阅读经文 

几年前，我住在阿拉巴马，我很享受的事就是说出一个很有用，也很有趣的短语，就是“你们大家”的缩写。这个词在你同时和多人说话时很有用。它也提醒我有关主祷文的一些重要的事。

耶稣的一个门徒说：“求主教导我们祷告”，耶稣便给了他们“主祷文”，作为他们向天父祷告的杰出样板。耶稣的导言说道，（用复数“你们”）“你们（一起）祷告的时候……”尽管主祷文可以是一个非常个人化的祷告，但它主要是耶稣教导门徒们一起做的祷告。

自从初期教会，基督徒就开始用主祷文来敬拜和祷告了。毕竟，耶稣教导了这些话，它们体现了耶稣福音的精粹：创造天地的神爱我们，祂愿意供应我们身体和灵性一切的需要。

当我们单独或集体作这个祷告时，它提醒我们神爱我们，我们不是孤立的，世界各地的基督的身体，都在用不同的语言作着相同的祷告。我们始终在同心记念耶稣的话，颂赞神对我们的爱和看顾。

所以，你们今天祷告的时候，要感谢耶稣赐给我们的这个祷告。

One thing I enjoyed about living in Alabama some years ago was the usefulness and appeal of saying "y'all." This is just a contraction of the phrase "you all," and it works well when you're talking to more than one person at once. It also reminds me of something important about the Lord's Prayer.

When one of his disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray," Jesus gave them the "Lord's Prayer" as a magnificent template for prayer to their Father in heaven. And he introduced it by saying (with the plural form of you), "When you [all] pray…" So even though the Lord's Prayer can be a deeply personal prayer, it's chiefly a prayer that Jesus taught his followers to say together.

Since the earliest days of the church, Christians have used the Lord's Prayer for worship and prayer. After all, Jesus has taught us these words, and they capture the essence of Jesus' gospel: God, the maker of heaven and earth, loves us and wants to provide for our every physical and spiritual need.

When we say these words alone or together, they should remind us that God loves us. They should remind us that we stand not alone but as Christ's body around the world, saying the same prayer in many different languages. And yet, with one voice, we recite Jesus' words and celebrate God's love and care for us always.

So, when y'all pray today, give thanks for this prayer Jesus has given to us.