When Canada published the latest edition of the ‘Catholic Book of Worship’ in 1994, all songs that included the word were either eliminated, the verse containing the word was eliminated (Sing a New Song) or permission was received to substitute “O Lord” for YHWH (O Lord, I know you are near…). So if we stick to the CBW III we don’t have a problem. I did mention to the choir members that if they were using another hymnal they had to be careful to avoid hymns containing the word.
No, I think it has more to do with us Catholics respecting the Divine Name of the Father, which we should spell Yhwh, out of respect when writing.
Is it the name of the Father only? I thought Jesus used it in reference to himself as well.
Many people, certainly many Jews, spell “God” as “G-d” for the same reason. Should we think that practice logically flows from the recent Vatican decision? I know that “God” isn’t technically “God’s Name,” but on the other hand, what is it? It’s not a title, is it an office? A position? As a practical matter we use it to call on Him, so it seems more like a “Name” than anything else.
God derives from the word god… meaning any deity made up by man. We capitalize the “G” to indicate we are refering to the real one… not one that was made up by humans. So, I do not see the point of not being able to spell out or say God. We talk about God the Father and God the Son… etc… but we also use it more generically to mean the Trinity… as in “God please answer my prayers…”. Sometimes it is used for God the Father and Spirit only… as in “God’s only begotten Son…”, but it could be argued that this is still refering to the entire Trinity since Jesus cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. At any rate… I certainly wish to honor my Creator and would never think of causing any disrespect from my speech… so if the Church tells me not to pronounce the name of YHWH, then I will abide by this teaching.
As far as I know, “Yhwh” is never used in the New Testament, although it’s implied usage is evidenced by Jesus statement, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” I think He used it because it can be properly used to refer to Him, because He is eternally begotten of His Father, Yhwh.
I disagree. By virtue of the Incarnation we were raised from servents who referred to God as Adonai or Lord (because HIs Name was unspeakable) to children who call Him Abba.I think it’s wonderful that the Holy See seeks to foster this kind of respect to the Divine Name.
How does this contradict what I said? Don’t you think it’s wonderful that the Holy See has stated that we not use the ineffible Divine Name, out of pure respect? What’s wrong with honouring God in this way? We can still intimately refer to Him as Father-- Abba.
How does this contradict what I said? Don’t you think it’s wonderful that the Holy See has stated that we not use the ineffible Divine Name, out of pure respect? What’s wrong with honouring God in this way? We can still intimately refer to Him as Father-- Abba.
Saying the name Abba is the same as saying “Father”. Abba means “Father” or more specifically “Papa”, it is not God’s specific holy name, which it remains a grave Blasphmy to say out loud. I mean think how it can potentially emotionally hurt our human fathers when we call them by their first name and do not respect their position in our life as “dad”… it is reflective of how we as christians should treat God’s name.
In fact he wants us to, we are his children and so are to call him Abba, Not his Divine Name.
That gives us "IOWE" as pronounced in classical latin. Historically, the Romans added the gods of conquered nations to their own by associating them them with a member of the Roman pantheon. JOVE (IOWE or YAHWEH) was associated with thunder and called "Father" and so was equated with Jupiter/Zeus. Not everyone accepts this reading but it is fully consistent with how the Roman empire operated.
The King James Bible used the name Jehovah in a few places, and by the time we reached the New Jerusalem Bible it had pretty much been decided in some camps that Yahweh was God's proper name. St. Jerome and following latin updates have always used Dominus (the Lord) where the tetragrammaton appears in the Hebrew. Historically the Catholic Church has followed the Hebrew tradition of not attempting to translate the tetragrammaton. I think that not speaking a putative proper name of God is fully in line with Catholic tradition and its consistency with Hebrew tradition and should not be seen as simply a way to mollify modern Jewish people.I would like to note that the (surprise, surprise), the zenit article is titled in a very misleading manner. And some wonder why I am suspicious of even Catholic journalists. If you bypass the spin the author put on the title and look at the first sentence, you will see.
The difference is too significant for such a stupid, misleading title.
Firstly, the unpronouncable name of God is UNPRONOUNCABLE, and pretending that saying “Yahweh” (which IS pronouncable) is pronouncing God’s UNPRONOUNCABLE name is shear silliness!
