The Holy Name of Jesus

This feast begins with the Gospel itself. The child is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins, so the name is never just a sound or title but a revelation of who Christ is and why He came into the world. From that meaning the feast turns naturally to the Church's devotion: Christians learned to invoke the Holy Name in prayer, preaching, repentance, and consolation, until reverence for it grew into a distinct liturgical observance. Western devotion especially loved the name of Jesus as both sweetness for the heart and strength against sin, while the liturgy placed the feast near the close of the Christmas cycle.

East and West did not always emphasize the same mysteries in the same way, but both kept the central truth. This is not a biography at all. It is a meditation on the Savior made present even in the very name by which His people call upon Him.