Godhead Here in Hiding

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran—
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory’s sight.

Filed under: Catholic

Corpus Christi

The Virgin with the Eucharist -1866 Ingres Jean Auguste Dominique
The Virgin with the Eucharist           Ingres Jean Auguste Dominique 1866

 

 

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ’ s side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever. Amen.

Filed under: Catholic

Quick lunch or dinner

As I mentioned in my last post, we have a bunch of tomatoes in our garden. I plan on canning them and the kids are eating them, whole, like apples, but I am still trying to find different ways to use them, and that means recipe creation in the Facemyer Kitchen.

 

Veggie Bread

  • A small loaf of homemade Italian bread
  • Olive oil
  • Six tomatoes
  • Three pepperoncini
  • Green olives
  • Mozzarella cheese
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400°
  2. Slice the bread (about 1/4 inch thick) and place on a cookie sheet or the tray of a toaster oven.
  3. Smear a little bit of olive oil on the sliced bread.
  4. Cut the veggies into bit size pieces and arrange on the bread.
  5. Sprinkle with a bit of the mozzarella cheese.
  6.  Place into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted. (about five minutes in a toaster oven.)
(edited to add a picture)

 

Filed under: Food

Scalloped Tomatoes

Wait, hear me out. I promise, these are good! 

We have tomatoes coming out of our ears here. After being gone for three days, we had a ton that needed to be picked. I spent part of the hour of Divine Mercy out there picking them with the help of Karol and Margaret. I have a million things I could do with them, bruschetta, salsa, spaghetti sauce, or canning. (all of which I plan on doing) However, tonight’s dinner was a pork loin, so I was looking for a nice side dish. After looking on line a bit and at a few cookbooks, I found a recipe for scalloped tomatoes. Yes I was afraid at first, but you know what? They are awesome. (I put my changes in italics)

 

No, really, these are good!

  • 1 large bag (22 to 24 ounces) whole green beans (I used a 12 oz bag of frozen french cut beans) 
  • 2 plum tomatoes, diced (I used five roma tomatoes) 
  • 8 ounces shredded Mozzarella, fresh if possible
  • 2 tablespoons butter (I used olive oil, mainly because I didn’t read the recipe) 
  • 1/4 cup finely diced onion
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream (I didn’t have any, so I used regular old fashioned whole milk) 
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon garlic
  • 1 cup buttered bread crumbs or slightly crumbled French fried onions (For this I used some Club Crackers I had) 

Preparation:

Butter an 11×7-inch baking dish. Heat oven to 375°.Cook the green beans in a small amount of water until just tender. Drain and arrange in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the diced tomatoes and shredded cheese. Set aside.In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add onion and saute until tender. Stir in flour until well blended. Add the salt, pepper, cream, and sour cream. Heat through, stirring constantly. Spread the cream mixture over the green beans then sprinkle the bread crumbs or French fried onions over all. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until browned and bubbly.
Serves 6.

 

Now let me tell you, Joshua said it looked good when he saw the finished project sitting on the stove when he got home. He was a bit concerned when he heard what was hidden under the white sauce and cracker crumbs. (to be honest, so was I). When we sat down to dinner a bit later,  and dug in, we fell in luv. Who knew this combo would be that good?

 

Filed under: Food

Alabama Weekend

Sometimes I think of Birmingham, Alabama as my second southern home. It is where I go on retreat, it is where we have many religious friends, and it is a city, where, while visiting, I feel pretty comfortable in.

This weekend, the whole family went to Birmingham to attend the priestly ordinations of Fr. Leonard and Fr. Patrick, from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, as well as the diaconate ordinations of Br. John Paul and Br. Paschal. Br. John Paul and Br. Paschal were both classmates of Joshua’s at the Josephinum (they were studying as diocesan seminarians at the time and both ended up at the MVFA.)  Also ordained on Saturday was Fr. Michael Vu from the diocese of Birmingham.

The ordination was held at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham. I’d never been to the Cathedral there before and was not disappointed, it was beautiful.
We left on Friday morning, first dropping cinnamon rolls off to our friends who were moving, that day, to above the gnat line.  We then headed west, first stopping in Auburn, Alabama to take a peak at the Mises Institute to check it out.  It was a lot smaller than I expected, but we did eat lunch in their parking lot, thanks guys.
We then headed up to Hanceville. Alabama and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. There we met Brother David from the Knights of the Holy Eucharist. The Knights offer a free retreat from priests, religious brothers, and seminarians, so pass the link along, they are right on the grounds of the Shrine. During our tour, Brother had to help the sisters with something, so we headed over to the “castle” (aka the gift shop) but stopped for confession and a few moments of adoration.
Let me just say that once Karol was born, our practice of a daily holy hour went by the wayside. Not because we wanted to, but because the demands of being a new mother and that of a fussy Karol made for frustrations when we would try. We took all four kids in to the Shrine and prayed while waiting for confession.  I would say they lasted for just over 15 minutes. (The older ones could have gone longer, it was the 20 month old giving us grief. ;))  It was wonderful to be able to go to confession and spend a few moments before our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
After our mini-holy hour and confessions (not mini), we met back up with Brother David and continued with our tour. We stopped to see the chapel with the display of the nativity. How wonderful to have the Christ Child with us year around.
The gift shop was nice, with many things to look at and to keep small fingers away from. I did not spend over my budgeted amount and picked up a few nice gifts as well as things for the kids. At that point, Joshua went off to have a meeting with Brother (the real reason we headed up there) and the kids ran around the grounds for a bit.
After Joshua was done with his meeting, we headed back to Birmingham, to our hotel and for dinner. We got Chipotle and brought it back to our hotel room, chilled out and watched lame-o tv.  We ended up watching the Food Network for a bit then headed off to sleep, it was a long day.
The next morning was the ordination, but not until 11, so we were able to enjoy breakfast and not rush through things. The kids got baths in the morning while I ironed (shocking I know) Karol’s shirt and pants. (My idea of ironing is putting it in the dryer.) We left for the ordination and finally found parking in a garage and got in the Cathedral 20 minutes early. There were no seats. The usher took pity on us and gave us the seats of some of the Fourth Degree Knights.
Our children did pretty well during the ordination, for the length and the fact that we were sitting in the back, I was pretty amazed. The two younger ones fell asleep toward the end, and the knight sitting behind us said they’d keep an eye on them, so we didn’t have to wake them to go up for Communion.
After the ordination and small reception, we headed over to the reception given by the Friars. First we had to leave the parking garage. No attendant on duty and it cost $2.00 to get out. We had a single and a dollar in change, just in case the auto attendant did not take debit cards. Not only did it not take debit cards, it did not take anything but dollar bills and quarters. Nice. We called the number on the box and they sent someone over to let us out.
Once that was done, we headed over to the other reception, where we were able to visit with Brother John Paul and talk with a few other people as well as receive a First Priestly Blessing from one of the newly ordained. Graces, graces, graces!!
The next morning we went to Mass at Casa Maria, and were able to surprise a dear sister friend of ours. We visited before mass then after with the sisters and family I met while on retreat a few months back. The kids ran and we talked, Margaret made a new friend as did Karol. Caecilia tried to give everyone a kiss goodbye. (Asking 8 year old boys for kisses and seeing their reaction kinda funny).
A few weeks ago, Margaret told me that she wanted to be a sister because a sister is married to God, so I was excited for her to be able to meet a few sisters. Margaret was shy, but in the end she hugged our Sister friend goodbye.
We had a wonderful weekend and a wonderful visit with friends!
Filed under: General Stuff, Travel

What’s On Your Table?

For dinner tonight’s dinner at the Facemyer house we are having oven baked smoked sausage with cabbage and onions, oven roasted potatoes, and peach cobbler for dessert.

 

What are you having?

Filed under: Food

Lincoln Log Weapons

This evening, the kids are playing with the Lincoln Logs. Benedict just walked through the living room with one planted in Margaret’s back making “blaster” or “phaser” noises.

I asked him if he was shooting Margaret and he replied (with a smile I might add) “Uh huh!”

Now he is pretending to take food out of the lower oven. What a crazy kid!

Filed under: General Stuff

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

I love cinnamon rolls. I love almost all things cinnamon, actually. Some mornings I wake up and want a nice cinnamon roll with butter, but don’t have the time to make them before breakfast time, so make due without. I stumbled across the idea of a No Rise Cinnamon Roll a few months ago and let me tell you, these are great! I worked on a recipe of my own, and today I think I perfected it!

 

No Rise Cinnamon Rolls

Time:

Prep – 10 minutes

Bake – 17 minutes

 

Dough

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 cup milk
Filling
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 4-5 tablespoons of cinnamon (or to taste)

 

Directions

1. Grease an 8×8 pan.

2. Turn oven on to 400 degrees

 

Filling:

1.  Place butter into a microwaveable bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, to melt the butter. (Keep an eye on it, so that it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t have to be totally melted).

2. Add the sugar and cinnamon to the melted butter, stir. Set aside.

 

Dough:

1. Place the flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the bowl. Cut the butter in to the flour mixture until it looks like crumbs.

2. Making a well in the center, place the milk and stir until incorporated. This dough will be very sticky.

3. Turn the dough onto a well floured surface and knead a few times, to incorporate more flour (but don’t over do it). When the dough no longer sticks to your hands or the board, roll it out to be 10-12 inches wide and 15-18 inches long. Make sure that it is not sticking to your board or counter as you roll it out. If it seems to be sticking, lift up and add flour underneath.

4. Spread the cinnamon sugar mixture onto rolled out dough, leaving a 1/2 inch margin on one side of the long edge.

5.Starting with the long end that has the cinnamon mixture on it, slowly roll the dough, in a semi-tight roll.

6. When finished rolling, pinch the seam together and lay seam down. Using a sharp knife or a board scraper, cut into one inch pieces.

7. Place cut side down, side by side, in your greased pan.

8. Bake at 400 degrees for 17 minutes.

9. Test for doneness (Temp around 190 degrees or lightly golden)

 

Serve with butter and coffee.

 

 

 

Filed under: Food, General Stuff

Calling Indiana!

Dear Hoosier friends:

Your Primary is on Tuesday and it is an open primary (meaning any registered voter can vote). This race isn’t over and Ron Paul wants your vote, so just do it, vote for the man who will defend the constitution and defend liberty in America. Go to his website, read and listen to what he has to say. Questions, ask me, I can help!

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/

Filed under: American Liberties