Today's Gospel in Art - Jesus picked out the twelve apostles

The Calling of the Twelve Apostles, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1481, © Sistine Chapel, Vatican

Gospel of 10 September - Luke 6: 12-19

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles': Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.

Reflection on the Fresco Painting

Each time Jesus is about to take a big decision, such as choosing His twelve apostles, He prays. Today's reading starts with the words 'Jesus went out into the hills to pray', showing how central prayer was to His mission. Luke could have easily omitted this phrase when writing this Gospel passage, but he did make a point of including this, thus also prompting us to bring our own decisions to prayer. By doing so, we put our own important decisions into a wider context of love for God and let Him work in and through us as we decide things....

To read on see: www.christianart.today/daily-gospel-reading/169