Martin Luther on Adoration of the Sacrament

Note: Throughout the month of October, leading up to the 500^th anniversary of the legendary date of the outbreak of the Reformation on October 31, 1517, Pray Tell is publishing writings of Martin Luther reflecting his beliefs on liturgy and sacraments at various points in his life.

[A] man is free to adore or invoke Christ in the sacrament, and he who does not adore Him commits no sin, neither does he commit sin who adores Him. . . . Where faith and love are present there can be no sin either in adoring or in not adoring Christ in the sacrament; . . . For faith adores Christ, because it sets before it only Him whose body and blood it doubts not to be present. . . . For no one denies—not even the Brethren, I take it— that the body and blood of Christ, who is the object of adoration, are present, . . .

(Letter to Paul Speratus, 13 June 1522; in Luther’s Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, Vol. II: 1521-1530; translated and edited by Preserved Smith and Charles M. Jacobs; Philadelphia: The Lutheran Publication Society: 1918. Featured image: Lukas Cranach the Elder, altar piece, Wittenberg, 16th century.)