Lylak

Thanksgiving

My kids at work are excited about our meal tomorrow! As I tucked them into bed, one boy asked what we will have to drink. I wasn't sure and didn't want to disappoint him, so I said, "Maybe milk like usual." But afterward I talked with a coworker and we decided we'll have apple cider and hot chocolate :-)

Luther Quotes (about Katharina)

“My wife can coax me as often as she wants; she has the entire dominion in her hand, and I yield to it.”

“I don’t worry about debts because when Katie pays one another comes.”

To someone seeking room and board: “The Table is full and I cannot expel any of the other guests. But if a vacancy occurs, I will gladly notify you, . . . if Lord Kate will then give me her gracious permission.”

“I clearly sense that the Day of the Lord is near . . . Meanwhile, I eat and drink, read Scripture, happily sleep with my Katharina, and pray.”

“Some young brides like to ask their husbands unimportant questions, no matter how busy he may be. When we were first married, Kate used to sit right next to me. One time when I was studying and she was spinning, Kate asked, “Is the grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia the brother of the Margrave?”

“To have grace and peace in marriage is a gift second only to the knowledge of the Gospel. Kate, you have a god-fearing man who loves you. You are an empress; realize it and thank God for it.”

“I am rich. My God has given me a nun and three little children.”

“I would not trade my Kate for France and Venice.”

“My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus.”

“Martinchen [their son], nursing peacefully on Kate’s breast, does not care if the pope, bishops, Duke George, King Ferdinand , and all the devils hate him.”

“I often lie next to my Kathen, truly a woman worthy to be loved, when I am worried and fearful and bathed in cold sweat.”

“God has given her to me and me to her.”

“The Letter to the Galatians is my beloved epistle; I trust it. It is my Kate von Bora.”

Letters to Kate

Luther traveled for months at a time and wrote frequent letters to his wife, addressing her as “My most beloved Lady of the House,” “My sweetheart Kate” “My True Love,” and, of course, the frequent “Lord Kate.”

In his letters, he liked to nettle Kate.
“Now I am in good condition, except that the beautiful women are giving me a hard time, but I am neither worried nor afraid of any unchastity.”

He put her on the pastoral search committee.
“You are a wise woman, a doctor . . . I have already indicated three candidates to Dr. Pommer . . . but you are prudent and will make a better choice.”

He put her in charge of supervising the printing and distribution of his writings.
“I sent [the printers] the manuscripts for the simple reason of having them done quickly, but they are making dried fruit out of them. If I wanted to have them stored, I could have found a place around here to keep them. I have mentioned to you in my letter that you should have the sermon returned from Schirlenz (if he has not yet started it) and brought to George Rau . . . See to it that it be done as soon as possible and the printing of the sermon be accomplished most effectively.”

He put her in charge of home construction projects.
“My thought is that you should have the windows in the new roof repaired and the walkway to the dark rooms rebuilt so the light from the roof illuminates it.”

He called her "Damsel Kate, gracious Lady of Zülsdorf."
"I want, obediently, to let Your Grace know that I am in good health here: I gobble up food like a Bohemian and guzzle like a German . . ."

He yearned for letters in reply.
"I have received the children’s letters, including the one from the baccalaureus [Hans, their eldest, had just received his first academic degree, the baccalaureate], but from Your Grace I have not received anything. God grant that you will now, at least this one time, answer my fourth letter with your gracious hand . . ."


In his early letters, he signed them “Doctor Martin Luther” but by the end he was signing them “M.L., your old lover.”

Martin Luther

I've been reading biographies lately, and was so amazed with Luther's story, that I wanted to gather some of what I read and write my own summary of his life.

Hans Luther, Martin’s father, was born a peasant but through hard work became a fairly affluent citizen of Mansfeld. He spent a good deal of money sending Martin to the top universities in Germany. Then, at age 21, Martin abruptly dropped out of law school to become a monk. Hans Luther, shocked and dismayed, said "God grant that it was not a trick of the devil." Still, he came to his son's first Communion service and donated $2000 to the cloister.

While in the monastery, Martin became a priest and such a popular preacher that his church was overflowing. He earned his doctorate and was made supervisor of 11 Augustinian monasteries. In studying Romans, Martin began to teach his university students that salvation comes from faith in Jesus Christ.

On October 31, 1517, he posted 95 theses for debate on the Wittenberg church door, questioning the sale of indulgences. (To pay for their new cathedral, the Roman church was selling indulgences, guaranteeing the forgiveness of sins.) Martin sent a letter and a copy of the theses to the archbishop. The opening words of the paper were: “Out of love and zeal for making the truth clear, the following theses will be debated at Wittenberg, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, presiding. He begs that those who cannot be present at the oral discussion will communicate their views in writing.” But no one came to debate him. On November 11, with still no reply from the archbishop, Martin sent copies of his theses to some friends. Those friends printed and reprinted the theses, and within a month, copies were seen throughout all of Europe. They were posted on churches and monasteries, translated, bound in leather, read by the clergy, the princes, and the poor.

Questioning the pope’s power over souls in purgatory was no small thing, and by 1521 Martin was finally excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and ordered killed by the emperor. He was then “kidnapped” by friends and lived disguised as a sword-carrying knight with long beard and hair. In hiding, with no visitors or work, he translated the New Testament into ordinary German. Then hearing of the chaos in Wittenberg, Martin decided to risk his life and return there to restore order. No longer believing in rituals, the people were mocking priestly garments, disturbing church services, tearing down statues of Christ and the saints. Martin immediately ordered this to stop and outlined new forms for the church services, which were to be in German, not Latin. Traditionally only the choir sang, so Luther composed hymnbooks for the congregation to sing. Rich in doctrine and easy to sing, one student said, “Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible.” And yes, he translated the entire Bible into common German. In 1530 the emperor invited the Protestants to the Diet of Augsburg to present their beliefs. Martin, still an outlaw, was prevented from going. By this time he was married with three kids and three more to come.

His marriage to Katharina von Bora happened when he least expected it. Martin was 41 years old, waiting to be killed any day under the Edict of Worms, and was occupied with the Great Peasants’ War at the time. Yet when a young woman tells your friend that she will accept no marriage proposals except from you, you have compassion on her and marry her. Besides, the bachelor life was wearing on his health. He ate the plainest of food and failed to change his bedding for A YEAR.

Martin earned a decent salary for a scholar, but was so generous with the poor and homeless, that their household expenses exceeded his income. So Katharina convinced him to invest in a garden, and helped earn them a living with her fruit trees, livestock, and bees. Known as “Käthe von Bora, the Morning Star of Wittenberg,” she was up at 4am, running the household and farm. From her earnings, Kate purchased a larger plot of land to grow hops for her brewery. (The plot was near the pig market, provoking Luther to call her “Lady of the Pig Market.”) Her brewery was much enjoyed by their guests. Their home was like a hotel, always filled with visitors, students, scholars, refugees, friends and relatives. Katharina regularly hosted Table Talks, and while Luther led the discussion, she supervised the meals and provided room and board for everyone. She participated in the discussions, and their guests got to know them as ordinary people. Martin loved to tease her, calling her “Lord Kate.” And when he said something crude, she would not hesitate to say, “Oh come now, that is too rude.”

While translating Proverbs 31, Luther said he thought of his wife, for he had such trust in her. He frequently mentioned her in letters to friends, even if just to say, “Katie, my rib, also greets you.” Katharina made the Luther house almost entirely self-supporting – something she learned from the convent. Yes, she was an ex-nun! It was actually Martin who had persuaded her that she was not bound to her vows, since she was misinformed when she made them, having been led to believe that celibacy was holier than marriage, which, Martin insisted, was biblically untrue. That was the heart of Martin’s work: To strip the church of layers of centuries of rituals and false doctrine, and bring it back to the truth of the Bible. His original intention was not to split from the Catholic Church, but to reform it with Scripture.

“Scripture is the most important testimony to prove Christ’s divinity and humanity. Many rulers who have opposed it have perished, but the article still stands. Then a poor monk and a poor nun had to come along; we embraced it and cling to it.” - Luther