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

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What I cooked this week…

Here’s a recipe I made this week, perfect for one or two people.

One pan asparagus and gnocchi in a quick cream sauce

Ingredients:

1 package of remade gnocchi

1 bunch thin asparagus

1 Tablespoon of butter

3 Tablespoons of cream cheese

1/2 cup half and half

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Garnish of dill

Directions:

Fill a large skillet with water, add a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil.

Add the gnocchi and asparagus and cook for 3-5 minutes until the gnocchi float to the top of the water and the asparagus are just tender. Drain into a colander.

In the drained skillet, add the butter, cream cheese, and half and half over medium heat. Lightly stir until the butter and cream cheese have melted into the half and half. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the gnocchi and asparagus back into the pan and stir to coat. Squeeze the half lemon over the pan and stir to incorporate. Garnish with dill. This will make two healthy portions. Serve with warm garlic sourdough bread. Enjoy!

What I read this week:

Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Bishop Robert Barron

An accessible introduction to Thomas Aquinas

From the publisher: “Thomas Aquinas is widely considered the greatest and most influential of Catholic theologians. Yet too often his insights into the nature of God and the meaning of life are seen as somehow cold, impersonal, and divorced from spirituality. In this award-winning book, Bishop Robert Barron shows how Aquinas’ profound understanding of the Christian mystical life animates and helps explain his writings on Jesus Christ, creation, God’s “strange” nature, and the human call to ecstasy.”

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This is the audio version of my weekly newsletter, I hope you’ll enjoy listening.

We are in the midst of our 40-day journey that will remind us of our humanity and of our relationship with God, who came to earth to join us in our brokenness, to laugh with us, to share our joy, to cry with us, and ultimately share our pain by dying for us. If we walk this journey with Christ and unite our joy and pain with his, I believe our lives will become more than we imagined.

All we are required to do is notice how Christ comes to us each day in the many guises of people and experiences to whom and which we have grown blind.

Whether you are Catholic, Protestant, or none of the above, I hope you will take the opportunity of Lent to follow the life of Christ and his ministry and see where it leads you. 

Free Resources for Lent:

Preparing for Lent from Ascension Present with Father Mike Schmidt. This 5 minute YouTube video talks about why we pursue the 3 pillars of prayer, fasting, & almsgiving during Lent.

Best Lent Ever  from Dynamic Catholic with Matthew Kelly. A free daily email devotional

The Paschal Mystery: Reflections for Lent and Easter  from Word on Fire. A free book of readings for Lent, you pay $7.95 shipping and handling

The Stations of the Cross with Bishop Barron A YouTube video. Bishop Barron reflects on the meaning of each of the stations.

The definition of “retirement” may no longer apply if we “retired” from careers held in our 20s, 30s, 40, 50s, but now spend just as many hours of our day involved in new careers or passions we finally have time or courage to pursue. What does retirement look like to you?

All the books in a library are merely fire kindling if we don’t read and learn from their content. The finest woodworking tools are decorative chunks of metal if we don’t put them to work.

So it is with all the types of prayer and even our precious Bible, if we don’t use these tools to spend time with God each day, and if we don’t learn to listen for his still small voice.

All the books in a library are merely fire kindling if we don’t read and learn from their content. The finest woodworking tools are decorative chunks of metal if we don’t put them to work.

So it is with all the types of prayer and even our precious Bible, if we don’t use these tools to spend time with God each day, and if we don’t learn to listen for his still small voice.

What a difference this simple sentence has made. I not only say the greeting every morning when I sit down to pray, I also find myself saying the words at random moments through the day because they warm my heart. When I say them, I feel God close to me, and that is an answer to prayer.