Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.
Today I watched a group of young school girls fawning over a cute little puppy. One of the girls kept saying over and over, "Oh my God!" She was probably about ten years old, and like most children her age, probably doesn't think twice about using God's holy name as a casual and careless expression in conversation that amounts to little more than a punctuation mark for their speech.
I doubt most people who use God's name so casually have ever considered the majesty of God, or realize that they are calling upon God to fulfill a vain, human purpose. When I hear frivolous use of God's name, I say in my mind, "Blessed be His holy name." A friend of mine has a different approach, though. She says she considers the expression, "Oh, my God" an unfinished prayer, and she adds the words "Convert me" as a petition pleading for their conversion. She tells me that someone she knows stopped using God's name in casual conversation after awhile, which she attributes to this prayer on their behalf.
Whichever approach or prayer you use, it is important to make retribution to God when we witness the misuse of His holy name. Jesus Himself gave us the Golden Arrow prayer as a means of making reparation for blasphemy:
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious
and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed,
loved, adored and glorified, in heaven, on earth and under the earth,by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.
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5 comments:
I did not know that PG...about the prayer that is...thank you!
On the note of interesting prayers, I was looking at the wiki page on Our Lady. It's quite fair, believe it or not. It even goes to lengths to dispell the common accusations that Catholics worship her.
The thing that caught my attention was the oldest known marian prayer, the sub tuum praesidium:
Beneath your compassion,
We take refuge, O Theotokos:
do not despise our petitions in time of trouble:
but rescue us from dangers,
only pure, only blessed one.
from the wiki page:
"The earliest known Marian prayer is the Sub tuum praesidium, or Beneath Thy Protection, dating from late 2nd century. A papyrus dated to c. 250 containing the prayer in Greek was discovered in Egypt in 1917, and is the earliest known reference to the title Theotokos."
The late second century! With physical proof that dates to the mid third century! And a prayer to Mary asking for intercession including a reference to Mother of God, no less!
Not only is this interesting to me since I need to work on my marian devotion, this is a gold nugget to an apologist.
(I honestly didn't mean to derail the combox. I'm just excited and wanted to share.)
Wow, Guilty! I say that phrase, as well as just saying "Jesus" when I get flustered.
I think now I will try to finish the thought as a prayer.
:-)
I get so mad when people say that, especially Catholics. I'm going to bring this topic up in my Youth Group, because I'm sick of hearing it at a Catholic Church.
Unitas, that prayer is in the Raccolta;slightly different -
We fly to thy patronage, o holy Mother of God; despise not thou our petitions in our neceessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
It used to have an indulgence of 5 years.
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