Luther’s prayer during the controversy over the Lord’s Supper.
My dear Lord Jesus Christ, an argument arose about Your words at the Last Supper. Some people said, that they should be understood otherwise than what they read. But because they taught me nothing of certainty, but rather only made one confused and uncertain . . . so I have remained by Your text, as the words read. If there is something mysterious in this, then You have wanted it to be mysterious, because You have given no other explanation about this, nor commanded one to be given . . . if there be a mystery in this, then You will excuse me for not grasping it, as You excused Your apostles, when they did not understand You at many points, as You spoke of Your suffering and resurrection, and they took the words as they were and did nothing else with them. And as also Your dear mother did not understand, when You said to her (Luke 2): I must be in that which is My father’s, and she simply kept the words in her heart and did not make them into anything else. Therefore I have remained by these, Your words: this is My body, etc. and have not wanted to make for myself anything different out of them, nor have allowed such to be made, but rather have commended them to You and have deposited them with You, even if something mysterious be in them, and have kept them as they read, especially because I do not find that they work against any article of faith. See, no fanatic [Schwärmer] will be allowed to speak this way with Christ . . . [WA 26,446f.; LW 37.306; Aland no. 2].
