“our father, hallowed be thy name”
what is the significance of jesus teaching this as the first thing in the prayer? what does “hallowed be thy name” mean?
is anybody doing any hallowing ?
whats the name?
First order of business: Respect God, and consider Him holy.
What’s the name? Jewish tradition, to my understanding, holds that it’s too holy to speak, and that no one really knows. Some Jews have so much respect for God’s name that they won’t even write ‘God’, but rather abrreviate it to ‘G-d’. In some versions of the Old Testament, God is referred to as YHWH, which is a shorthand for “The eternal being, who was, is, and will be” (Or something like that).
Short answer: Nobody knows the name of God. But it deserves respect, along the lines of “Love thy God with all thy heart”.
God being very imporyant, respect for Him is first in the prayer, but one of several important things. “Give us”, “Forgive us”, “Deliver us”, etc.
IMO, as a Catholic school boy.
Above all things, G_d is first and foremost. Hallowed means to be set apart. In this instance, His name is His alone. His name to me is simply, “Father”. (My dad is “dad”.)
The Lutheran understanding -
The Lutheran understanding -[II. The First Request May Your name be holy.
Q. What does this mean?
A. Of course, God’s name is holy in and of itself, but by this
request, we pray that He will make it holy among us, too.
Q. How does this take place? A. When God’s Word is taught clearly and purely, and when we live holy lives as God’s children based upon it. Help us, Heavenly Father, to do this! But anyone who teaches and lives by something other than God’s Word defiles God’s name among us. Protect us from this, Heavenly Father!](http://www.blackmask.com/books73c/smlct.htm#1_0_6)
Regards,
Shodan
The catechism in Episcopal Book of Common Prayer doesn’t go into details of the Lord’s Prayer, just cites it as an example of a prayer. The entire text is in Matthew 6:9-13, and in 6:9, Christ does explicitly say we should pray “like this”. To me, it’s a request that the world may be the way we want it to be – let people honor and revere God, rather than dishonor or neglect Him. Let God be someone or something invoked at times other than when things go wrong or, if you will, at certain, erm, rather worldly moments. (Sorry, I just flashed to the tale of an Atheist friend of mine who once did say, “Oh Random, Oh Chance” at that moment.) It’s a request on my part that people see God the way I see Him, as something supremely Good, worthy of honor, of joy and yes, of worship. It comes first because, in the grand scheme of things on all planes, it’s more important than having food on my table in this, earthly world, althoughI freely admit that when I was laid off, I was more concerned about keeping food on my table than praising God – the latter’s difficult to do on a empty stomach! 
Hope this helps,
CJ