Luther on Prayer

When your heart is made warm by prayerful reflection and you are fully present to yourself, kneel down or stand with folded hands, lift up your eyes to heaven, and speak or say quietly to yourself as simply as you can: “Dear God, Heavenly Father, I am a poor, unworthy sinner. I am not worthy to lift up my eyes or hands to you in prayer. But insofar as you have commanded us all to pray, you promised to hear us when we pray, and through your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, have taught us both how and what to pray. At your command I come before you obediently, depending on your loving promise and in the name of My Lord Jesus Christ pray with all your saints or Christians on earth as he taught us, ‘Our Father who art in heaven,’ etc., going on word for word to the conclusion.

After this, repeat a part of this prayer, or as much as you want to. For example, repeat the first petition, “Hallowed be your name,” and say: “Yes, Lord God, dear Father, you do hallow your name in us and in all the world. Pull up and destroy the hatreds, self-worshipping,….”

My purpose is to rouse up and instruct your heart so that you may know what thoughts to hold on to in the Lord’s Payer. When your heart is properly warmed and in a mood for prayer, you may express your inner thoughts with different words and perhaps with fewer words or more. I do not bind myself to such words and phrases, but use one form of words today and another tomorrow according to my need and mood. However, I keep as closely as I can to the same thoughts and meaning. It sometimes occurs to me that I get lost in the rich thoughts of one part or petition and then I let the other six wait. When such rich and good thoughts come, one should let the other prayers rest, give place to these thoughts, listen quietly, and in no way create a hindrance, for the Holy Spirit himself is preaching here, and one word of his preaching is better than a thousand words of our praying. In this manner I have often learned more in one prayer than I have been able to glean from much reading and reflection.…

I shall not explain the Creed or the Scriptures here, for that would be endless. Anyone who is used to it can take the Ten Commandments one day and a psalm or chapter of the Bible the next day and with this fine flint he can strike a fire for his soul. To Master Peter: On Prayer

ed. Jerome Neufelder & Mary Coelho, Writings on Spiritual Direction by Great Christian Masters, (Minneapolis: The Seabury Press, 1982), pp. 150 ff.