Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 519 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 519 - Part I. What does it mean to say, “Hallowed be thy name”?

(Youcat answer) To “hallow” or to treat God’s name as something holy means to place him above everything else.  

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2858) By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name - revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus - by us and in us, in every nation and in each man.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) A “name” in Sacred Scripture indicates the true nature of a person. To hallow God’s name means to do justice to his reality, to acknowledge him, to praise him, to give him due honor, and to live according to his commandments.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2807 The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving (Cf. Ps 111:9; Lk 1:49). 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 innermost 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" (Eph 1:9, 4).

(This question: What does it mean to say, “Hallowed be thy name”? is continued)