Occasional Notes From Suzanne - A weekly audio-essay on faith, a book recommendation, and a recipe

I often write about how we are the hands and feet of God. 2020 showed us how true that is. God’s friendship with us, arms open wide, reaching out to help when we are hungry or cold or in need of an ear to listen, is what God asks us to do for one another.

2020 is the year we did. We saw it in the tireless work of our neighbors who are healthcare providers, educators, grocery workers, pastors and priests, who kept us going through the pandemic because they wouldn’t give up. We saw it in our neighbors, the restaurant and small business owners who worked to keep their doors open and employees paid, so we chose to shop local this year.

#inspiration #christian #catholic 

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I believe this year and this Christmas will be remembered for the rest of our lives for what we have lost and what we have gained and most of all what we have learned about caring for one another, especially for those who cared so much for us.

I hope this Christmas you will welcome Christ into your home and into your heart. Merry Christmas!

#christmas #advent #christian #catholic 

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This week my mother and I made the difficult decision that I would not fly to visit her for Christmas. I haven’t seen Mom since March. I bought my tickets for this two-week visit back in September. And with every day that brought my visit closer we talked more excitedly about how we would spend our time together. Since Thanksgiving, Mom has been counting the days until my arrival.

We cried on the day that we finalized the decision and we’ve cried a few times since. Tears are always at the ready if we mention anything about Christmas, so we try not to. Because Mom is ninety-three, we hope she will be one of the first people to receive a vaccination. Then I will be able to see her, hopefully as soon as March.

Although I know the months will fly by between now and then and although the darkness before the dawn is just a thin veil, our despair is palpable.

#christmas #advent #walkingoutfaith

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The weather forecast said we might get a few inches of snow by Tuesday morning but when I woke there was already 10 inches of snow on the ground and by the time it finished the totals were closer to 24 inches of snow.

And that’s just the way it is sometimes when you’re waiting for things to change and it seems like you’re amid a drought and then the floodgates open and the deluge is greater than what we’d planned for. Of course, that’s the good kind of outpouring, but sometimes it’s not so good. Covid-19 cases rise, businesses close, jobs are lost, savings are depleted, for the second time this year. We’d planned for five inches of snow but received twenty-four.

This moment feels like that. We enter the season of Advent on Sunday, four weeks of anticipating the birth of Christ. We will light a candle around the Advent wreath to mark each week. One for peace, hope, joy, and love.

Our bellies are likely still full of Thanksgiving dinner, but this Thanksgiving was very different for most of us. Many of us ate dinner alone this year to keep loved ones healthy and the pandemic at bay.

Many of us are planning for fewer presents under the Christmas tree because jobs are scarce, and budgets are tight.

And then there’s an election season which seems to have no end.

What we need is peace. What we long for is the nourishing balm of goodwill toward men.

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 As you head to the grocery store or stop by a restaurant to pick up your Thanksgiving dinner, please take a moment to say “thank you” to the cashier and the wait staff. Look them in the eye and wish them a happy Thanksgiving.

Please spend some of your holiday dollars with local businesses. You will not only be buying a unique Colorado gift, you will be supporting the families that stand behind these businesses.

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” — 1 Thessalonians 3:12

So many people will not be able to travel this Thanksgiving and will dearly miss spending the holiday with their families. That includes me.

I canceled my flight to Florida to visit Mom and then canceled dinner plans with friends in Breckenridge because we are all very concerned about keeping one another safe this holiday.

That concern, that respect for one another, is another way of giving thanks and saying “thank you.” We do it by wearing our masks and keeping our dinner gatherings to only those in our household.

But rather than seeing this as a sacrifice, let’s see it as a celebration of those we love and those who make our community so special.

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” — Hebrews 13:1-2

#christian #catholic #inspiration #thanksgiving

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I assure you, we are no closer to God when sitting too close to our neighbor in a pew. Our praise and worship is heard by God just as well when our mouth is covered by a mask as when it is not.

If you don’t believe me or the doctors, at least believe what Jesus Christ said when he said we should love one another as we want to be loved and care for our neighbors as Christ cared for us.

Wearing a mask and sitting every other pew is not an infringement on our religious liberty. Local governments have asked every public establishment to abide by the same rules for distancing. It’s a matter of science, not religion.

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No matter who stands at the podium and is sworn in Jan. 20, 2021, they will face a country firmly divided in half, a country closing in on the one-year anniversary of a pandemic, which has so far claimed a quarter of a million lives in the U.S. alone.

As I scrolled through social media, I was heartened to see messages of hope and unity and resilience offered by leaders in the faith community.

Then I ran across this quote by Thomas Merton, and it struck an important chord with me: “Speak words of hope. Be human in this most inhumane of ages. Guard the image of man for it is the image of God.”

If we are created in God’s image, what does that mean and how would it apply in this post-election turmoil that roils our country?

#faith #christian #catholic #thomasmerton #bible #inspiration #devotional

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When I’m overwhelmed, I recall that time is like a river always pushing us forward. Let’s remain fully present to learn all we can.

This anxious time will pass, and our lives will flow forward, surrounded by God’s love and peace.

A psalm of David

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

    He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

    he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

    for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

    through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

    for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me

    all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

    forever. — Psalm 23, NIV

Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson’s column “Walking Our Faith” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Anderson is the author of 10 novels and nonfiction books on faith. She has lived in Breckenridge since 2016. Contact her at [email protected].

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When we call upon God, we will be comforted. When we feel overwhelmed by the chaos in our country, God is our steadfast refuge.

We become the mustard seed of faith which has within it the strength of a towering tree.

We are the widow who had so little to give, yet because she gave what she had, the Son of God recognized her offering as great, and she was greatly blessed.

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I'm asking as a person of faith that we bow our heads and mourn those who have died from the Coronavirus and the families they have left behind. 

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