A Simple Way to Pray

Here is the text of a brief treatise Martin Luther wrote on prayer. His barber Peter had asked Luther for advice on how to pray, and this was his response. Luther recommends taking a portion of Scripture such as the Ten Commandments or a Psalm, or the Creed or the Lord’s Prayer, and making of it a “garland” of four strands: to pray the words as a teaching, a thanksgiving, a confession, and a petition.

It is, of course, full of the inimitable Luther style:

Then repeat one part or as much as you wish, perhaps the first petition: “Hallowed be thy name,” and say: “Yes, Lord God, dear Father, hallowed be thy name, both in us and throughout the whole world. Destroy and root out the abominations, idolatry, and heresy of the Turk, the pope, and all false teachers and fanatics who wrongly use thy name and in scandalous ways take it in vain and horribly blaspheme it.”