During our Fuel the Body, Fuel the Soul meeting on December 12th, Sister Sandy Schmid, CSJ showed participants her mother’s recipe for homemade risotto. Following the recipe, Sister Mary Ann Figlino, CSJ gave a presentation entitled, “Your Call is Important: Is Jesus on Hold?” Find the risotto recipe and a recording of Sister Mary Ann’s presentation below!
Fuel the Body, Fuel the Soul is a monthly series held on Zoom. Each session features an introduction to a healthy recipe presented by a sister, a presentation focusing on a spiritual topic and discussion and prayer with a community of women from around the country. There is no cost to attend. Join us for our next meeting!
Homemade Risotto Recipe
by Sister Sandy Schmid, CSJ
Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 3-4
Ingredients:
- 2 cups white rice
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 large onion, diced
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 0.25 grams saffron
- Parmesan cheese
Directions: In a pot, begin heating the stock on the stove. In a separate large pan, melt half of the butter and sauté the onions. Add dry rice to the onions. Stir until rice is evenly coated in butter. Gently toast the rice. Add 2 cups of broth to the rice. Stir. When the broth has cooked away, add the saffron and about 1 cup of additional broth. Stir. For 20 minutes, continually stir the rice, adding more broth whenever the liquid in the pan cooks into the rice. When rice is soft and sticky, add the remaining butter and parmesan to taste. Once melted, serve and enjoy!
Your Call is Important: Is Jesus on Hold?
by Sister Mary Ann Figlino, CSJ
Have you ever made a phone call to a business and heard, “Your call is very important to us. All of our operators are busy. You will be in a queue. You are number 49 in the queue. Your call is very important to us.”? All of our lives, we receive many calls. Each one of them is very important to us and might be a major one.
Like, for example, my calling to enter the Sisters of St. Joseph! That definitely was a big call. But, there’s always calls to become more: to be more human, to be more loving, etc. God is waiting for us to answer our calls.
I’d like to take some characters out of scripture, and I want you to go with me between the lines to hear how they answered their call. Can you find yourself in any of these characters?
Moses
The first person I’d like to introduce you to is Moses from chapter three of Exodus. Moses was a Hebrew living under the strict control of the pharaoh. When Moses was born, his mother did her best to protect him. You’ve heard the great story! How she had a woven basket, lined with pitch or tar to keep it waterproof, and placed Moses in that basket to send him up the Nile River.
It was very common for a woman to go down into the reeds of the Nile and bathe in the water. Keeping her eye on her baby, Moses’ mother saw the basket travel to where the pharaoh’s daughter was bathing in the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter had her servants bring her the basket, and she decided to keep the beautiful baby boy. Because she could not breastfeed the baby, she found a Hebrew woman to breastfeed on her behalf.
Moses grows up in the palace of the pharaoh. He was literate. He was given an education. He was well-respected. But on one occasion, he saw one of the pharaoh’s soldiers beating a Hebrew man. Moses defended the Hebrew man by killing the soldier. Word of this, as you can imagine, got out very quickly. Moses lost all of his favor with Pharaoh and had to set out on his own.
The next time we meet Moses in Scripture, he is married and a shepherd. He was so poor that he didn’t even own the sheep that he was responsible for; they were owned by his father-in-law. He’s with his sheep when he notices a burning bush. It was unusual because it wasn’t taken over by the flames or turning into ashes. I think this is the most beautiful part of this story. Moses goes out of curiosity. He hears the voice of Yahweh; God speaks to him. And the first thing God said is “Moses”. Notice God calling him by name. “Moses, take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground.”
As we read these stories, we have to remember that a lot is symbolic. We can’t take it word for word. But, as you can imagine, sandals were very important in Moses’ day. In that climate, it was sandy. Taking off your sandals at home was fine, but you wouldn’t do it out in the open. If we look at what was happening symbolically, this is where the call begins: take off your sandals, get rid of whatever is holding you back from holy ground. Is it an attitude? Is it a weakness? In our own lives, what do we have to take off or get rid of so that we are free to stand on holy ground?
Yahweh continues, and he explains to Moses that he is being called to save His people from slavery. Now, I love this about Moses. Moses interrupts God three times. First he asks, “But what do I tell Pharoah? Who should I say sent me?” Yahweh answers, “I am who am.” That’s not good enough for Moses. He interrupts God again, asking, “What if they don’t believe me?” Then Yahweh patiently answers that problem. Moses interrupts God a third time. “Please send somebody else. I’m not eloquent. I’m slow of speech and tongue. Can you send somebody else?” God becomes a little angry at Moses, and he says, “Moses, your brother Aaron, he is a good speaker. I will assist both you and Aaron in speaking, and I will teach you what to say.” In other words, God is there and so are other people.
When we are called, we can hear this call through others and answer it with their support. We never are alone. God is there. God promised, and He kept His promise. He was with Moses and freed His people.
Zechariah
In chapter one of Luke’s Gospel, we meet a man named Zechariah. He was a priest. Now, the only people that could work or serve in the temple were people of the tribe of Levi. Not to be confused with jeans. Zechariah was a member of the tribe of Levi, so he was a priest in the temple. He was literate, which was very uncommon at the time. He was well-respected. When we meet Zechariah, he is in the holiest part of the temple. Regular people were not allowed inside this part of the temple, and priests were only allowed into this space once in their life.
Zechariah is in the holiest holy space burning incense. The incense rises up in the temple like prayers. Zechariah was praying for the Messiah when all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel appeared. What happens when an angel appears to you? What does that look like? Zechariah stands before Gabriel as a man who knows all the laws and the rules of the Old Testament. He’s well-versed.
Gabriel calls Zechariah by name. “Your prayers have been answered. Your wife, Elizabeth, will have a son named John, who will turn many Israelites to God.” In scripture, Elizabeth is described as old and barren. Regardless of the fertility issue, it was always the wife who lived under the stigma of being barren. Elizabeth has lived under that burden all of their marriage. A son who would turn many Israelites to God was way too big for Zechariah to believe. He just cannot swallow this.
Zechariah looks at Gabriel and says, “How can this happen?” In other words, Zechariah is asking for proof. The archangel answers, “I am Gabriel. I stand before God, and I was sent to you. I was sent to announce the good news. Now, you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words.” Here is this priest with all these credentials, and he has to have proof of this good news.
Even though Zechariah didn’t believe God and needed proof, God didn’t take back his promise. He just made Zechariah silently wait a little bit before that baby was in his hands. But God never left him, even though he needed proof.
Mary
Finally, I’d like to take a look at Mary in Luke’s Gospel. Mary was probably 14 or 15 years old. She was a young, likely illiterate teenage girl. She lived in Nazareth, which was an unremarkable, backwater town. They only had one well in this small village because the water supply was so poor.
Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph. In their tradition, there were three steps to a betrothal. First, the fathers of the potential bride and groom met and agreed to the marriage. Second, both the bride and the groom had to agree to be married. The final step was the marriage itself. During the betrothal, the groom built a house for them to live in. The marriage took place when the house was ready for the bride to move in. Mary was in the first stage of her betrothal to Joseph.
When Gabriel visited her and made the announcement that she would conceive and bear a son, Mary was greatly troubled. She said, “How can this be? I have had no relations with a man. I’m only on the first step of this betrothal.” She didn’t want proof; she just wanted more information. Gabriel said to her, “Do not be afraid. You will bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He went on to explain how she would turn the tide of humanity with her decision.” Mary pondered and took all of this in, weighing the pros and cons. She answers, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. I am willing to believe. I am willing to take on what it means to be betrothed, unmarried and pregnant.”
Let’s take a moment to appreciate this amazing young woman answering her call, just completely relying on God. We have to answer our own calls, and that help is there for us too. All we need to do is accept it.