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

Last week, I watched the Olympic trials for swimming. Swimming is my favorite Olympic sport because I was a competitive swimmer for 11 years from the age of 11 through my sophomore year at the University of Michigan.

A reporter asked one of the swimmers what his strategy would be for the finals against a very competitive field. The young man replied that he had trained for this day and that his job now was just to swim his own race and not worry about what others were doing.

That’s what I loved about swimming competitively. My race would be won or lost based on my own training and how well I performed on that day. No one was going to jump in my lane and stop me from swimming. My success or failure was up to my own efforts.

What do these lessons from swimming have to do with our walk of faith?

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Does it make a difference when we pray alone or together? This week I discuss what I recently gained by sharing my prayers for my mother during a weekday Mass.

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 Over the past six years I’ve shared my walk of faith in my column for the Summit Daily News and I see a better version of myself today than existed when I began. But now I’m curious. How you are living your faith?

Today begins what I hope will be the first of many interviews that I’ll share in the coming year. Let’s meet Amy Evans, a Breckenridge fine artist. I chose Amy because she leads two centering prayer groups in Breckenridge and I wanted to know how her faith practice informs her artwork.

Would you like to share your walk of faith with others? Please send me an email at: [email protected] Here are some questions to get you started: How has your faith changed your life? What spiritual practices resonate with your heart? Where do you go to find and speak with God? I look forward to hearing from you!

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What compelled me to get up and go to swim practice in pre-dawn darkness? I loved swimming. I loved competing. I loved my teammates. I loved how it felt to glide through the water. I loved everything about swimming. And I knew the only way to excel at swimming was to practice it consistently — always pushing myself to do better.

My devotion to my swimming career in high school is what came to mind as I tried to find a way to describe my newfound pleasure in attending weekday morning Mass and evening prayer and praying the rosary.

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When I first moved to Breckenridge, I didn’t know a soul, but I began regularly attending the Saturday evening mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. I was greeted by Barbara Rasmussen who always said “hello” and asked how I was doing.

If I didn’t show up for a few weeks, she asked where I’d been the next time she saw me, which had the effect of giving me second thoughts before I skipped another Saturday evening Mass. It was also an important lifeline because I was going through a difficult depression during that first year.

Church communities offer a special kind of support that we might not find elsewhere. I believe it is because we understand that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and it is God who responds, “Come to me all you who are burdened and weary and I will give you rest.”

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I’ve begun attending 8 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s on Sunday mornings. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be doing this, I would have laughed because I’ve never been a morning person.

On a recent phone call, I told Mom I began going to the 8 a.m. Mass because Ken brought doughnuts from Daylight Donuts along with freshly made coffee.

I’ll do just about anything for a chocolate covered doughnut or two.

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The other day, I listened to Bishop Robert Barron and Alex O’Conner, host of the CosmicSkeptic and university student at Oxford, debate the existence of God.

Eventually, the argument came to the question of suffering. This argument usually proceeds as: If God exists and allows suffering, he is uncaring or uninvolved in our lives, or God does not exist. In any of these instances, this God is not worthy of our interest, much less worship.

The counterargument generally revolves around original sin, fallen man, therefore there is evil, and while God might permit evil to play out on earth, in the afterlife, all will be redeemed.

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sometimes get mad at God. Not for something he has done but for something he has not done, which I, in my infinite wisdom, felt he should have. Of course, my wisdom is not infinite; it’s actually pretty limited. And God‘s wisdom is infinite, which means I often don’t understand things from his greater perspective.

That doesn’t stop me from getting mad at God because I am human and was created with free will. And God, in his infinite wisdom, never wanted to deny me the freedom to make mistakes and learn or, more often, blame him for the outcome of my poor decisions or shortsighted vision of how things should be right now.

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I believe the question we should ask is not why more Americans don’t believe in God or don’t go to church. God exists whether we acknowledge him or not. And we have created churches to suit every taste, from dance halls to living rooms.

The real question is: Why don’t more Americans find personal meaning in a relationship with God? How do we create a meaningful, personal relationship with God?

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It got me thinking of my own approach to reading the Bible this year. I am reading the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, just two chapters a week over the course of the entire year.

I got the idea when I received my Word on Fire Bible, which contains only the four Gospels but also a wealth of commentary and vibrant artwork related to every important passage so that commentary and artwork make up as many pages as the actual sacred text.

I’ve discovered that this wealth of information has greatly expanded my understanding of the context of each passage. As I read, I find myself underlining passages, taking notes in my journal. Best of all, I look forward to reading each day.

Which brings me to a few quick tips I’d like to share...

#catholic #christian #inspiration #faith #bible

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· Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Get full access to Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson Newsletter at suzanneelizabethanderson.substack.com/subscribe