[fidelis]

One thing that’s beautiful about the Our Father is that it is a prayer that all Christians can pray together. There is a tiny minority of Christians that don’t believe Jesus meant for us to pray the prayer word for word (but rather as a kind of template) but that goes against what Jesus told his disciples when he said, “When you pray, say...”

[MurphsLaw]

For sure... they diminish what Jesus says as...
ambiguous. Not good, not good.

What I always wanted to know...
And it piques my interest having read Dr. Bergsma's awesome book
"Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls" which I think is a must read...
But in today's Gospel Jesus is asked to teach the Apostles
How to Pray - "Just as JOHN taught his disciples"
To which Jesus should have said
"Oy vey... what am I ?
Chopped liver?"... bada bing!

But no seriously... this highlights how well regarded and important John the Baptist must have been... aside from the Herod kerfuffle.
And if he did spend some time with the Essenes...
and Christ somehow knew "how" John taught his disciples how to pray...
Then is there a deeper connection than scripture has revealed between Jesus and john - and the Essene community??
Yes, John's disciples would ultimately then follow Christ
but I wonder why the Gospel has John as the go-to for Christ to be asked to emulate John- unworthy to even loosen the sandals of the Lord- for the Prayer that is so central to Christian worship.

think about stuff like this now and again...