holy Name

Now that we have Dish Network, I don't stumble on EWTN as much as I used to, but there was a time when EWTN was the channel before ESPN and sometimes whatever craziness was happening on the Roman Catholic channel was more exciting than day old highlights.

One term I remember hearing on that channel is "the holy Name of Jesus." This is a term that I'm guessing carries a lot of meaning in Roman circles but is rarely used excepting to end a prayer in most protestant churches. This got me wondering, how many of our weekly Collects have inherently Roman concepts in them that I haven't even noticed?

Not that it matters, but, like in the example of this Sunday, couldn't we tap into some of those ancient Holy Name roots in our musical choices? Couldn't we perhaps choose a Eucharistic Prayer (or, gasp, write one) that play on Holy Name themes in Roman theology? As Episcopalians we are blessed with a rich heritage based in the first 1100 years of a somewhat unified church; then 400ish years of the Western Rite, followed by 500 years of Protestantism. There is so much history and depth to our worship that churches looking to become liturgical often just buy a copy of our Book of Common Prayer. And yet there is so much of our past, the Holy Name as an example, that we don't utilize, don't teach, don't understand, and therefore don't seem to care about.

"At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." (Philippians 2:10)