Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. The Aramaic language was spoken and written throughout the Ancient Middle East. There was never any Aramaic script, they just wrote it in the script of other languages. The Phoenician script, which was also adapted for Hebrew suited this purpose very well. And so Aramaic came, by the time of the Lord, to be written in what is known by “Hebrew characters.” When Christianity spread around the Mediterranean, the Aramaic language was affixed in script and grammar in the city of Edessa, (modern Turkey) and it became known by “Syriac”: the language of the Christians who are west of the Euphrates river, in opposition to the Assyrian, spoken on the East. Syriac and Aramaic were the same language. Only with time did the two start to diverge in dialect. But even so, they are still clearly very close and practically identical.

Syriac is not a language we speak today and there is no reason to learn it except for reasons of faith. Syriac attracts a careful attention to the fact of praying. We need to make an effort to pray the Lord’s prayer in the language He spoke and this language is the official and liturgical language of our Syriac Antiochian Maronite Church.

Praying the Lord’s prayer in Syriac is not  hard but neither is easy to pick up. To learn the Aboon Dbashmayo, we have to have the desire. This is the reason why it is a special way of praying, it is a sign of desire of unity with Our Blessed Lord. With the Aboon Dbashmayo there is only one person you can speak to: God. There is only one place you can visit: His Presence.

We are the Maronite Church, bearer of the Syriac language, the summit of which is what the Lord Himself spoke and taught saying:
“This is how you are to pray: Aboon Dbashmayo Netqadash shmokh…” Matthew 6:9.

When we will one day, God willing, meet the Lord, He will be speaking Syriac with us! We might as well know by heart what He has taught us to pray in His mother language!