Sundays with Suzanne

What I discovered is that when I don’t go to church, something is missing in my life. Something is missing in my spiritual walk with God. Yes I can worship and love God on my own. I do so daily. I can even worship God through church services that are televised through my computer or Zoom. But worshiping and loving God with other people on Sundays and during weekday services in person — knowing tha...

On Tuesdays after the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s in Breckenridge, we are invited to stay for 30 minutes of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. These 30 minutes of silent prayer and meditation seem to be the perfect way to end the Mass and start the rest of our day. Last Tuesday during adoration, I finished praying my rosary, sat back in my pew and contemplated the Blessed Sacrament as my finger...

I’ll ask you to excuse me this week because as I recount my experience from last Tuesday’s Mass, I still get a smile on my face. And quite honestly, it’s inexplicable to me. I arrived around 7:45 a.m. so that I could pray before Mass began. My prayers usually entail a laundry list of things I want to ask God’s help with. But on Tuesday morning, I knelt, bowed my head and said “thank you” in the si...

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 jo...

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.

 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 tw...

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...

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 Satu...

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...

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 wo...

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...

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?

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 artwo...

“ The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises. — Ecclesiastes 1:5” Last week, I watched the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean every morning, and I don’t know why I was surprised to discover that no two sunrises are alike. Some mornings it rose behind clouds, its arrival hidden until the very last moment when, suddenly, the sky was suffused with orange and pink...

One afternoon sitting at an outdoor café in Paris, I felt a bit sad, and so I paid my bill and headed across the square to the Louis Vuitton store and bought myself a purse. That purse sits on a shelf in my closet. Nowadays, I’d feel silly carrying it anywhere in Breckenridge. Thankfully, we live in a low-key town. If you stroll down the aisles of City Market, you’d be hard-pressed to differentiat...

I discovered proof of God on Wednesday afternoon in the tree branch shadows cast across the snow and frozen stream where I had stopped on the side of the road to let Kiki catch her breath and Bear investigate the smells of other animals. Kiki and Bear are my elderly adopted Newfoundland dogs. Our walks meander. My Lenten journey is only a few weeks old, but already my days have been filled with pr...

She had promised to bring chili to the church dinner to feed her neighbors. But it was the end of the month and she didn’t have much in her cupboards. She had even less in her bank account. But she did have two large sweet potatoes, four cans of beans and two cans of crushed tomatoes. She peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, mixed them with the beans, tomatoes and spices. When it was cooked thro...

After attending Ash Wednesday Mass, I stopped by the Breckenridge library. One of my favorite librarians, Jane, came out with an armful of books for me. She asked what I had decided to give up for Lent, I believe because she had read my column last week. I sheepishly confessed that I had settled on something only the night before. I decided that my Lenten sacrifice would be to give up my nightly v...

Last year I gave up wine for Lent again and each morning I wrote, I love being sober, in my gratitude journal. I’ll be honest, I felt silly writing this because I had had no intention of remaining sober once Lent was over. Then I realized that I meant what I was writing. I loved being sober. I felt better physically, emotionally and mentally. I slept like a baby every night, which was a relief sin...

Will you join me in a special project for 2021? Beginning this week and through the end of the year, let’s read through the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We will read two chapters each week. It will be a wonderful opportunity to practice lectio divina, as we incorporate prayer into our Bible reading, and see what a difference it makes in what God reveals through his holy word, and i...

I had not given much thought to the idea of a word for the year. It was more of a musing I had after listening to a podcast on that topic at the beginning of January. So as I drove to work, I considered what word to choose. I wanted something inspiring or aspirational, and so I tinkered with the word “finish,” as in, I want to finish writing the mystery that is two-thirds done and has remained so...

The definition of grace is “unmerited favor.” Prosperity preachers say it’s akin to winning the lottery. But I’d like to suggest a more sustaining definition taken from the words of Jesus, himself: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yok...

Most difficult for me as a person of faith is to see that even among people with whom I share the same beliefs, we are on opposite ends when it comes to politics. Up until Wednesday, I took that divide in stride and hoped that after the inauguration later this month, things would improve. After the insurrection at our Capitol on Wednesday, we received a warning that our country is at a dangerous c...

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 p...

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