In Luke 11:1-13 when one of Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, the first words from Jesus were, “When ye (or y’all or yous) pray...” Modern English has lost the word ye and in its absence is the confusing word you which is the same for singular and plural. Some dialects maintain a plural in y’all or yous and other regional variants. Some believe that the use of the plural you before the Our Father indicates that it is to be said as a group prayer and that certainly is a reasonable conclusion. Perhaps that is one reason why the first words are “Our Father” rather than “my Father”. Perhaps if we understood how unifying the prayer is supposed to be we would not see occasional silly arguments over which version of the prayer to use.
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