{"id":740,"date":"2016-09-25T13:56:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T18:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2023-10-30T09:05:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:05:54","slug":"26th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/?p=740","title":{"rendered":"26th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In our Gospel today Jesus speaks of &#8220;a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.&#8221; And<br \/>\nlaying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus. This rich man we are told did nothing to help poor Lazarus. Yet he knew his name, so<br \/>\nhe must have known about him. Who are the poor among us today? Is it a financial poor or spiritually poor?<\/p>\n<p>If there were no poor among us, we would have no need for a local food shelf. We do have the need for a local food shelf. A food shelf<br \/>\nwithout support would not be able to keep going. I know some of our parishioners volunteer over at the food shelf, helping in many<br \/>\nways. We support the local food shelf by your bringing in food on Sunday. The need is not just at Thanksgiving time, it is year round, so<br \/>\nplease keep bringing in those food donations. It can be a great way to teach your children how to have a giving heart. Teaching them<br \/>\nthat we not only give the Lima Beans, but also the Macaroni and Cheese.<\/p>\n<p>Violence in our world is growing all the time. So recently close to home, both with Jacob Wetterling and now with this most recent<br \/>\nattack at the Crossroads Mall in St Cloud. It would be easy to turn to fear or hate. Those are natural responses. Yet, we should be<br \/>\nturning to our faith. Praying for those who were there and directly impacted. Caring for our own loved ones. We need to be praying for<br \/>\nour Country, both nationally and locally. Pray that the Lord will be known by all and that we will once again become a caring nation.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few little things that can have BIG impacts on those around us.<\/p>\n<p>-Tell your spouse you love them. Saying it can mean a lot.<br \/>\n-Hug your kids, let them know you love them and care about them.<br \/>\n-Smile and say hello to a stranger.<br \/>\n-Hold the door for someone.<\/p>\n<p>There are unlimited ways that we can reach out to one another and share the LOVE of Christ. In these ways we can see the poor man at<br \/>\nour gate.<\/p>\n<p>We have a choice to make Love or Hate. Fear or Faith. The choice is ours. Maybe we need to bring back the WWJD bracelets. What<br \/>\nwould Jesus Do? How would Jesus respond to our world today?<\/p>\n<p>Fr Backer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our Gospel today Jesus speaks of &#8220;a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.&#8221; And laying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus. This rich man we are told <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/?p=740\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-fathers-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofstlukes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}