Jan 2: Once was...Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus

Although the 1962 Roman EF calendar does contain it, the 1962 Benedictine calendar does not celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, traditionally set for January 2 or the nearest Sunday.  

The feast has actually been assigned to a number of different dates over time, reaching the position of the first Sunday of the year (except when it coincides with the other major feasts of that period) on January 2 only in 1913.

In some respects that date in itself is an oddity, in that it regularly coincided with the much more ancient Octave Day of St Stephen.

In the Benedictine Office

The feast is omitted altogether in the 1960 Benedictine calendar, which instead constructed a completely new Office of the Second Sunday after the Nativity.

It has, however, been restored in many of the traditional Benedictine monasteries, and the texts for it can be found in the Antiphonale monasticum and the Le Barroux Nocturnale.

One can only speculate on the reasons for the omission of the feast, but for what it is worth, here are a couple of possibilities.

Duplicate feasts?

First, the decision perhaps reflects the drive to eliminate perceived 'duplicate feasts': the feast of the Circumcision, after all, also includes the naming of Jesus, and uses exactly the same Gospel. 

Certainly the absence of the feast in the Novus Ordo calendar is based on the claim that "the imposition of the name of Jesus is already commemorated in the office of the Octave of Christmas" (Paul VI, Mysterii Paschalis, 1969).

The Feast was, however, restored to the General Roman Calendar in 2002 as on optional memorial on January 3, so this may be one of those oddities of the 1962/3 period that would ordinarily have been eventually remedied officially.

Non-Benedictine origins and associations?

Another possibility though, is that the feast was perceived as non-Benedictine in origin and association.

It was, after all, originally a feast associated with the Franciscans in the sixteenth century, and only gradually spread to the wider church, entering the General Calendar in 1721.

It is also though, the titular feast of the Jesuits (celebrated on January 3).

Readings for the feast

Here are the second Nocturn readings for the feast from a Sermon of St Bernard:

"It is not idly that the Holy Ghost likens the Name of the Bridegroom to oil, when He makes the Bride say to the Bridegroom: your Name is as oil poured forth. Oil indeed gives light, meat, and unction. It feeds fire, it nourishes the flesh, it soothes pain; it is light, food, and healing. Behold, Thus also is the Name of the Bridegroom. To preach it, is to give light; to think of it, is to feed the soul; to call on it, is to win grace and unction. Let us take it point by point. What, do you think, has made the light of faith so suddenly and so brightly to shine in the whole world but the preaching of the Name of Jesus? Is it not in the light of this Name that God hath called us into His marvellous light, even that light by which we being enlightened, and in His light seeing light, Paul says truly of us You were sometimes darkness, but now - are you light in the Lord.

This is the Name which the Apostle was commanded to bear before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, the Name which he bore as a light to enlighten his people, crying everywhere The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light, let us walk honestly as in the day. lie pointed out to all that candle set upon a candlestick, preaching in every place Jesus and Him crucified.

 How did that Name shine forth and dazzle every eye that beheld it, when it came like lightning out of the mouth of Peter to give bodily strength to the feet of the lame man, and to clear the sight of many a blind soul? Cast he not fire when he said In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

The Name of Jesus is not a Name of light only, but it is meat also. Dost thou ever call it to mind, and remain unstrengthened? Is there anything like it to enrich the soul of him that thinks of it? What is there like it to restore the fagged senses, to fortify strength, to give birth to good lives and pure affections? The soul is fed on husks if that whereon it feeds lack seasoning with this salt. If you write, you have no meaning for me if I read not of Jesus there. If you preach, or dispute, you have no meaning for me if I hear not of Jesus there. The mention of Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, and gladness in the heart. It is our healing too. Is any sorrowful among us? Let the thought of Jesus come into his heart, and spring to his mouth. Behold, when the day of that Name begins to break, every cloud will flee away, and there will be a great calm. Does any fall into sin? Does any draw nigh to an hopeless death? And if he but call on the life - giving Name of Jesus, will he not draw the breath of a new life again?"