You cannot pray in the singular

Jesus did not teach us to pray "My Father," but "Our Father." From the first word, prayer takes you out of yourself. You do not pray like someone asking only for his own corner, but as someone who knows he belongs to an enormous family. That has consequences. It is hard to say "Our Father" from the heart while you hold a grudge against a brother, ignore the person next to you, or live self-absorbed. True prayer pushes you to reconcile, not to withdraw. And it broadens your gaze: if God is Father of all, the difficult person, the one who thinks differently, and the stranger are also family. Praying like this makes you less individualistic and more capable of loving.