Faith Daily | 6 September 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p576

O God,

you know us to be set in the midst

of so many and so great dangers

that by reason of the frailty of our nature

we cannot always stand upright:

grant to us such strength and protection

as may support us in all dangers

and carry us through all temptations;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: Luke 6: 12-19

12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Penny Graham

Jesus was about to make the most important decision about the choice of the 12 apostles, something that would have repercussions for all humanity to the end of time and indeed into eternity. In preparation for this choice Jesus spent the whole night on a mountain in prayer to God. This was a momentous decision for Jesus. The preceding incidents have shown that his enemies were increasing and one day they would kill him. Jesus chooses 12 very ordinary men, and entrusts to them the task of making Jesus’ values known to the world.

The most important thing he could do was to pray to God and he would lead him to choose the right men to follow him. In Luke’s gospel it highlights the centrality of prayer in the life and mission of Jesus. His decisions and choices emerge from lengthy periods of communion with the one he calls ‘Abba’ or Father.

Any big event in the life of Jesus was preceded by prayers. Choosing the apostles would impact on the life of his community forever. He faced the passion after prayer in the garden(Gethsemane) and prayed during his passion. Jesus was a man of much prayer. Time in prayer is joining us in the prayer of Christ, and can discern what is best, most human and most loving in our lives.

When Jesus came down from the mountain, he was surrounded by his apostles and a congregation of people wanting to be healed. Just a simple touch of the hem of his garment, was enough for those who believed in Jesus.

By having prayer time ourselves, helps us to grow into understanding the ways of God, allowing our every day choices and our bigger decisions to be shaped & changed.

FINAL PRAYER Lancelot Andrewes, Preces Privatae

Open my eyes and I shall see, incline my heart and I shall desire, order my steps and I shall walk in the path of your commandments.

O Lord God, be my God, and beside you let there be no other, none else, nothing else with you.

Let me adore and worship you and serve you in truth of spirit, in reverence of body, in blessing of lips, in private and in public.

Amen.