our father
We say OUR Father, who art in heaven, not MY Father.
Jesus says first: go into your inner room, shut the door, and get hold of a lifeline in your spirit that will connect you to the Father and then pray for US, not just YOU. You are not going to heaven on your own.
OUR Father who art in heaven…
Give us
Forgive us
Don’t lead us
Deliver us
The Father is ours, not mine. He does not favor some and forget the others. We are all loved uniquely.
“Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not My Father, which art in heaven, nor Give me this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. The God of peace and the Teacher of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should thus pray for all, even as He Himself bore us all in one.”” - Saint Cyprian of Carthage, 3rd century