A 04 - Another question passed over texts

. Another question is passed over in these texts: must one pray from the heart or according to a set form?

Neither Luther nor Calvin paid heed to this question which exercises so many of our contemporaries. They insisted that it was necessary and right that a man’s heart should pray; they stressed the sincerity of prayer as opposed to empty words. They knew what free prayer was, but they also knew that in real prayer the fancy cannot roam as it will : there must be discipline.

Jesus Christ not only told us to pray : in the ’Our Father’ he also showed us how to pray, and we should do well to keep to this rule. There must be feeling in prayer, as Calvin says, but feeling must not be an excuse for the mind to wander. The extempore prayers with which Calvin used to end his sermons are remarkable for their stately uniformity; he never indulged in unrestrained outpourings of words. The same elements are always present : adoration of the majesty of God and of the Holy Spirit, but they are not stock phrases. The Reformers were not fluent in prayer and it is doubtful whether they would willingly have spoken of a gift for prayer. What they say is : Pray and pray well; this is what matters. Be content to possess, in the `Our Father’, a model for your prayers, but pray from the free impulse of the heart.