Martin Luther had a barber by the name of Peter Beskendorf. One can imagine that it was when Master Peter was giving Dr Luther a shave when he took the liberty to ask,
By the way, Dr. Luther, how do you pray?
It usually is a bad idea to start going into a lecture when someone has a razor near your throat so Luther decided that perhaps a letter would be more appropriate. And this 40 page letter is now known in posterity as the treatise, “A Simple Way to Pray” (download), first published in 1535.
The excerpts from the letter reproduced below will give us an insight into Luther’s own spiritual practices and personal spiritual life:
A good, clever barber must have his thoughts, mind and eyes concentrated upon the razor and the beard and not forget where he is in his stroke and shave. If he keeps talking or looking around or thinking of something else, he is likely to cut a man’s mouth or nose - or even his throat.
So anything that is to be done well ought to occupy the whole man with all his faculties and members. As the saying goes:
He who thinks of many things thinks of nothing and accomplishes no good.
How much more must prayer possess the heart exclusively and completely if it is to be a good prayer!
Nonetheless, we see that Luther was also very human, having the same distractions that many of us would have:
It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in the morning and the last in the evening. Guard yourself against such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering:
Wait a while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or that.
Thinking such thoughts we get away from prayer into other things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the day comes to nothing. We have to watch out so that we may not get weaned from prayer by fooling ourselves that a certain job is more urgent, which it really isn’t - and finally we get sluggish, lazy, cold and weary. But the devil is neither sluggish nor lazy around us.
And now Luther moves on:
Kneel down or stand up with folded hands and eyes towards heaven .. speak or think as briefly as you can
And now he starts his prayer .. by praying the 10 Commandments! Not that he just sounds them off mindlessly one by one - a practice that he would have dismissed as empty phrases or babbling (in his own words, zerklappern, or rattling something into pieces).
Instead he proposes that only one Commandment at a time be reflected and prayed upon:
.. in order that my mind becomes as uncluttered as possible for prayer ..
His shares with his barber his personal method of reflection:
Out of each commandment I make a garland of four twisted strands. That is, I take each commandment ..
- First as a teaching,
- Secondly, a reason for thanksgiving
- Thirdly, a confession
- Fourthly, a prayer petition
Luther was of course nice enough to provide examples for every Commandment! Here’s one from the 7th Commandment, “You shall not steal”:
First I learn here that I shall not take my neighbour’s property nor possess it against his will, neither secretly nor openly; that I shall not be unfaithful or false in my bargaining, my service and work lest what I gain should belong to me only as a thief; but I shall earn my food with the sweat of my brow and shall eat my own bread with all those who are faithful.
At the same time I shall help my neighbor so that his property is not taken away from him through such actions as mentioned above ..
Secondly, I thank God for his faithfulness and goodness in that He has given me and all the world such a good teaching and through it protection and shelter. For unless He protects us, not one penny nor one bite of bread would remain in the house.
Thirdly, I confess my sin and ungratefulness, there where I have wronged someone and cheated him or where during my life, I was unfaithful in keeping my word.
Fourthly, I ask that God may give grace so that I and all the world might learn His commandment and think about it and improve. I pray that there may be less stealing, robbing, exploiting, embezzling and injustice. I also pray that such evils may soon end when the day of judgment comes.
Luther suggests the same method for reflecting on The Lord’s Prayer after one’s reflection on the Commandments and even the Apostle’s Creed when one has “the time and leisure“. He, however, does get realistic and shares:
It often happens that my thoughts go for a walk in one petition of the Lord’s Prayer and then I let all other six petitions go. When such rich good thoughts come, one should let the other prayers go and give room to these thoughts, listen to them in silence and by no means suppress them.
For here the Holy Spirit himself is preaching and one word of His sermon is better than thousands of our own prayers. Therefore I have often learned more in one prayer than I could have obtained from much reading and thinking.
Luther finally warns his barber:
Don’t take too much upon yourself lest the spirit should get tired .. It is sufficient to grasp one part of a Bible verse or even half a part from which you can strike a spark in your heart .. for the soul, if it is directed towards one single thing, may it be bad or good, and if it is really serious about it, can think more in one moment than the tongue can speak in ten hours and the pen can write in ten days. Such a dexterous, exquisite and mighty instrument is the soul or spirit.
So to put it all in a nutshell:
- The Warm Up
the intentional focusing of one’s thoughts and intention to encountering God in prayer - Reflection
start by reflecting on a passage of Scripture, or one of the Commandments, or one of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, etc - Thanksgiving
what do I have to be thankful about? - Confession
what do I regret, whether it is something I have said, thought, or done, or perhaps left unsaid, unthought and undone? - Petition
what should I ask God for, both for myself and for others? - Action
how can I put what I have learnt or experienced from my prayer into action to make a difference in my own life and in the life of others?
When prayer transforms from speaking to being silent, and from being silent to listening, the voice of God will come through.
