Dear Friends in Christ,

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,” Ephesians 1:17

Martin Luther: A Brief Word on Prayer

In 1535, Peter Beskendorf, a Wittenberg barber and friend, asked Martin Luther to teach him to pray. Luther responded with a letter entitled,

A Simple Way to Pray for Peter, the Master Barber.

In this letter Dr. Luther describes his own personal practice of prayer.

At the end of his explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, Luther offers these words,

“Therefore, it’s very clear that if a person is going to do something well, it requires him to focus and concentrate, as the old saying goes: pluribus intentus minor est ad singular sensus, that is, “a person engaged in many pursuits, does none of them well.” So, if this is true about other things in our life, how much more does prayer require the heart to be completely focused if it is to pray a good prayer.”