Christians should be instructed to approach it (The Lord’s Supper) with joy, confident and comforted, saying, I am a poor sinner, I need help and comfort, I wish to attend the Lord’s Supper, and take nourishment from the Body and Blood of my dear Lord Jesus Christ. For he instituted this Sacrament so that all hungry and thirsty souls might be nourished and refreshed. He will not reproach me, much less hold me back, if I but come in his name to receive his help and comfort.
But should we Christians trouble ourselves continually to repeat the remembrance of the deliverance Christ wrought for us from sin, death, devil, and hell? Are you among those who say, I have heard it all before; why must I heart it again? If so, your heart has become dull, satiated, and shameless, and this food does not taste good to you. This is the same thing that happened to the Jews in the wilderness when they grew tired of eating manna. But if you are a Christian, you will never grow weary, but will long to hear this message often and to speak about it forever.
If you abandon God’s Word and prayer, and yet feel that you will continue to pray, your soul will lose power and ardor. For this reason we should not look at God’s Word in this light, that, once we have heard it, we don’t need it anymore. Even apart from that, it can easily happen that one gets himself involved in some other activity that causes him to forget all about the Word. Therefore, we should daily take recourse to the word. If you do not do this, the danger is there that you will become so cold and laid back that ultimately you feel nothing anymore and you do not partake of the Sacrament for several years.
Martin Luther
