“Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name…”
“Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me.” John 17:11
Ever sit and meditate on the Holy Name of God? Our just upon God’s Holiness? There is nothing that is hallowed or holy nor anything we can do to sanctify anything in holiness, including ourselves. But, the Holiness of God is such that, through our baptism, we are surrounded with the mighty fortress of this Holiness.
God is Holy, He is Holiness itself. One drop of His Holy Blood is powerful enough to sanctify all of creation.
Jesus prays His last prayers for us to be protected by this very Holiness, the Holy Name of God. The Father sanctified the Holy Name of His Son, Jesus, above every name.
“Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name” Philippians 2:9
By the very Holy Name of Hod and His Holy nature, we are protected.
I can attest to this Holy armor of God. He had surrounded me all the decades I ran from Him and lived a life of sin. By His pure love and mercy for me, His Holiness built a fortress around me to shield me from the arrows of the evil one to which I was opening myself. God’s Holiness protected me from falling into hell more times than I can count in this post.
“Holy God, we praise Thy Name”
Let the Holy Name of Jesus and the Holy nature of God be your shield and fortress. Let this petition of the Lord’s Prayer calls God’s Hallowed Name down upon your soul to change your life for Him.
“In the waters of Baptism, we have been “washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since “he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification,” both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition. By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows? But since he said, “You shall be holy to me; for I the LORD am holy,” we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, so that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually. . . . We pray that this sanctification may remain in us (St. Cyprian)” Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2813
“This petition embodies all the others. Like the six petitions that follow, it is fulfilled by the prayer of Christ. Prayer to our Father is our prayer, if it is prayed in the name of Jesus. In his priestly prayer, Jesus asks: “Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me.”” Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2815