Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The name of God the Father has never been disclosed to anyone. Even Moses, who had inquired after it, was given a different one. But for us that name has been laid open in the Son. For what son is not the name of his father? "I have come," he says, "in the name of the Father," and again, "Father, glorify your name," and more plainly still: "I have made your name manifest to men." [2] We ask, then, that this name be hallowed — not because it would be appropriate for us to wish God well, as though on behalf of some other party, or as though he would go lacking anything unless we did the wishing; obviously it is fitting that God be praised in every place and at every moment, given the debt of gratitude every human owes for his benefits — but this petition, too, functions as a form of praise. [3] Besides, when is God's name ever not holy, and hallowed in its own right, seeing that he sanctifies everything else out of himself? To him that ring of surrounding angels never ceases to say, "Holy, holy, holy!" So then we too, if we bear in mind that we are candidates for the company of angels, are already learning here and now that heavenly cry directed to God, and the office we shall discharge in that future glory. [4] So much for what touches on God's own glory. Yet as regards what we ourselves are asking, in saying HALLOWED BE THY NAME, we request that it be hallowed within us, who are in him, and at the same time in the rest, for whom God's grace still waits — so that we too may obey this commandment by praying for everyone, even for our enemies. And that is why, leaving the wording open, instead of saying "hallowed in us" we say "in all."