Praying aloud is a practice that used to be commonplace in the Church until fairly recently, as far as I'm able to discern. Today, however, we don't utter audible words. Luther urges uttering words to help us soar upwards. I confess that I need this aid or my weak mind quickly strays.
"No one should depend on his heart and presume to pray without uttering words unless he is well trained in the Spirit and has experience in warding off stray thoughts. Otherwise the devil will thoroughly trick him and soon smother the prayer in his heart. Therefore we should cling to the words and with their help soar upward, until our feathers grow and we can fly without the help of words. I do not condemn words or the spoken prayer, nor should anyone spurn them. On the contrary, they are to be accepted as an especially great gift of God. However, it is wrong when the words are not employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart, but are only mumbled and muttered with the mouth, on the false assumption that this is all that is necessary."
Notice how in his recommedation of "uttering words" he warns of making them the heart of the matter. They must be "employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart." O Lord, teach us to pray.
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