In cultures throughout the world there exists both a formal and an informal means of personal pronouns. In other words, a formal and informal way of speaking when addressing an individual via the degree of familiarity you enjoy. This is certainly true in Greek, Russian, Polish (and most Slavic tongues), Spanish, French, and many other languages, including Old English.
If you will recall from period movies and novels (think Shakespeare), Old English would often use “You” and “Your” while addressing someone in a formal setting or towards a personage of rank (royalty, nobles, governing magistrates, etc), as in “Your Majesty”> or “Your Lordship.” The informal way of addressing friends and acquaintances was with “thee” and “thou,” as in, “Art thou going to the joisting match on the morrow?”
When our Lord walked the earth, He restored to us the ability to “know” God in a very intimate, personal, almost informal means, as opposed to the austere or distant relationship man ultimately created. This, then, also carried over in how we addressed God in our speech and prayer life. In fact, one of the greatest stumbling blocks for many Jews was this new-found familiarity with God, which was also one of the reasons why they wanted to stone Christ after He called God “Abba,” an informal term of endearment meaning “daddy” or “papa!”
Even though our society no longer differentiates between formal and informal pronouns, I think it is still important that the Church – as the actual keeper of tradition and liturgical language – maintains this particular concept as a constant reminder of the close, personal relationship we enjoy with God; much the same as we continue using the Aramaic terms “Amen!” (meaning “Let it be”) and “Alleluia!” (meaning “Praise the Lord”).
