Jesus often spent the whole night in prayer to God

 

Tuesday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time 10 September 2013
St. Nicholas of Tolentino († 1310)

St Paul's letter to the Colossians 2:6-15.

Brothers and sisters: as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted in Him and built upon Him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ.
For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.
You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
despoiling the principalities and the powers, he made a public spectacle of them, leading them away in triumph by it.

Ps 145(144):1-2.8-9.10-11.

I will extol you, O my God and King,
And I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
And compassionate toward all his works.

Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
And let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
And speak of your might.

Lk 6:12-19.

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

 Commentary of the day :
 

Have you ever spent the whole night in prayer? We used to have the annual all night vigil in our parish which was surprisingly under attended. I say surprisingly because if its only on once a year, why wouldn't people want to take advantage of an opportunity to commune with God for a whole night and ask for His guidance?

Jesus did it every time He had a big decision He needed to make, like choosing the Twelve.

Did He make a mistake choosing Judas? Did His prayer time fail Him?
There is something very comforting about being alone with Jesus in the Tabernacle late at night. I did it every night before sleeping. In fact, even the nights I drank excessively, I could not go straight to bed without at least spending a few minutes with our Lord (although I am sure I didn't say much). Just knowing Jesus is still here with us is very encouraging.
If I didn't find it incredibly peaceful for my soul, I would have stopped the practice long ago.

I often spent many night vigils in the time leading up to my decisions such as marrying my wife and leaving priesthood. I also made long vigils before I chose priesthood.

Did I make a mistake? I don't think I did. I have spent more time in prayer than most of you reading and I have given more time in service to God's people than most of you. And I do not regret any minute of that time & I pray that God is still guiding me now in the steps of a new journey where unclean spirits still abound.
 

The words of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity from her book, "No Greater Love", on page 10 well summarise what I am trying to convince you of:

We cannot find God in noise or agitation.... In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice:
Silence of our eyes.
Silence of our ears.
Silence of our mouths.
Silence of our minds.
In the silence of the heart
God will speak.

Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere - in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, in the animals. If we are careful of silence it will be easy to pray. There is so much talk, so much repetition, so much carrying on of tales in words and in writing. Our prayer life suffers so much because our hearts are not silent. I shall keep the silence of my heart with greater care, so that in the silence of my heart I hear His words of comfort and from the fullness of my heart I comfort Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor.