How should I pray? What exactly should I say? How long should I go on? Such were the questions put to Luther by his barber and lifelong friend, Peter Beskendorf. In response, Luther composed A Simple Way to Pray, in which he showed how the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed can guide prayer. Here is an excerpt of the first two sections of Luther’s 1535 booklet.

Dear Master Peter: I will tell you as best I can what l do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to everybody to do it better than I! Amen.

When I feel that I have become cool and joyless in prayer because of other tasks or thoughts (for the flesh and the Devil always impede and obstruct prayer), I take my little Psalter, hurry to my room, or, if it be the day and hour for it, to the church where a congregation is assembled and, as time permits, I say quietly to myself and word-for-word the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and, if I have time, some words of Christ or of Paul, or some psalms, ...

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