{"id":7169,"date":"2021-07-30T11:31:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T01:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7169"},"modified":"2021-07-30T11:31:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T01:31:13","slug":"if-you-love-me-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/if-you-love-me-2\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Love Me&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>If You Love Me&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nis said that a certain emperor decided to bear all the costs of building a huge\ncathedral. He spared no expense throughout the project. After the completion of\nconstruction, a memorial plaque was installed at the entrance, mentioning the\nemperor as the person who consecrated and inaugurated the cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nfollowing day, the authorities noticed that the emperor\u2019s name had been erased\nfrom the plaque and was replaced with two other names. They were quite\nsurprised, and removed the plaque and replaced it with another one bearing the\nemperor\u2019s name. This process however was repeated several times, until the\nemperor heard of it. He immediately prayed to God asking Him to reveal the\nreason for what happened. An angel then appeared to him and told him that two\nchildren deserved, more than he, to have their names inscribed on the plaque,\nsince they had paid much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nemperor wondered how two children could have paid much, when he was the one who\npaid all the expenses. The angel said that the two children deserved this\nhonour because they loved God so much, that they longed to offer something\ntowards building His house. Seeing that all they possessed in this world were\ntwo hearts full of love, they resolved to carry a container of water to the\ncamels carrying the stones to build the Lord\u2019s house; thus they toiled every\nmorning, offering their labour and their love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truly,\nthe house of the Lord needs unseen soldiers &#8211; young, old, men and women &#8211;\ncapable of offering pure, precious love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>~ Fr. Tadros Malaty \u2018Stories for the Youth\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Commentary<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cChrist gives us each other to prepare us for the kingdom of heaven, through our love for one another. As we care for each other, little by little, and day by day, we come to understand the depth of Christ\u2019s love\u201d <\/p><cite>Jason Ketz (St. Vladimir\u2019s Seminarian) <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Question<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>God knows the truth of our hearts by the depth of love we offer in both the big and small things. What are small things we do day by day that can either be filled with love or can reveal our lack of love?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If You Love Me&#8230; Story It is said that a certain emperor decided to bear all the costs of building a huge cathedral. He spared no expense throughout the project. After the completion of construction, a memorial plaque was installed at the entrance, mentioning the emperor as the person who consecrated and inaugurated the cathedral. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/if-you-love-me-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;If You Love Me&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7170,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169\/revisions\/7170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}