Held during Cross Week (end of May) 1519.
First, for a prayer to be good and heard, two things are necessary: The first is that one has a promise from God and first considers it, reminds God of it, and thereby awakens to ask comfortingly. For if God had not promised to ask and to hear, all creatures would not be able to obtain a grain with all their asking.
(2) From this it follows that no one obtains anything from God on account of his own worthiness or that of his prayer, but only from the abyss of divine goodness, who anticipates all requests and desires by his gracious promises, and moves us to ask and desire, so that we may learn how much more he cares for us and is more willing to give than we are to receive and seek, and thus become bold to ask comfortingly, since he gives more than we can ask.
Secondly, it is necessary not to doubt the promise of the true and faithful God. For this is the very reason why he has promised to answer, yes, to pray.
I tell you, whatever you ask in your prayers, believe that you will receive it, and it will be given to you"; and Luke 11:9 ff: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For he that asketh receiveth; he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Where among you does a son ask his father for bread, and he offers him a stone for it? or if he asks for a fish, and he offers him a snake for it? or if he asks for an egg, and he offers him a scorpion for it? So then you who are bad can give good gifts to your children; much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him." On this and such a promise and command one must comfortably dare and ask with right confidence.
(4) Thirdly, if anyone asks in such a way that he doubts the answer of God, and only
who sets his prayer on adventure, be it or not, does two evil things. The first is that he himself destroys his prayer and works in vain; for thus says St. James in his epistle, Cap. 1:5-7: "If anyone wishes to ask anything of God, let him ask in faith and do not doubt. For he who doubts is like the wave of the sea that is driven and wafted by the wind. Such a man does not think that he will receive anything from the Lord." This is what he means, that a man's heart does not keep still; therefore God cannot give him anything. But faith keeps the heart still and makes it receptive to divine gifts.
The other evil thing is that he considers his most faithful and true God to be a liar and a loose, uncertain man, as one who may not or will not live up to his promises, and thus by his doubt robs God of honor and the name of faithfulness and truth. In this is sinned so grievously that also by the same sin a Christian becomes a heathen, and denies and loses his own God, and, if he remains in it, must be eternally damned without all consolation. But if anything is given him that he asks, it is not given to him for salvation, but for harm, temporally and eternally: not for the sake of prayer, but out of the wrath of God, to reward the good words spoken in sins and unbelief and godly dishonor.
(6) To the fourth, some say: Yes, I would trust that my prayer would be heard if I were worthy and made it well. Answer: If thou wilt not pray sooner, because thou knowest or feelest thyself worthy and skillful, thou needest never pray. For, as was said before, our prayer must not be based on our or his worthiness, but on the unchangeable truth of divine promise. And if it is based on itself or something else, it is false and deceives you, even if it breaks your heart with great devotion and weeps drops of blood.
7 For this we ask, that we are not worthy to ask, and by this very fact we are worthy to ask, and are heard, because we think we are unworthy, and on the faithfulness of God alone we are comforted.
gen. However unworthy you may be, look at it, and with all your heart realize that a thousand times more, yes, everything depends on you honoring God's truth and not making a lie of His faithful promise in your doubt. For your worthiness does not help you; your unworthiness does not hinder you; but disbelief condemns you, and confidence dignifies and keeps you.
8. Therefore beware all your life that you never consider yourself worthy or skilled to ask or to receive; unless you find yourself a free venturer on the true and certain promise of your gracious God, who wants to reveal his mercy to you in such a way that at the same time, just as he has promised you unworthy, undeserving people an unasked answer out of pure grace, so he also wants to hear you, an unworthy supplicant, out of pure grace, in honor of his truth and promise; That thou mayest give thanks, not to thy worthiness, but to his truth, that he may fulfill the promise, and to his mercy, that he may fulfill the promise; that the saying of the 25th Psalm may stand. Psalm, v. 10: "All God's works are mercy and truth": mercy in the promise, truth in the fulfillment and fulfillment of the promise; item, Ps. 85, 11: "Mercy and truth kiss each other"; that is, they come together in every work and gift that we ask for etc.
(9) Fifthly, in this trust one should keep himself so that he does not set a goal for God, determine the day or place, nor set the manner or measure of his answer; but leaves everything to his will, wisdom and omnipotence, and only waits freshly and cheerfully for the answer. But not wanting to know how and where, how soon, how long, by which? For his divine wisdom will abundantly find better way and measure, time and place, than we may think, and should also miraculous signs happen.
(10) As in the Old Testament, Exodus 14, when the children of Israel trusted God to deliver them, yet there was no possible way before their eyes, nor in all their thoughts; then the Red Sea opened up and gave them a way through, and drowned all their enemies at once. Thus Judith, Cap. 8,
The holy woman, when she heard that the citizens of Bethulia wanted to surrender the city in five days, if God did not help them, punished them and said, v. 10, 11: "Who are you to tempt God? This does not serve to gain mercy, but rather wrath and disfavor. Will ye appoint unto the Lord the time and day of your pleasing, when he shall help?" Therefore God also helped her wonderfully, so that she cut off the head of the great Holofernes and the enemies were thus driven away. St. Paul also says, Eph. 3, 20: "God's ability is such that He does more abundantly and better than we ask or understand. For this reason, we should consider ourselves too small to name, describe, or state the time, place, manner, measure, and other circumstances of what we ask of God, but leave everything to Him and firmly believe that He will hear us.
(11) Now, sixthly, we are to learn to keep ourselves right in this week of the cross and in all litanies and processions, so that each one may make it a litany and a petition according to his name, and ask God with a right earnest faith by admonition of His divine merciful promise. And whoever does not want to do this, let him stay at home and leave the procession alone, so that God is not angered more by them than by others.
When now, unfortunately, such a blasphemous abuse has become of the processions, that one only wants to see and be seen in the procession, to engage in vain gossip and ridicule, I will not mention greater pieces and sins. In addition, the village processions have become mad at first, since they are so busy with drinking and in the taverns, with the crosses and flags, that it would be no wonder that God would let us perish in a year. And at last we have come to the point that there are greater reasons for completely discontinuing all processions in part, and the holidays in addition, than there have ever been for instituting them.
The bishops and secular authorities should see to it that such abuses are stopped or that processions are completely abolished. It would be much better to assemble in the church.
prayed and sung, because with such insolence God and his holy signs are mocked. And the overlords, spiritual and secular, will have to give a heavy account, who tolerate such abuse or, if they do not like to change the abuse, do not completely stop the procession. It is much better to have no procession than such a procession.
Fourteenth, the seventh: We should pray for two things during the Procession and the Week of the Cross. First, that God may graciously protect the fruits of the field and purify the air; not only that God may give blessed rain and thunderstorms, so that the fruits may grow well, but rather that they may not be poisoned, and that we may eat and drink from them with our livestock, the pestilence, the French, fevers and other diseases. For thus saith St. Paul, 1 Tim. 4:4, that creatures are blessed and sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. For where do pestilence and other plagues come from, except that the evil spirits poison the air and then the fruit, wine and grain, and so by God's decree we eat and drink death and plagues on our own goods? For this reason the gospels are read publicly in the field and in the air, so that by the power of the holy word of God the devils in the air will be weakened and the air will be kept pure, and so the fruits will grow healthy and blessed for us. Therefore, one should act and listen to the procession, and especially the word of God, with serious devotion and all honors - if one ever wants to hold a procession for the sake of the weak - with firm faith that the word of God will exercise its power on the fruits and the air against all the princes of the air, that is, the devils who dwell in the air, as St. Paul says, Eph. 6, 12.
(15) In the eighth place, we should pray much more that God would give us the creatures, not only for the benefit of the body, as has been said, but also for the benefit of the soul, so that the poor soul will not suffer pestilence and all the plagues of it. This is what I mean: the pestilence and plague of the soul is sin. Now when God gives enough in the field, we see how these gifts prosper us. There we get drunk every day".
There is idleness, followed by unchastity, adultery, cursing, swearing, murder, wars and all kinds of misfortune, so that it would be better if the fruits had not been so well grown. Then we find what we asked for in the procession; God gives us enough and lets it all be blessed for the body, but for the soul it is all deadly poison and for the increase of horrible sin. For to be full and to go idle is the greatest plague on earth, since all other plagues come from it. But no one pays attention to this pestilence: we flee from the physical pestilence, beg and labor with all medicines; we go freely into this spiritual pestilence, and therefore desire to have enough and to be free from the physical pestilence, so that we may only feed ourselves in this pestilence and plague. And God, who now sees and knows the heart, sends such contempt of this plague into us, closes the eyes also, and lets it go on and on; gives enough, blinds and sinks us so deeply into our sins, until sins become habitual and evil customs, no longer considered sin.
16. Therefore, although in our times it would be necessary to go on procession every day with all mortification of the body against such a terrible flood of all kinds of sins, especially in these lands, of gluttony, drunkenness, idleness, and what follows from this, that God would give us grace to use His gifts for the blessedness of the soul and the improvement of our lives, and thus the fruits would become a cause to keep and increase the health of the body and the soul; God blinds and disgraces us so terribly that we have no regard for it and use God's gifts for the pleasure of the body and the eternal destruction of the soul. And in addition, so that such things are not improved, but rather increased, they give us a wrong sense, so that we also destroy the procession and days of prayer with sins. Thus God is angry, and there is no one who resists His wrath, because the prayer and procession that should resist also increase the wrath. May God help us all to come back to Himself and to abjure His wrath with right faith, amen.