The petition, "Hallowed by Thy Name," is a prayer offered for the whole world. In it we implore the mercy of God on all the idolaters and heathens who in their ignorance dishonor God's Holy Name by giving to some idol or some false god the honor due to God alone. They are to be counted by millions. How miserable their condition, brought up as they are to believe in the grossest superstition and in the darkness of Paganism. How are they to believe unless the Gospel is preached to them? Do I ever pray for the heathen, and do I contribute according to my ability that missionaries might be sent to preach to them?

Beside the heathen, the followers of the false prophet, the Jews, and the worshippers of Buddha, how many millions there are of those who call themselves Christians, and yet do not hallow God's Holy Name. All the manifold sects of Protestants, the schismatic Greek Church, Anglicans, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, all dishonor God by holding aloof from the Church that He has founded, and by a careless indifference to Divine truth. For all of these we pray in this petition. We ought to feel real sorrow at the thought of all these wanderers, and to lose no opportunity of helping them to find the truth.

Even among Catholics, how few hallow God's Name as they ought. How many neglect prayer, and Holy Mass, and the Sacraments, and live almost like heathens. How sad the spectacle of so many thousands who have been nursed in the bosom of Holy Church, and yet dishonor God by their evil lives. Oh, what need there is to pray, "Hallowed by Thy Name."