{"id":1193,"date":"2020-02-26T20:07:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T01:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2020-04-13T20:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T01:10:30","slug":"lenten-fasting-brings-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1193","title":{"rendered":"Lenten Fasting Brings a Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ash Wednesday<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>Joel 2: 12-18; 2 Cor 5:20 \u2013 6:2; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>Deacon Larry Brockman<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; with fasting and weeping and mourning\u201d! &nbsp;&nbsp;These words apply to all of us here just as they did to the folks Joel wrote them for.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, I walked into a room here, and the patient told me he had left his faith many years ago.&nbsp; But he still described himself as a Catholic.&nbsp; He had just experienced a medical scare, and so, after 40 plus years of alienation from his faith; all of a sudden his mortality was working on him.&nbsp; He said he was thinking about God.&nbsp; I asked him if he wanted to pray; and he said \u201cno\u201d.&nbsp; He said he didn\u2019t all of a sudden want to use God.&nbsp; I told him that God was relentless in his pursuit of us; that God was like water or light seeping through any crack He can find to get through to us; and that God was ready any time for his prayer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of you out there today work here and see this kind of thing often.&nbsp; Time marches on, and all of a sudden life\u2019s potential, which seems endless in the prime of life; is abruptly stunted for a patient.&nbsp; And, it can happen to any of us- a stroke, an accident, a cancer diagnosis, Alzheimers, the loss of a loved one.&nbsp; And if we have put God on the back burner, well you might just feel like the patient I described- concerned that if you all of a sudden turned to him; you were being a hypocrite, just using Him.&nbsp; But what I said to this man applies to all of us too.&nbsp; God is pursuing us; and will continue to pursue us until we recognize him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s reading is the perfect example of that.&nbsp; Joel recommends his people take stock of their lives, and repent because the Lord is \u201cgracious and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in kindness.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lent is the time of year when the Church blows the trumpet, proclaims a fast, and calls an assembly.&nbsp; Yes, all of us are called to review where we are in our relationship with God.&nbsp; So, step off the fast-moving train of life for a little while, and let God work on you.&nbsp; Spend some time pulling back from anything that prevents you from doing that- let that be your \u201cfast\u201d; maybe it\u2019s TV, or sports, or video games, or long lunches.&nbsp; And use that time for praying and reflecting on what you can do to get closer to God; not just for a while, but in the long term.&nbsp; And pray about it in quiet.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who knows, maybe the Lord will relent, and leave behind a blessing. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ash Wednesday Joel 2: 12-18; 2 Cor 5:20 \u2013 6:2; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18 Deacon Larry Brockman \u201cEven now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; with fasting and weeping and mourning\u201d! &nbsp;&nbsp;These words apply to all of us here just as they did to the folks Joel wrote them for.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Monday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[391],"tags":[605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}