July, 2007
July 30, 2007
A Thought for Monday
Coffee cup in hand, I step outside and meander along the gardens in our yard. New blooms greet me every day. It’s like welcoming friends I haven’t seen for a year!
Today as I stroll along noting where next to water and weed, I wonder what would happen if I sow seeds of gratitude or wisdom in my mind? Could I nurture them along like my lilies and lavender and weed out thoughts that detract from beauty?
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July 28, 2007
Weekend Sweets
Whew! I survived the most intense 2 weeks that I have had in a long time. As you have been reading in the two previous blogs, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet have been holding our Chapter meetings. As soon as I receive the final wording on the decisions we made I will include them in a blog. In the meantime while I try to let my mind rest a bit, I thought I would share two GREAT recipes that I have enjoyed this summer! Let me know how you like them!
Salted Nut Rolls
Blend 1/3 cup margarine
1 tsp. Vanilla
¼ cup light corn syrup
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
By hand, roll mixture into small, marble-sized balls. Place balls on cookie sheet and freeze ½ - 1 hour.
Melt in microwave 2 – 14 oz Bags of caramels
2 tbsp. water
Using 5-6 bags of salted Spanish peanuts (I use lightly salted mixed with unsalted roasted peanuts), dip balls into the caramel and then roll them in the peanuts. Set them on wax paper while caramel cools.
Recipe makes about 70 balls. (They taste like Pearson’s Salted Nut Rolls.)
Winter-spice Molten Chocolate Cakes from Bon Appetit, January 2004
14 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
6 large eggs
6 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
Generously butter ¾-cup soufflé dishes. Stir chocolate, butter, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and white pepper in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Whisk eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk in 3 cups powdered sugar, then chocolate mixture, then flour. Transfer batter to prepared dishes, filing to top and dividing equally. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover to refrigerate.)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake cakes until batter has risen above dish, top edges are dark brown, and centers are still soft and runny, about 15 minutes, or about 18 minutes for refrigerated batter. Run small knife around cakes to loosen. Allow cakes to rest in dishes 5 minutes. Using hot pad and holding dish very firmly, place plate gently atop 1 cake and invert onto plate. Repeat with remaining cakes. Dust with powdered sugar.
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July 25, 2007
More Observations - the CSJ Impact
I’m still at our Chapter meeting with other Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet from all over the world determining the direction our sisters will take for the next six years. Once again I have invited Mary Treacy, to submit a blog entry. Mary is active in our Twin Cities community and never fails to be an advocate for the CSJs wherever she goes. Enjoy!
The CSJs’ official delegates to the Minnesota Women’s Consortium were involved with the Chapter meeting, so I was an undesignated hitter for the CSJs their annual meeting last week. At introduction time I mentioned that Mayor Chris Coleman had designated the week as Sisters of St. Joseph Week in St. Paul and that I had copies of the Proclamation for distribution. And thus began a conversation that lasted most of the evening.
The woman sitting to my right turned out to be a CSJ Consociate. At the same table was an elderly woman who had been educated by the Sisters, the director of the women’s shelter now housed at Incarnation, someone who serves on a board with a Sister of St. Joseph, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Academy, and two current students in Women’s Studies at the College of St. Catherine Weekend College. The praise for the CSJs and their immediate celebration of the Week was instant and unscripted. And that was just one table of women, each of whom was there as a leader in an organization committed to improving the lives of Minnesota women.
If you haven’t seen the Proclamation from the City of St. Paul, check it out on the Ministries Foundation website. CSJ Proclamation.pdf What is clear in this carefully crafted statement is the impact of the Sisters of St. Joseph on the lives of the people of St. Paul. Like the women at my table, nearly everyone in the city has been a patient or a learner, a neighbor, a fellow committee member, a beneficiary of the vision and care of the CSJs. The Proclamation even cites the example of the School Patrol program which continues to assure the safety of young pedestrians and monitor the driving habits of speeders – with a fiscal and safety record that exceeds 21st century electronic surveillance systems.
Minnesotans are prepping now to celebrate the Sesquicentennial of our state. The Sisters of St. Joseph are integral to the story and the ethos of St. Paul and of the state. The many threads of the CSJ story need to be woven into the fabric of the Sesquicentennial celebration. Those who know the stories must be at the ready to do the weaving. If not us, who? If not now, when?
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July 23, 2007
Fly on the Wall - Observations on Chapter
While I sit a the table with Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet from all over the world determining the direction our sisters will take for the next six years — the meetings we call our Chapter — I have invited an observer to the meetings, Mary Treacy, to describe the gathering from her point of view. Enjoy!
How often do you harbor a yen to actually be the proverbial fly on the wall? Once in a while there’s a chance, if not to be a fly at least to watch from a distance. That’s how I’ve felt these past couple of weeks as I watched from the lobby the chapter conclave of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
The College of St. Catherine campus is abuzz as ever. Women gather en masse in the Rauenhorst Hall and huddle intensely in the hallways, cafeteria, nooks and crannies of Coeur de Catherine. It’s a harmonic convergence of global vision and practical experience that gives me hope I haven’t felt for a long time. I want to stand up and root for the CSJ team — “More!” “Thou art needed at this hour!” “Help me Sisters of St. Joseph, you’re our only hope!” and other hackneyed cheers.
And I want desperately to remind the Sisters that what they are doing at this cataclysmic juncture makes a difference to those of us who peer in from the lobby or read this blog or don’t even know about the chapter meeting. The Sisters have a unique perspective on the world, the nation and the church. Just as important, from their life experience working with real people living in the real world, they understand how decisions made by the official global, national and church “deciders” affect people in their homes, their schools, their hospitals, their church pews, their workplaces or the streets on which children of God struggle to find both shelter and hope,
In a word, I trust these women to deliberate and decide matters that affect the Sisters of St. Joseph. At the same time, my confident hope is that they are also grappling with and taking bold action to extend the steady hand of women religious to this trembling world as we tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
If not now, when? If not these wise women, who?
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July 17, 2007
Praying Through Good Days and Bad
Sister Rose Tillemans, a member of our community who died five years ago this month, was an activist with deep convictions about peace and justice. She deeply loved people who are poor, ignored by society, and those whom others find difficult to love. She also founded Peace House on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis, a drop-in center for people who are poor and homeless to gather and build community.
Sister Rose was also a wonderful poet who wrote the most inspiring prayers. Here’s one that inspires me. It’s from I’m Still Dancing: Praying through Good Days and Bad (2002, Twenty Third Publications).
You Are the God of Laughter
My God of Fun and Laughter,
what enjoyment you injected into our lives last night
at our gathering of friends.
After such a stormy two weeks,
I felt the “dew from heaven drop down,”
and it isn’t even close to Advent!
What a spirited sweep over all of us!
So many gatherings laden with heavy agenda,
fitting into such small slots of time.
Help me, O Holy One of Laughter,
to extend this upbeat attitude
and lightheartedness throughout this day.
It will help me to lift myself and others
into a joyful aura and to work it into
the possible irksome happenings of today.
If things do become overwhelming,
remind me that I simply cannot allow myself
to fall into heavy gloom and then become crabby
with the Peace House Community and others.
Fun, foolishness, and frolic are sacraments for me,
though they are not listed in the catechism.
Thank you, God of Laughter, for such blessings.
-- Rose Tillemans, CSJ
P.S. July has been just crazy – with the holiday at the beginning of the month, some traveling, and our big Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Chapter meetings, which the CSJs from St. Paul are hosting. More on that later. I’m back in the blogging groove now, so look forward to my return to twice a week blogs. Thanks for your patience!
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