Quotes about Prayer

The only way to understand the Psalms is on your knees, the whole congregation praying the words of the Psalms with all its strength.

Singing together [das gemeinsame Lied] joins the praying of the Psalms and the reading of the Scriptures. In this, the voice of the church is heard in praise, thanksgiving, and intercession.

Prayer means nothing else but the readiness to appropriate the Word, and what is more, to let it speak to me in my personal situation, in my particular tasks, decisions, sins, and temptations.

And we can pray only when we realize that we cannot do anything, that we have reached our limit, that someone else must make that new beginning.

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.

So look to Christ when you are afraid, think of Christ, keep him before your eyes, call upon Christ and pray to him, believe that he is with you now, helping you... Then fear will grow pale and fade away, and you will be free, through your faith in our strong and living Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Psalter occupies a unique place in the Holy Scriptures. It is God's Word and, with few exceptions, the prayer of men as well. How are we to understand this? How can God's Word be at the same time prayer to God?

Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty. No man can do that by himself. For that he needs Jesus Christ.

Even the most personal prayer no longer belongs to the individual, but to the church that gave birth to this person and through which this individual lives.

God is not with the stronger battalions but with the small host of the praying, watchful congregation. God's strength is powerful in the weak.

The morning prayer determines the day. Squandered time of which we are ashamed, temptations to which we succumb, weaknesses and lack of courage in work, disorganization and lack of discipline in our thoughts and in our conversation... all have their origin most often in the neglect of morning prayer.

What does it mean to love God? Loving God means giving him everything that belongs to me; it means wishing nothing for myself; it means asking his will before everything you do; it means gladly thinking about him, praying to him, gladly hearing and reading his word.