"IN THE NAME OF JESUS OF NAZARETH, ARISE, AND WALK"

After St Peter dropped his net, and answered Christ's call to become a fisher of men, the lure he used to catch souls was the Holy Name of Jesus. Peter could be found in the streets, in the synagogues and in the Temple where he arrested the attention of the Jews by uttering, "Jesus".

St Peter's first miracle in public that caused a sensation was when he and St John were going into the Temple. A lame man crossed their path and he put out his hand and begged alms. Peter said to him, "Silver and gold I have none; but what I have, I give thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise, and walk." (Acts 3:6). Suddenly, the man jumped to his feet and joyfully bounded up and down. The Jews who were spectators to this miracle were amazed at Peter and marveled at him, they thought Peter alone had worked the man's healing. But Peter, Prince of the Apostles, asked them to check their astonishment, and said that it was not by his power that the man walked, but by the power of Jesus that he walked.

This Advent, a seemingly simple exercise (which may stagger us) is to ask ourselves if we have faith in the power of the Holy Name, to the point that we believe miracles may be worked in the Name of Jesus.  If in your admirable humility, you admit you do not have faith in praying in the Name of Jesus, may I suggest you pray in the Name of Jesus and allow the answered prayers to bolster your faith?

My own belief in the power of praying in the name of Jesus came after I experienced answered prayers. I used to pray without really thinking of the formula of the words, I would just recite them. I started like a robotic automaton, without realization of what I was praying even when I offered the most efficacious prayers of the prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the novena to the Infant of Prague, where we ask the Heavenly Father for a specific grace in the name of Jesus, "Oh my Jesus, truly you have said, "If you ask anything of the Father in my name He will give it to you".

But one occasion taught me the power of the prayer to the Sacred Heart. I was on the London Tube, on my way to stand outside an abortion clinic and do "side walk counseling", on an ice cold day when the sky was hard as a blue diamond. I was down in myself because I had missed early morning Tridentine Mass and had not time to pray a Rosary. I was ready to smack my own wrist. I felt my efforts outside the clinic would be useless because I had not assisted at Mass and offered the intention that the women not abort their babies, and because I had no time for lengthy prayer. I had a few minutes to ask in the name of Jesus that not one woman go into the clinic for an abortion. This I did and for the hours I was outside the clinic, not one woman went in.