Oatmeal Raisin Scones

In honor of the Royal Wedding!


1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks chilled butter
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup half and half

Preheat oven to 400.  Place flours, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of food processor.  Pulse 10 to 12 times.  Cut butter into pieces and distribute over the dry ingredients.  Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Transfer to a bowl and stir in the raisins.

Add milk and half and half and ix until blended.  Form into a ball with floured hands and divide in half.  On a floured surface, pat half of the dough into a 6 inch round.  Cut into 8 wedges.  Repeat with the remaining dough.  Transfer the wedges to a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until scones are firm to the touch and golden.

Glaze:

1 tbsp milk
2 - 4 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

While the scones are baking, mix glaze ingredients together.  Remove scones from oven and brush them with glaze while still hot.

Makes 16 scones.

Prayer Before Communion -- Act of Contrition, Hope, Confidence

I absolutely love this prayer.  When possible, (read:  when I'm alone...) I pray this before mass.

O Jesus, loving Spouse of my soul, the longed-for moment draws near; the happy moment, in which I, Thy unworthy creature, shall receive the most holy sacrament of Thy body and blood, as the most effectual remedy for all my miseries. For the love of Thee I grieve most bitterly for every one of my sins and for all my negligences, whereby I have offended Thy tender goodness, and defiled my soul, which Thou didst ransom with Thine own most precious blood. How shall I presume to receive Thee into a heart all surrounded with briers and thorns of earthly attachments, reeking with unwholesome vapors of worldliness and vain desires! But, my merciful Jesus, though I am sick of soul, I remember the words which fell from Thine own gracious lips -- that they who are whole need not the physician, but they who are sick -- and this gives me confidence. Surely, my Lord, if any one has cause to trust Thee it is I! Others may have their innocence or their virtues to fall back upon, but I have Thy mercy, Thy great mercy, only. I have made myself undeserving of it, but when hast Thou ever treated me as I deserved? Where should I be now if justice and not mercy had had its way? Good Jesus, Who didst invite the blind and the lame, the poor and the needy, to Thy supper, behold, as one of them, yea, even as the poorest and most wretched of them all, I will draw near to the most sacred feast of Thy body and blood, the banquet of the angels, not in presumption, but with a contrite and humble heart, with lowly confidence, with hope in Thy goodness and mercy, with love in return for all Thy love, with fervent desire to please Thee, to live henceforth according to Thy Spirit, and in the imitation of the virtues of Thy sacred Heart that I may praise and glorify Thee eternally.

Grandma in Texas' Sloppy Joes

This is one of my favorite recipes.  I used to ask Grandma to make these when I visited her in Amarillo.  I double this for my family.

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/4 large green bell pepper chopped fine

1/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp chili powder

Brown meat, onions, celery, bell pepper.  Drain fat.  Combine remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Pour over meat.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Serve between hot hamburger buns.

Easter is Here! (Thoughts on fasting and feasting)

I love the way Catholics do celebrations.  I loved Easter my whole life, but after celebrating it as a Catholic the last 16 years, it means much more now.  There's nothing like going through 40 days of self-denial and (mini) suffering, to bring the meaning of new life in Christ to a whole new level.  As an Evangelical, I loved and looked forward to the one day of Easter, don't get me wrong.   But, there was no real preparation, or spiritual anticipation.  There was picking out a new dress, and that's it.  And, once the day was over, the decorations came down, and that was it.  Catholics have been accused of down-playing the resurrection of Christ and emphasizing (too much in some's opinion) his passion and death.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Catholics have 40 days of penance and fasting and lent, yes.  But, Catholics follow that with 50 days of Easter, complete with Alleluias, and feasting, and celebrating.  And, after meditating on his passion and death, those 50 days of Easter are richer, more meaningful, and closer to my heart.

Catholics have other times and occasions of fasting and feasting.  The liturgical year is so interesting.  Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas -- which is also not just one day, but 12 full days.  When the rest of the world is taking down their trees, Catholics still have 11 days to go.

Practicing NFP (Natural Family Planning) is the same way.  The married couple has days of self-imposed abstinence, when trying to avoid pregnancy, followed by days of intimacy.  The days of abstinence make the days of intimacy that much sweeter.

It's all leading up to heaven.  Living on earth is painful, much of the time.  Life isn't fair.  There is suffering and death and sorrow.  But, it's all preparation for the eternal, never ending feast that is heaven.  If we can make it through this valley of tears with our faith and souls in tact, then we are rewarded with the greatest celebration that God can dream up for us.

Thoughts on the Last Supper

Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the sacred Triduum, or "three days."  There is so much taking place in this one event, the Last Supper. 

We see Jesus in the role of Servant as he humbles himself and washes the feet of his disciples.  I, personally, have a lot to learn from this one act.  Here is the King of the Universe bending down to do a most untasteful act of love and servanthood.   If he can lower himself in such a way, then who am I to complain about scrubbing a toilet or turning a dirty sock right side out to wash it?  And yet, these daily tasks do often send me into resentful rants.  Jesus, help me to remember how you willingly offered yourself for your disciples in this way, and help me to get over myself and know my true place as, not a queen, but a servant in my house.

And then he gave us himself in the Eucharist.  This is the greatest gift.  This was the first Mass and Holy Eucharist.  He shared his body and blood with his disciples, and then, through them, now down to us today.  He said, in John 6:54, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day."  Yes, this teaching is so difficult to understand.  Especially for a former Evangelical like myself.  It takes great faith to believe that the bread I eat and the wine I drink at mass are really his body, his blood,  that you he physically there, but I do believe it.  And I pray that I will remain faithful so that I will be raised up on the last day.  Only with your help, dear Father.  Please let your graces rain down upon me.

And after the supper, after Judas left to betray, he spoke some final thoughts to his disciples.  We remember and thank God for his gift of the ministerial priesthood.  He lovingly instructed them, prepared them for his absence, promised them the arrival of the Holy Spirit to lead them in the truth, and prayed for them.  These were our first priests, with Peter as our first Pope.  He had taught them and prayed for them, and now he was leaving them in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  He prayed that they and we would all be one.  (John 17:20-21)

After supper, they all went to the garden and Jesus prayed and was arrested, and thus began his Passion.

How Women Can Rule the World

This is a great blog post!  Had to share it.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/how-women-can-rule-the-world/

Joy Unlimited

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."  C.S. Lewis  Mere Christianity

On Prayer

"To pray does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God in contrast to spending time with our family and friends.  Rather, to pray means to think and live our entire life in the presence of God."  Father Steven Peter Tsichlis

Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

"We pray as we live because we live as we pray.  If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name."

"Our Father knows what we need before we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom."

On the Practice of Silence

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"All writers on the spiritual life uniformly recommend, nay, command under penalty of total failure, the practice of silence. And yet, despite this there is perhaps no rule for spiritual advancement more inveighed against, by those who have not even mastered its rudiments, than that of silence. Even under the old Dispensation its value was known, taught, and practised. Holy Scripture warns us of the perils of the tongue, as "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). Nor is this advice less insisted on in the New Testament; witness: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man" (St. James 3:2 sq.). The same doctrine is inculcated in innumerable other places of the inspired writings. The pagans themselves understood the dangers arising from unguarded speech. Pythagoras imposed a strict rule of silence on his disciples; the vestal virgins also were bound to severe silence for long years. Many similar examples could be quoted.

Silence may be viewed from a threefold standpoint:

• As an aid to the practice of good, for we keep silence with man, in order the better to speak with God, because an unguarded tongue dissipates the soul, rendering the mind almost, if not quite, incapable of prayer. The mere abstaining from speech, without this purpose, would be that "idle silence" which St. Ambrose so strongly condemns.
• As a preventative of evil. Senica, quoted by Thomas à Kempis complains that "As often as I have been amongst men, I have returned less a man" (Imitation, Book I, c. 20).
• The practice of silence involves much self-denial and restraint, and is therefore a wholesome penance, and as such is needed by all."