I would like to continue reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer in the hope that we pray it more intentionally.
“Hallowed be thy Name.”
What’s in a name?
“Hallowed be thy name” is a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, which is a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. The phrase means that the name of God is consecrated and holy123. It is a prayer that the name of God, that God himself and the things of God would be revered, recognized as holy, and worthy2. The phrase is Jesus pointing us back to the third commandment: “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”2.
When Moses encounters God in the the burning bush in Exodus 3, he needs a name.
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:
I am has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.When used as a stand-alone description, I AM is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. He promises that He will be what He will be; that is, He will be the eternally constant God. He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills. When God identified Himself as I AM WHO I AM, He stated that, no matter when or where, He is there.
God is the only One who can accurately describe Himself as “I AM.” Jesus claimed the title I AM for Himself in John 8:58. For the rest of us, “I am” is a false claim to self-sufficiency. We are not eternally constant or ever-present. Our only hope is to abandon claims of our own sovereignty and sufficiency and cast ourselves upon the mercy of
I AM. So, we pray:
“Hallowed be thy Name”
Saint James Catholic Church 