About the Mass Series: Communion Rite: Part 4: ‘Our Father’

2. ‘Hallowed be thy name’.

What does this phrase mean?  

Saint Cyprian in his reflection commented that it is not, as if we think we make God holy by our prayers. Rather, we are asking that his name may be made holy in us.  We pray that we who have been hallowed (made holy) in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun.

Or perhaps to put it another way ‘may your name be held holy’.  Looking at this phrase in this light means that it also connects with the commandments.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) also tells us

‘…And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving. But, this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved.  Beginning with this first petition to Our Father, we are immersed in the inner most mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, “according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ,” that we might be holy and blameless before him in love”’ (Para 2807 p.673).

So we might want to ponder further:

· Personally, what does this phase mean to you? What is the personal challenge in this phrase for you?

· How might we heighten this desire and expectation and make this petition our own?

· How might we be drawn into his loving plan and be holy and blameless before him in love this week?