Jesus, January 3
