In Days 1 and 2 we’ve already begun to dwell on the holiness of God.  Here at the outset of Day 3, though, God’s holiness takes center-stage.  We cry out, “Hallowed be Thy name!”  But do most of us have any idea what “hallowed” even means?  Just this:  holy, revered, set apart.  Words cannot express holiness—it is beyond comprehension, beyond imagination, beyond all words, all thought, all artistic expression.  Down through the centuries, every attempt to express God’s holiness, the most sublime music, poetry, sculpture, literature, all of our human attempts to express it, however uplifting, look pale and haggard in the light of God’s majestic Other-ness.  All of our prayers and reflections before God should begin as we’ve begun in these first few days.  We’re too eager to rush into our laundry list of requests for God to meet for us.  But if we begin here, with the Fatherhood of our holy God who dwells in the heavens, we will come to see our needs, concerns, anxieties and requests in the shadow of His glory.  Then we can lift those to Him with far greater wisdom, clarity and humility that we otherwise would.

As you pray today, notice how your own desire for holiness is heightened when thinking of His.  What does God’s holiness lead you to long for?  How would His holiness, more fully realized among us, transform our view of the world and the way we live in it?

“HALLOWED BE THY NAME”

Lord of All, You are holy.  Nothing that is not holy can dwell in Your presence.  You are the high and holy One.  Your Name, You who called all into being by the power of Your Voice, is higher than every other name.  Your Name is holy.  Your Name, O great Speaker-Into-Being, is that which we, Your created, hardly dare to speak.  You are high above all, holy and separate in all Your deeds, inscrutable in Your ways, mysterious in Your movements, subtle in Your plans, and majestic in Your person.  Every thing owes its existence to You and cries out praise from its very being, through its very being.  All of creation vibrates with the anticipation of fulfillment in You.