Happy Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus!

Some coolness on the subject:

I came across this back in the summer of 2008 when I was reading Pope Benedict XVI's book Jesus of Nazareth.

There, the Holy Father mentions one of the forms of God's name as the unpronounceable YHWH. Some scholars say this should be YHVH, but you may also know it by Yahweh instead. It turns out (and there is some debate about this too) that Yahweh is simply an attempt to pronounce the unpronounceable YHWH, see? Slap a few vowels in there and we can speak the ineffable name.

But hold fast, because that isn't what was intended. Seriously. Now, YHWH in Hebrew looks like this: יהוה. These four letters are also called the tetragrammaton. From the little research I've done (see links below) I found that a shortened version of the Name is used in some places in the Old Testament as well. As such, it still cannot be pronounced, but it was spelled like this: יהו.

Now look at the name in the title of this post: יהושע. Notice how the first three letters (reading right to left) in this name are the same as the three letters in the short form of the name above? That is the short form for the unpronounceable name of God. Added to it are two more Hebrew letters to form the pronounceable name Yehosua, or some say Yeshua, or what we know today as Jesus. Which is, of course, the name that Gabriel commanded Mary to give unto the Messiah.

One of those additional letters looks a bit like an English W. That particular letter, ש is pronounced "shin". It also is used when referring to the Shekinah, or "divine presence" or what we now call the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.

And that is all I wanted to share with you today about the Name of Our Lord and Savior. His name indeed contains the names of the other two persons of the Trinity. God the Father (YHWH); God, The Holy Spirit (ש) and altogether, the Word Made Flesh (יהושע), whose name means "God Our Savior..."

And further, a word from the new Archbishop of Seattle:

Saying the name of Jesus should be on the lips of Catholics in all parts of their lives, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was installed Dec. 1 as the fifth archbishop and ninth bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle...

He said in his homily that a bishop's duty to his flock is to follow Jesus, and that the name of Jesus should be on people's lips everywhere, in every homily, parish, school mission statement and in individual daily life.

"As we go through the day, we should pray his name silently to remind ourselves of his nearness and seek his protection," he said. Moments of transition, and times of confusion, anxiety, distraction and temptation are all opportunities for prayer, he said.

He said that a bishop, in following Jesus, must "surrender everything trustingly to him -- everything."

"It is especially important to bishops, priests, deacons and consecrated religious that Jesus remain literally in our minds and in our hearts at all times," Archbishop Sartain said, "that we recognize he is always before us and we are to follow."...

In his concluding remarks, Archbishop Sartain promised to be proactive in encouraging young people to consider religious vocations, saying he would be doing the church and its people a "disservice" if he didn't challenge people to open their hearts to God.

He said he also looks forward to his ministry in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

"Together for many years to come we will love the Lord, will proclaim Christ, and we will ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in every way," he said. "And together we will love as the Lord Jesus has asked us to love."