Bowing at the Name of Jesus?

by CNS · January 3, 2023

Question: I don’t understand why, over the last couple of years, I don’t see folks bowing at the name of Jesus. It doesn’t seem to matter whether they are parishioners, priests or nuns. Is there some new rule on this, or am I just too old-school Catholic?

Answer: The custom of bowing at the name of Jesus is a worthy one, and it has a long tradition in the church. It takes its origin from St. Paul, who wrote in his Letter to the Philippians (2:9-10): “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The practice was reinforced at the Second Council of Lyons, convened in 1274 by Pope Gregory X, which highlighted the special honour due the sacred name and noted that “whenever that glorious name is recalled, especially during the sacred mysteries of the Mass, everyone should bow the knees of his heart, which he can do even by a bow of his head.”

Pope Gregory followed up with a letter to the Dominican Order, which became the foremost promoters of devotion to the Holy Name. In that letter, Pope Gregory said, “We wish that at the pronouncing of that name, chiefly at the holy sacrifice (of Mass), everyone would bow his head in token that interiorly he bends the knee of his heart.”

I agree with our letter-writer that, over the past several decades, this practice is followed less widely. I also agree that more people should observe it; it serves as an important reminder of the reverence we owe the divine and reflects an interior desire to honour Jesus, who died on the cross to redeem us.

Answered by Father Kenneth Doyle