"Hallowed by Thy Name"

Have you ever noticed how differently you speak someone's name depending on your relationship with them? A child learning to say "Mama" for the first time fills that simple word with wonder and trust. Lovers whisper each other's names with tenderness that transforms ordinary syllables into poetry. Yet that same name, spoken in anger or contempt, can become a weapon that wounds. The way we speak a name reveals the truth of our heart's disposition toward the one we're addressing.

This everyday reality opens a window into one of the most profound yet overlooked petitions of the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be thy name." These four words, which roll off our tongues so easily in recitation, contain depths that the greatest mystics and theologians have spent lifetimes exploring. What does it mean to "hallow" the name of the Eternal One? And why does Jesus place this petition first, before even our requests for daily bread or forgiveness?

 

The Sacred Grammar of Heaven

The Greek word hagiazō, translated as "hallowed," means to make holy, to sanctify, to set apart as sacred. When Jesus teaches us to pray "Hallowed be thy name" (Hagiasthētō to onoma sou), He uses the passive imperative—a grammatical construction that suggests both command and invitation. This is not merely a wish or a nice sentiment; it's a participation in something already true that seeks fuller manifestation in our world.

St. Teresa, in her luminous commentary on the Our Father in The Way of Perfection, understood this deeply. She writes: "How great is the gift which our Lord gives us in this petition! Realizing that our lowly nature could never succeed in hallowing, praising, exalting, and glorifying this holy name...He gives us His name and wants it to be hallowed on earth as it is in Heaven" (Way of Perfection, Chapter 32). For Teresa, this petition is not primarily about our effort to make God's name holy—it already is holy. Rather, it's about our participation in recognizing, reverencing, and revealing that holiness in the created order.

Martin Luther, approaching from a different tradition but with remarkable convergence, observed in his Small Catechism that "God's name is indeed holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may become holy among us also" (Small Catechism, Part III). Luther understood that the hallowing of God's name is fundamentally about transformation—not God's, but ours. When we pray these words, we're asking to become the kind of people in whom God's holiness can dwell and through whom it can shine.

 

The Name Above All Names

But what is this "name" we're called to hallow? In the ancient Near Eastern context, a name was never merely a label. It was believed to contain the essence, the character, the very being of the one named. When Moses encountered the burning bush and asked for God's name, he received the mysterious reply: "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14).

John Chrysostom explained that "the name of God is the manifestation of all His attributes" (Homilies on Matthew, 19.4). When we pray for God's name to be hallowed, we're praying for the full revelation of divine love, justice, mercy, wisdom, and beauty to be recognized and honored in our world.

Thomas Aquinas noted that to hallow God's name involves three movements: recognition of God's transcendent holiness, reverence in our approach to the divine, and the reflection of that holiness in our own lives (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 83, a. 9). These three movements—recognition, reverence, and reflection—form a spiritual rhythm that transforms both the one who prays and the world in which they pray.

 

The Mystery of Human Participation

Here we encounter a beautiful paradox that St. Teresa particularly savored. God's name is perfectly holy, needing nothing from us to complete it. Yet God invites us—even commands us—to participate in its hallowing. Teresa writes with characteristic warmth: "His Majesty, as though He were our advocate, places Himself between us and His Father, and asks Him to hallow His name in us" (Way of Perfection, Chapter 33).

This mystery reflects a deeper truth about the nature of prayer itself. As Augustine observed, "God does not need our praise, yet our praises are His gift to us. We praise Him not to add anything to Him, but to benefit ourselves" (Enarrations on the Psalms, 134.1). When we pray "Hallowed be thy name," we're not informing God of something He doesn't know. Rather, we're aligning ourselves with the fundamental orientation of the universe—the glorification of the Creator by creation.

Karl Rahner spoke of human beings as "hearers of the word"—creatures uniquely capable of receiving and responding to divine self-communication (Hearers of the Word, p. 45). When we pray for God's name to be hallowed, we're exercising this fundamental human capacity. We're saying "yes" to our deepest vocation: to be the place where divine holiness becomes articulate, visible, and active in the world.

 

The Cost of Hallowing

But let's not romanticize this petition. To truly pray "Hallowed be thy name" is costly. It means allowing our lives to become transparent to divine holiness, and that transparency often requires painful purification. St. Teresa knew this well. She writes about the "great confusion" she felt when she truly understood this petition, realizing how far she was from hallowing God's name in her daily life (Way of Perfection, Chapter 32).

Gregory of Nyssa wrote that "the one who says 'Hallowed be thy name' promises to live in such a way that God will be glorified through him" (On the Lord's Prayer, Homily 3). This is no small promise. It means that every word we speak, every action we take, every thought we entertain becomes a potential site for either hallowing or profaning the divine name.

Consider how often we attach God's name to our own agendas, using divine authority to justify our prejudices, our violence, and our exclusions. The history of Christianity is littered with the wreckage of God's name being taken in vain—not primarily through curse words, but through judgmentalism, acts of exclusion, and countless daily betrayals of the Gospel in the name of the Gospel. When we pray "Hallowed be thy name," we are repenting of all the ways we have cheapened the sacred, and we are committing to a different, more faithful way of life.

 

The Positive Face of a Commandment: Hallowing vs. Taking in Vain

The petition "Hallowed be thy name" stands in profound dialogue with one of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). For many, this commandment immediately conjures images of profanity and crude language, which certainly are violations. However, its true depth, like the petition to hallow God's name, goes far beyond mere words.

To take God's name "in vain" (Hebrew: la shav') means to use it emptily, falsely, or for worthless purposes. It implies a casual disregard for the divine, treating God's awesome power and truth as something to be manipulated or trivialized. This can manifest in:

False Oaths: Invoking God's name to swear to a lie, thus making God complicit in deception.

Irreverence: Using God's name flippantly or as an exclamation, stripping it of its sacred weight.

Hypocrisy: Claiming to act in God's name while pursuing selfish, unholy, or destructive agendas. 

Magic or Manipulation: Attempting to control divine power through incantations or rituals, reducing God to a tool for human will.

Therefore, "Hallowed be thy name" is not just a separate spiritual aspiration; it is the positive and proactive fulfillment of the negative commandment. If "not taking God's name in vain" is the fence guarding the sacred, "Hallowed be thy name" is the joyful tending of the garden within that fence.

When we pray "Hallowed be thy name," we are actively choosing to do the opposite of taking it in vain. We are asking for grace to:

Speak God's name with reverence: Acknowledging its inherent holiness in our words and attitudes.

Bear witness to God's truth: Ensuring our actions and intentions align with the divine character we invoke.

Live authentically: Becoming living testimonies to the holiness we pray to recognize and embody, rather than cheapening God's reputation through inconsistency or sin.

The Christian tradition is unified in seeing the petition as the positive expression of the commandment. The Catholic Catechism explains this relationship clearly: "The second commandment enjoins respect for the Lord's name. The name of the Lord is holy. For this reason man must not abuse it" (CCC 2142-2143). And conversely, "The faithful should bear witness to the Lord's name by confessing the faith, living by the faith, and preaching the faith" (CCC 2145), which is precisely what hallowing the name entails. This insight is shared across confessions. Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism (on the Second Commandment), expands on the necessity of using God's name rightly: "We are therefore now briefly to understand that the proper use of the divine name is to apply it in every case to that for which God has given it." This emphasizes that hallowing the name is about using it truthfully and righteously in prayer and in life. Similarly, the Reformed tradition's Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 104) connects the two by teaching that the Second Commandment requires "the careful, reverent, and holy use of his names, titles, attributes, ordinances, words, and works," encompassing the full spectrum of hallowing. Thus, whether Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed, the tradition affirms that to truly pray "Hallowed be thy name" is to fully live out the mandate to honor God's character through our own faithful existence.

In essence, the commandment tells us what not to do with God's name, while the petition teaches us what we should do: not just avoid profaning it, but actively participate in manifesting its inherent sanctity in every fiber of our being and every corner of our world. It transforms a prohibition into a profound invitation to intimacy and integrity.

 

Conclusion: Living as a Hallowed People

The petition "Hallowed be thy name" is ultimately about identity—God's and ours. When we pray these words, we're not just asking for God to be recognized as holy. We're asking to become a holy people, a living sanctuary where the divine name dwells. As Irenaeus wrote in the second century, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive" (Adversus Haereses, IV.20.7). The hallowing of God's name, therefore, is our flourishing.

This petition forces us to ask: Are my words honoring the God I claim to serve? Does my work reflect His truth and goodness? Does my relationship with my neighbor reflect His boundless mercy?

To live this petition is to enter into a partnership with God's sanctifying grace. It is the daily commitment to integrity—the alignment of our words, thoughts, and and actions with divine truth. It is the recognition that every moment of genuine appreciation for beauty and every act of kindness becomes a form of prayer, a hallowing of the One who is Beauty and Goodness itself. It is the highest calling: to be the light through which the world recognizes the sacred character of Our Father.

 

In Christ,

Judah