Daily Meditation: Friday, September 23, 2005

‘Hallowed be your name’ - commentary

09/23/2005

When Christians recite the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name’, do they understand what it means to sanctify the name of God? Sanctification is connected to the world of thought. It is in our thoughts first of all that we must sanctify the name of God. A name represents, summarizes and contains the entity who bears it. Therefore, when we pronounce the name of God, we call on him, we allow him to penetrate us, we render him present in us. According to the Cabbalah, the name of God is manifold; it is comprised of 72 names, and to know them requires a very long and difficult study. One who knows these 72 names is so impregnated with the holiness and light of God that simply by pronouncing these names he is able to attract God, to bring him down into everything, and to sanctify things, all creatures, all living things. Initiates are not content merely to recite: ‘Hallowed be your name’. They truly sanctify his name in themselves.