Should the words to prayers said in private be changed to fit the company? Why do we pray "Our Father who art in Heaven" and "Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death".  

Should we instead pray My Father and "Pray for me, a sinner now and at the hour of my death"?  Or is there a reason to always use the same words in those prayers? 

I know there is some conflict in the Nicene creed where both I believe and We believe is used, but specifically in prayers, and not creeds, what is the reason for using the plural pronoun when you're the only person in the room, does this have something to do with the communion of saints or is it just convention?
Don't get hung up on words; prayer should come from the heart.



I believe that prayer needs to originate from the heart.  Because of that, we shouldn't get hung up on words.  I believe that rote prayers and repeated prayers can be just as effective and just as "heard by God" as prayers that are unscripted.  It's about the state of your heart whether God hears you.

Because of that, I don't think that words in and of themselves should be the primary concern of prayer.  Clearly, you need the words to communicate what's in your heart ("Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks" and all that), but it's more about the state of your heart than the singularity/plurality of the words.

My advice is this:

If the prayer feels awkward to you, change it.  Use the words that are most comfortable to you.  The worst thing you can do is to use words that distract you from the prayer of your heart.