Why is the first supplication to the Lord: “Hallowed be thy name”?

The answer

St. John Chrysostom says, “Worthy of him who calls God Father, is the prayer to ask nothing before the glory of His Father, but to account all things secondary to the work of praising Him. For ‘hallowed’ is glorified.”¹⁷⁹

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “The Name of God is in its nature holy, whether we say so or not; but since it is sometimes profaned among sinners, according to the words, ‘Through you My Name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles’ (Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24), we pray that in us God’s Name may be hallowed; not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy in us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness.”¹⁸⁰

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty