Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think that the whole of Christendom, all devout Christians, are standing there beside you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition, which God cannot disdain.” Luther, AE 43:198
That's a great quote.
ReplyDeleteBut, Luther forgot to mention that this is true *only* if one is using Matins, preferably from The Lutheran Hymnal, with Jacobian English intact, ditto for chanting Psalms in King James.
Right?
; )
[Reports continue to come in from seminary friends indicating there are students putting forward such notions: that the only truly appropriate order for daily prayer is Matins, in TLH-ese, ditto for Psalms. Let's help our aspiring pastor friends rid themselves of such silliness].
I just read this wonderful quote on the Amen yesterday and was looking for an opportunity to add it to my blog. Ashamed to admit I've never read Luther's instructions to Peter until this week.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI haven't the foggiest notion what you are talking about.
Jim,
Great stuff in those instructions!
Will, I was shocked when I heard it for the first time. Apparently there are a cadre of students running around declaring that Psalms to be insufficiently prayed unless they are prayed using the KJV, that using any order other than Matins/Vespers is not really "praying with the Church" and the assorted silliness continues along these lines.
ReplyDeleteIf it were true that you had to use Matins from TLH and had to chant the Psalms in Jacobean English for your prayer to be part of the Prayer of the Church, then Luther himself would have been left out of the picture, because he spoke German and TLH didn't exist yet. For that matter, all of the Church prior to the time of Jacobean English and TLH would have been left out of the picture. What Festus said to St. Paul would apply more to these seminarians: "Thou art beside thyself; Much learning doth make thee mad" (Acts 26:24).
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite Luther quotes. You left off, though, what I like the most. Luther's comment is about the significance of saying the Amen and the certainty of our prayers.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Paul, I just purchased a KJV Psalter last week. Maybe there's something in the air.
Carl, congratulations on the KJV Psalter. Now God will really listen to you when you pray the Psalms, just make sure you use Matins, and hopefully in Jacobian English, so you will truly be "praying with the Church."
ReplyDelete: )
I think it makes a difference in what sense one means "praying with the church". The church as in the communion of all the faithful both here and in heaven, or the church as in participation in its public liturgy, the divine service and the divine office.
ReplyDeleteThe latter always participates in the former, but if it is not public it loses something of its nature. One would pray the public prayer of the church privately when the public is not available, which in a round of prayer that is several times a day will certainly happen more than the divine service, unless one joins a community for that purpose (which I do not recommend).
Otherwise it is like reading a "setting" of the divine service at home, rather than going to one.