Flavours of the Hand and Heart

At the Siebenaler household, we rarely eat dried pasta—we make it fresh. When I was in my early twenties, I stumbled upon a hand-crank pasta machine in my mother's pantry that had never been opened or used. And it took me dozens of tries before I got it right.

Pizza is the same way: the dough requires not only the right proportion of ingredients—it requires proper time, temperature, and humidity in quantities only known by intuition and experience. An amazing Korean woman in Minneapolis was featured on Chef's Table and she spoke of "son mas"—literally "flavour by hand." She has to touch and work with her dough to know when it's ready. She learned this by making kimchi with her mother.

Leland is learning when the pasta is too sticky and needs a little more semolina, or when there isn't enough moisture and it won't go through the rollers. And he has also learned (like with pizza dough) that the mixture has to rest before it can be shaped.

Our faith and relationship with God could use these same techniques: faith and conscience are the hands that inform when we're ready, or what ingredients need to be sprinkled in to balance out the influence of the environment. The community of St. Monica has amazing ministry directors like Christine Gerety and Delis Alejandro and our wonderful priests—they know these recipes and it's their calling to share them with you and let you rise!

As we begin the final preparations of Lent and enter into Holy Week, don't rush it. Trust your gut—knowing that God has mixed, kneaded, shaped, tossed, and formed you exactly as you are and that it's perfect.