Fr Paul reads from Luke’s Gospel (6: 12-19) in which Jesus went out into the hills to pray and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.

As we hear in Luke’s Gospel, prayer is a very important element for Luke and there are number times throughout his Gospel where Luke emphasises the value of prayer.

In today’s Gospel, Fr Paul says, we hear Jesus has spent the whole night in prayer before he takes the critical step of choosing the twelve Apostles. Luke is also the only one who uses this term ‘Apostles’. It is a term usually reserved for those who witness the Resurrection of Jesus and who have known him in life.  This is their primary tasks as Apostles, to be witnesses.  We also see at these early stages, people are coming from all over to listen Jesus and to be healed by him rather than the other way around – of Jesus and his apostles going out to others, which will occur as his Mission develops.

For our reflection, given the importance of Prayer and the emphasis Luke places upon it, Fr Paul says, we might simply reflect today on ‘How important is prayer in my life at the moment?’