Christian traditionalist Rama Coomaraswamy summarizes the content of this essay by noting that "in recent years there has been a revival of interest in the Prayer of the Name of Jesus. Various groups…have embraced this form of prayer without any foundation in its theology, and without the 'protection' that a traditional and orthodox basis provides. The author of this paper makes no attempt to present a historical or scholarly text; rather he hopes to provide the reader with an outline or introduction that will place this form of prayer in its proper perspective.…What I hope to show is that this form of prayer is deeply rooted in the Traditions of the Western Church and has been so from time immemorial. Even more, I hope to show that it is a prayer eminently suitable to contemporary man and the present times."

Rama Coomaraswamy presents a new translation of the Institutions Liturgigues, an article composed in the mid-19th century by Dom Gueranger, abbot of Solesmes. In the text, Gueranger expresses frustration at the mistrust of church authority that led to the development of Protestantism, stressing the need for a single ecclesiastical authority among the many divergent scriptural interpretations and innovations that characterize the reformist movement. In a brief commentary following the text, Coomaraswamy links the text to modern society’s current spiritual crisis, demonstrating that Gueranger’s words are equally timely today.

Rama P. Coomaraswamy writes from the perspective of a modern day Catholic, discussing the confusing mesh for many modern practitioners of “‘pre-Vatican’ training—however poor — [and] the pronouncements and sermons of the modern clergy.” He describes the confusion, errors and assumptions present in much of modern religious literature and thought.