I commend the old Anglican custom of bowing the head at the Name of Jesus.
Indeed, Catholic prescriptions include this, and also require a bowing of the head at the name of Mary.
Even Traddies commonly ignore the rules requiring these reverences.
These observances do mean that one has to stay alert ...
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Going back to Saint Bernardine of Siena and the cult of the Holy Name; beyond that to Pope Gregory X.
At a recent service at Westminster Cathedral for the Worshipful Company of Musicians held on the Feast of our Patron Cecilia I managed to attract at least one puzzled glance by bowing discretely at each mention of the her name. Although some may sneer at these quaint popish customs, they do, as you rightly say, ensure that we pay attention, far more than we would through a 30 minute Evangelical sermon
I was trained to do this pre-Vatican 2 by the sisters at Our Lady and St. Joseph Convent School, Canvey Island, Essex and continued to do this ever since even during my time in the Episcopal Church USA
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal spells it out clearly, but is as far as I can see universally ignored :
IV Some General Norms for all forms of Mass.
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275. ... (a) A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together, and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the saint in whose honour Mass is being celebrated.
enjoined on the faithful in the Scottish Prayer Book of 1929 - 'the customary reverence'
https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Scripture/Name_CLW_statement.pdf Note the final paragraph of this letter from then Bishop Arthur Roche.
I still maintain Anglican practices which are no longer found in much modern Catholic worship. Bowing at “ we adore you” in the Gloria, and in the Creed at “ adored and glorified”…and signing with the Cross in the final line of the Creed. Did the great and glorious Pontiff of recent memory not say something about sacred things not being desacralised? And there is the signing at “ Blessed is He..” and …No I must stop.
As as Anglican I always observed this (following my Sydney-diocese minister grandfather) and later adding a smaller inclination for the name of Mary. I am now a member of a continental traditional mass community and here the practice is to bow the head at the names IN LATIN, but not in the vernacular readings or sermon. Does anyone know where this idea comes from? It means that our preachers regularly use the Holy Name with their birettas firmly on their heads. I find it disturbing as it makes one feel so Extreme to continue bowing the head when the preacher is not showing any reverence - I do, but I try to do it in such a subtle way that I wonder whether I could not better conform to local practice.
I keep to the rule. I bow my head fully st the name of Jesus and at the mention of the Adorable Trinity (e.g. at the Gloria Patri); bow less deepky to the name of Mary; bow slightly at the name of the Saint in whose homour the Mass is celebated; make all other liturgically prescribed bowings of head and body. I learnt this young, it is automatic.
Growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts, the offspring of a father whose parents were Irish immigrants and of a mother whose grandparents (on one side) and great-grandparents (on the other) were Irish immigrants, I was taught from early childhood always to bow my head at the mention of the Holy Name, or when passing in front of a Catholic church, whether on foot or in a vehicle.
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