Following the address, the prayer features several petitions. A petition in prayer is simply a request, and here we must be careful. What are proper things to ask God for, and what are improper? We must resist treating prayer as if we were on the lap of the department store Santa, giving him our Christmas wish list. As one author has said, “God is not a cosmic catalogue, and prayer is not placing an order.” The first petition Jesus mentions is hallowed be your name. The word hallowed is an older