BEFORE YOU DECIDE

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called to him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.

Every day, we face a lot of situations that demand decisions from us: Am I going to wake up early? Am I going to the Lauds and attend the Mass? Am I going to the school? Am I to ask forgiveness from a friend? Am I going to be faithful to my commitment? Some situations need decisions that require a little effort from us. Some decisions, however, have to be thought thousand times before we make such them. 

 

 

 In the Gospel (Luke 6:12-16), Christ teaches us how to make decisions in life. Being the Son of God, decisions come instantaneously to Him. He does not need any deliberation and discussion. For our sake, however, He leads us by His own example to the right process of decision making. After preaching the Word of God, and healing sick people, Christ perhaps realized the need to name persons who can help Him in spreading the good news. He thought of choosing and sending persons to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Christ have commanded them (Mt. 28:16-20). Before He chose apostles among His disciples, before he made a decision (very important), there is something Christ did. He prayed! 

Christ prayed before making a decision. In this way, according to St. Cyril, He teaches us to be instant in prayer to God, going apart by ourselves, and in secret, no one seeing us; putting aside also our worldly cares, that the mind may be raised up to the height of divine contemplation and this we have marked in the fact, act, that Christ went into a mountain apart to pray. 

Solitude and silence are two prerequisites of prayer and decision-making. Every turning point in our life requires from us decisions. Every decisions we make ought to be thought over a thousand time, more so prayed over a million times. Only in the atmosphere of solitude and silence we can be able to grasp rightful decision we have to make. Only in the atmosphere of solitude and silence we can be able to grasp the will of Father for us; the solitude and silence of the stable in Bethlehem, the solitude and silence in the garden of Gethsemane, the solitude and silence at the cross of Golgotha, the solitude and silence of an empty tomb. Decisions can be rightfully made only in the solitude and silence of our hearts before the Lord, placing Christ and the will of the Father at the very center of our lives.

Pray in solitude and in silence, before you DECIDE!