Jesus and Prayer

(picture taken on monastery grounds)

JESUS AND A NEED TO PRAY:

 

Luke 5: 16:    "The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray."

This commentary was written for the gospel for today where Jesus felt the need to find an away place for prayer;  it is written by Fr. Eugene LaPlante, AA, and appears in the January 2013 LIVING WITH CHRIST, a daily missalette.   Visit them at  www.livingwithchrist.us.

We read in the gospels that Jesus would often "withdraw to deserted places to pray."   The Son of God felt the need to spend  some time in conversation with his Father.   Humanly speaking, he could not do that in the midst of the great crowds that gathered around him.  His practice becomes a valuable lesson for us:  at times, we too need to escape our crowded noisy lives in order to speak quietly with him and God.

 

A question for ourselves:   If our wonderful Lord and Savior, this God-Man so important in our lives, needed times and places for prayer,  what does that say to us about the importance of finding times and ways and places for us to pray?