FORGIVE ME FATHER…BUT I’M JUST LOSING IT!

First, I want to apologize for the sporadic posting and visiting. I can only say that the last week or so has been incredibly…challenging, to say the least.

I do plan on writing a post on some of what has been going on…but I’m waiting for the conclusion first. And that can’t come too soon, as far as I’m concerned.

In the meantime, for any of you who do the praying thing….a few prayers that I may find patience and the strength to keep my temper in check would be helpful.

FRACTURED FAIRY TALES-NUNLY STYLE

I always loved Fractured Fairy Tales…so I thought I’d give it a shot and write my own version of “The Fly King”.   Enjoy the real one first and then you can read mine.   For some reason, I think they mesh quite well.

Once upon a time piece there sat an ordinary fly (buzz)
Now, this fly wasn’t bothering anyone.
He wasn’t even trying to find out what time it was.
But the time piece happened to be a sundial that stood in King Obama’s rose garden and the King was adverse to flies.

“Gotcha!”

The poor fly was imprisoned in a jar and each day at sunset  King Obama would pay his captor a visit.

“This will teach you to sit on my sundial” said the King.

To the Kings surprise, the fly spoke!

“Let me go, sire”, begged the fly, “and I will grant you a wish.”
“Gadzooks! It speaks!” exclaimed the King.
The fly continued, “Release me, and you can have anything.”
“Anything?” the King mused.
“Well, I’m only a fly, make it within reason.”

Just then, the King’s royal minster, Rahm Emmanuel,  entered the room.

“Your subjects are at it again, my Liege, these signs were stuck in the moat!”

HELP STAMP OUT KINGS!

DOWN WITH HIGHNESSES!

“Who is responsible for this?” bellowed  King Obama.  “No one knows”, replied Rahm.
“Obvious,  Rahm,  a group of radicals are upset with my tyrannical way of ruling”‘
“I’ll see if I can get their names, Sire.”
“If only I can overhear those rascals when they’re plotting.”

“Maybe I can set up a snitch program , a place for you to rat out your neighbors”,  mused King Obama

“That’s possible, my King, but it may not be Constitutional…..which makes it more evil.  I like it!”  sneered Rahm.

The fly intervened, “You don’t need snitches, there are better ways!”
“I could if I were a fly.”

Lo…the fly waved a wing and the King was transformed.

(POOF!)

“I can fly! I can fly! Yes I can!”

The fly in the jar was given his freedom and the king quickly took off for the village square, which is where the village squares usually congregated.

“The king is a fink.”  mumbled the protester.

“Be careful, the walls have ears, you’ll be dubbed a racist or worse!”  cried his fellow protester.

The walls didn’t have ears but it did have flies, one in particular with a crown on his head.

“I still think the king is a fink.”

The following day, the fink-sayer racist was brought to the castle in chains.
“So you admit that you called me a fink!” “I do, I do, but I still can’t figure out how you found out.”

By the end of the month, the radicals were filling the castle dungeons to capacity. All because the king was able to change himself into a fly and overhear the plots against him.

“Congratulations, your highness, your kingdom is completely under your iron hand!”, Rahm smiled.

Now this particular king was loaded with bad characteristics, like avarice… or greed, if you prefer.

“Tell me, Rahm, that kingdom across the border, is it larger or smaller than mine?”
“Canada?” Rahm questioned, “Larger, your wickedness.” , said Rahm.
“Then I shall have it!”

So saying, he called upon the king who ruled the kingdom across the river.

“Nice kingdom you have here, would you like to sell it?” Obama asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” said the Canadian Prime Minister, rolling his eyes.

It was then that the lofty tower caught King Obama’s eye.

“Uh…what do you keep up there?” queried King Obama.

“Oh, just my daughter, she was locked up there by a witch about a month ago.” said the Canadian Prime Minister.

“Uh…uh…her name wouldn’t be Rapunzel, now would it?” King Obama asked.

“No, Nunly. She can only be freed by a man who is willing to answer to her every whim.”

This sounded intriguing to King Obama because his wife, Michelle,  had been ignoring him as late.   In fact, he could hardly see her because he had to get past her 22 attendants,  and he missed her nagging and bullying.

“What else do you get if you rescue her?” King Obama said as he rubbed his hands together in a fly-like manner.

“You get an autographed picture of Mao Tse-Tung…and my kingdom, of course.” answered the Canadian Prime Minister.

That was all that King Obama needed to know. That night when the moon was high in the sky…which is a good place for it, he set a ladder against the tower and started up.

King Obama patted himself on the back and said, “Not only am I ruthless, but I’m unavoidably attractive!” “She’ll take one look at my handsome features and she’ll jump at the chance to come home with me!”

He was so enraptured with himself that he failed to notice that the ladder was far too short to reach the tower window. He not only reached the top wrung, but took two more wrung’s above it, which was the wrong thing to do no matter which way you look at it. King Obama fell to the ground faster than his polls fell in his first 6 months as king.

Suddenly, from a nearby rose bush he heard the familiar voice of the enchanted fly.

Giggling, the fly said, “You know, I can sit here and watch you all night, heh heh heh, you’re funny!”

“Take care, I don’t ridicule easily, just ask Fox News.” King Obama sneered.

The fly shrugged off his threat and said, “No offense, but couldn’t you get up to the tower a lot easier if you turned into a fly?”

“Great gobblygooks! You’re right!” exclaimed the king.

An instant later the king was a fly and he quickly zoomed up to the tower and before he could change back to his kingly appearance, he was met with the damsel, Nunly.

NUNLY HATES FLIES….ESPECIALLY FLIES WITH CROWNS ON THEIR HEADS!

THE END

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Now that we’ve finished celebrating Halloween, it’s time to move on to one of my favorite holy days of the year,  All Saints Day.

All Saints Day is a holy day in the Catholic Church that celebrates ALL saints… that goes for the big names like St. Joseph, St. Anthony, and St. Therese Lieusux (all my favorites), and it also celebrates those who are unknown or who haven’t been honored as saints. We often ask them to intercede for us in our prayers and our needs. Poor Saint Anthony, I’m always bugging that guy to help me find my keys and whatever else this scatterbrain had misplaced.

I’ve also discovered a great prayer to St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) :

“Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayer. And every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray. Pray to the Lord, because even God needs our prayers.”

I mean, who doesn’t feel the loneliness of life sometimes?

And then there are the “unknowns”….those saints that have never been officially beatified or recognized by the church as “official saints”. Nonetheless, there are plenty out there who have died while in the service of God. For instance, there are five Catholic nuns from the Adorers of the Blood of Christ Order who were rendering humanitarian services to orphans in Monrovia whose parents were killed in the civil war there. They were brutally raped and murdered by rebels in the 1992 “Operation Octopus” launched by disbanded National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). These “Saints” names are; Sr. Barbara Ann Muttra, ASC, Sr. Shirley Kolmer, ASC, Sr. Joel Kolmer, ASC, Sr. Agnes Mueller, ASC and Kachleen McGuire, ASC gave their lives in order to protect the young children in the village.

These brave Sisters  knew their lives were in danger…I know this because my cousin was one of the nuns that was living with them in Monrovia but was able to get out just a few weeks before this happened. She told me the stories of how the rebels would pound on the door of the convent in the middle of the night and wave their guns around and make threats. The incidents of this happening were increasing so the Mother Superior told them to close up shop and get out of there. Unfortunately, not all of them made it out in time. My cousin is now semi-retired and living in the Mother House in St. Louis. I think of her as a living saint, not only for the many years of work that she did while in Liberia, but for all that she continues to do for others now that she is here.

Oh,  and I would like to add this.  As I was writing this post I received a comment from someone on the post I wrote last Sunday…my “rant”.   This person (Trish) made that old washed out claim that nuns were treated as “second-class” citizens by the Church.   To me that is an insult to every nun within the Catholic Church who have given up their lives to serve God.  There is NOTHING “second class” about being a nun and those who make this claim are doing all women a disservice when they make such ridiculous arguments.

Yup…there’s plenty of saints out there and today is their day! Think of it like Veteran’s Day for Saints. We’re honoring all who have served God, living and dead. This is the Communion of Saints and I hope that one day I can be counted in that number!

Oh when the Saints…Come marching in…Oh when the Saints come marching in….

Have a great day everyone!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pull pranks and have fun today!

(I have my usual busy Saturday morning, but will try to get back to my computer to visit your blogs later. )

BREAD OF THE DEAD

I  wasn’t sure what I wanted to post today but I  knew I wanted to do something fun and scary for Halloween Eve.  This recipe was e-mailed to me for Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead)….and that led me on searches for images which led me to this video.   Really bizarre!

Pan de Muertos is made in preparation for El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead or All Souls’ Day) which is holiday celebrated in Mexico and by Latin Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 1st and 2nd in connection with the Catholic holiday of All Saints’ Day which occurs on November 1st and All Souls’ Day which occurs on November 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Oh…and if you think you can stand to eat bread after this video, here’s the recipe for Pan de Muertos.

During the Day of the Dead festivities in the first two days of November, graves are decorated with flowers and offerings of food and drink in honor of the departed, including this pan de muertos, a yeasty, sweet egg bread flavored with anise.

TIME/SERVINGS
Total Time: 3 hrs 40 mins
Active Time: 25 mins
Makes: 2 loaves

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon anise seed
1/2 ounce (2 packets) active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine sugar, salt, anise seed, and yeast in a small mixing bowl. Heat milk, water, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter is just melted; do not allow it to boil. Add milk mixture to dry mixture and beat well with a wire whisk.
2. Stir in eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat well. Add remaining flour, little by little, stirring well with a wooden spoon until dough comes together.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board and knead until it is smooth and elastic, and no longer sticky, about 9 to 10 minute . Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow it to rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. Cut 3 small (about 1-ounce) balls from each half and mold them into skull-and-bones shapes. Shape large balls of dough into round loaf shapes, and place skull-and-bones on top. Place breads on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise another hour.
5. Brush loaves with egg yolk mixture and bake. Halfway through baking, about 20 minutes, remove loaves from oven and brush again with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Return to oven and bake until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about another 20 minutes.

 

This will be cross-posted on Eating Habits…my other blog which has been sadly ignored lately. For those who haven’t visited there yet, check it out. I know there’s not much there yet, but hopefully I’ll get my act together and put more effort into it…especially since the holiday’s are coming up. I have a LOT of holiday recipe, Italians LOVE the holidays!