Dating in a Throwaway Culture | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views

Dating in a Throwaway Culture | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views

Rooted in Love!

Available at www.donnacooperoboyle.com

I just came across a review for my book Rooted in Love: Our Calling as Catholic Women. Here's the description from the publisher:

Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, bestselling author and popular EWTN television and radio personality, accompanies Catholic women through the ups and downs of their lives, encouraging them to be reflections of Christ in all things.With warmth and candor, Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle demonstrates why she is so beloved by her readers, viewers, and listeners. Through sometimes-unexpected stories from her own journey, she shows that being a faith-filled Catholic woman does not mean being perfect. Rather, in the midst of parenting difficulties, marital problems, economic hardships, and sickness--among other challenges--one finds strength in Christ and in the wisdom and community of the Church. She highlights how the sacraments, the virtues, prayer, Mary and the saints, the works of mercy, and various devotions and practices all offer women grace and guidance for their lives.

Here's the review. The reviewer says she is "not fully comfortable with Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s evangelical style." Nonetheless, here's her review: 

“Rooted in Love” has a very appealing cover. It gives a partial view of a woman walking through a field of what appear to be dandelions or buttercups. The layout, typesetting and soft, bright colors are pleasing. Even more pleasing is the connection between the feminine and the earth, and the representation of natural beauty. This book comes in an attractive “package.”

Can you judge a book a book by its cover? There are some parts I like in this book, other aspects that I don’t identify with. I am not fully comfortable with Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle’s evangelical style.

Nevertheless, I find enough good in the book to write about it. I was reading a chapter a day but did not get farther than three paragraphs on Day 5 before pausing to meditate. “How is Christ ‘my life’ at home?” the author asks.

As a professional family life minister, I know a lot about Christ in the home. But that day I needed to reflect on Christ being not just “in” my life but “being” my life at home. Once again I had to be present to Christ who reveals himself in the quotidian of the household.

The very next paragraph deserves highlighting. Cooper O’Boyle says, “For me, the greatest joy in my vocation is the awareness that I have been raising my five children in the faith all these years — thirty-five to be exact. I consider my home to be a ‘domestic church,’ a little church where amazing growth and transformation happen right within the nitty-gritty details of daily life.”

Her thinking is affirmed by “On the Family” (“Familiaris Consortio”), an apostolic exhortation Pope John Paul II wrote early in his pontificate, and by “Follow the Way of Love,” a 1993 pastoral statement written in ordinary language by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

See the entire review here: http://www.foryourmarriage.org/rooted-in-love-our-calling-as-catholic-women/

God bless you and yours,

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My garlic scape pesto sauce!

I enjoy growing an organic garden each year. One of my very favorite vegetables to grow is garlic. Not only is garlic delicious in many foods, it is extremely nutritious. As well, it is medicinal, and even referred to by some as a natural antibiotic.

My garlic plants

I plant garlic at the end of October each year using cloves of garlic that I have grown. Into the earth goes the garlic clove. Then, late next summer, out comes a big full round garlic bulb when I harvest the plants.

During the growing process the plants grow a scape on top. It's a curvy loop on one of the garlic plant's stems and has a flower blossom on the end. The scapes are cut off the garlic plants so that the plant's energy can go to the bulb growing underground rather than to the blossom for the flower trying to grow at the top of the plant.

So, when the scapes are the right size, they are cut from the plant with a sharp knife to be used in various recipes. My favorite is scape pesto.

I have about 275 garlic plants in the garden this year but I only cut about 15 or so scapes the other day to make some pesto for dinner. So, I'll be harvesting the remaining scapes this week end and making LOTS more pesto sauce and freezing most of it for future use.

Harvesting the garlic scapes...

In my garden. A big handful of cut scapes ready
to bring into the kitchen.

My recipe:

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients for about four cups:

• 10 to 15 garlic scapes
• About 1 cup or so of chopped pine nuts (OR pistachios or walnuts)
• 3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (more or less, depending on desired consistency)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (One time I added to this a couple of slices of an Italian four-cheese blend because I was short on the Parmesan cheese. It came out delicious!)
• Juice from half of a fresh squeezed lemon (more if needed)
• Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
• You can also add 1/2 cup to 1 cup fresh chopped basil

Preparing the scapes - Rinse scapes in cold water, then roughly chop into one inch pieces.

Pour scapes and the pine nuts into the bowl of your food processor. Blend for about a minute, or until a fairly smooth texture is achieved. Scrape down sides of bowl with your rubber spatula.

     With the machine running, slowly add olive oil, and process until thoroughly incorporated, about 15 seconds or more. Then add the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, and blend for another 5 seconds. Taste and decide if you might like to add more salt and fresh ground pepper.

     This pesto is excellent freshly made and even better when refrigerated for several hours or overnight. Before chilling, place the pesto in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

     If you don’t grow your own garlic, garlic scapes are available at farmers’ markets and some grocery markets from June through mid-July. So, hurry and get some. If you make a lot of scape pesto, you can freeze it in air-tight containers for up three months. You can freeze the pesto in ice cube trays or muffin tins and then after frozen, take them out of the trays or tins and place frozen pesto in freezer bags and then pop them back into the freezer. Take out whenever needed for recipes and eating.

     I must warn you that this pesto is extremely "addicting"! :) At least, it is for me. :)

Some scapes cut from the plants and on my cutting board

I cut off the tough "woody" parts of the scape and froze
them for future soup stock making.

chopping pine nuts

Ready to process (a few longer pieces snuck in!)

It smells heavenly!

So delicious!

I hope you get a chance to make and enjoy fresh garlic scape pesto!

God bless!

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HILLSONG: LET HOPE RISE movie

BREAKING NEWS: NEW Hillsong movie about a Christian band's remarkable journey...

Here's the trailer.

Here's a press release for "Let Hope Rise"

ALCON ENTERTAINMENT PICKS UP FEATURE “HILLSONG – LET HOPE RISE” 

WARNER BROS. TO RELEASE WORLDWIDE

An Up Close and Personal Journey with the World’s Most Successful Worship Band Shooting Currently On Five Continents 

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 1, 2014—Alcon Entertainment has acquired HILLSONG – LET HOPE RISE for worldwide release by Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Alcon principals Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

The full-length feature documentary, directed by Michael John Warren (Jay-Z’s “Fade to Black”), chronicles the spectacular rise to prominence of the Australia-based Christian worship band Hillsong UNITED. Matthew Weaver of MediaWeaver Entertainment and Jonathan Bock of Grace Hill Media are producing. B. Wayne Hughes, Jr. and Greg Campbell of Cantinas Entertainment, which is financing the feature, are executive producing. Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film on April 3, 2015. 

The movie will present the band’s remarkable journey from a youth group band at Hillsong Church to worldwide sensation, routinely performing sold-out stadium concerts and selling more than 16 million albums all over the world.

In a joint statement, Kosove and Johnson said, “In terms of reach, Hillsong UNITED is one of the biggest bands out there, Christian or otherwise. But at their core, they’re just a group of unassuming individuals impacting the world with their music. We’re thrilled to be part of bringing their extraordinary story to the big screen.” 

Led by Joel Houston, son of Hillsong Church founders Brian and Bobbie Houston, all of Hillsong UNITED’s 11-member band are volunteers or employees of the church. Their songs are so popular is it estimated that on any given Sunday, more than 30 million churchgoers around the world are singing one of Hillsong’s worship songs. 

“With songs like Mighty to Save, Oceans, Hosanna and From the Inside Out, anyone who regularly attends a church knows Hillsong’s music by heart. That’s how influential they’ve become,” Bock said. “And yet despite the fame and adulation, they’re still just a simple worship band trying to do what tens of thousands of other worship bands try to do every week -- glorify God through their music. How they balance that is a fascinating and surprising story.”

The filmmakers will follow the band as it completes its current tour and prepares to record its next album. The film will marry live concert footage with a narrative structure.

“It’s a little weird and a lot humbling to have a movie made about us,” Joel Houston said. “But we didn’t say ‘yes’ to this to draw attention to ourselves. It’s our hope that by sharing an up-close and unvarnished look inside our music and lives, we can shatter pre-conceived notions of what it means to follow Jesus in today’s modern world.” 

Hillsong Church spans 12 global locations with more than 100,000 weekly attendees, including thriving congregations in New York and Los Angeles. In addition to its music efforts, Hillsong  sponsors worldwide ministry work – examples include feeding and educating children in the slums of India, building housing for those living with AIDS in Africa and rescuing victims of human trafficking around the globe – outreaches paid for in part through proceeds from Hillsong UNITED music and merchandise sales

ABOUT ALCON ENTERTAINMENT

Co-founders and co-CEO's Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson founded Alcon Entertainment in 1997 with partner Frederick W. Smith, the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FedEx. Warner Bros. distributes Alcon’s motion pictures via the companies’ long-term output distribution agreement.

Alcon has financed and produced, and/or co-financed/produced 23 films to date, including My Dog Skip; Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank and directed by Chris Nolan; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank; the Academy Award nominated Best Picture The Blind Side, which earned Sandra Bullock a Best Actress Oscar; The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman; the hit family film Dolphin Tale, starring Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson; Prisoners, the critically acclaimed thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal; and Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp. Alcon’s next release is Dolphin Tale 2, a sequel to the 2011 box-office success that reunites the original cast. Alcon is currently in pre-production on Point Break, a reimagining of the classic action movie, starring Edgar Ramirez.

Alcon Television Group is currently producing the drama pilot Hysteria with Shaun Cassidy and Adam Schroeder for Amazon; a four-hour mini-series documentary for HBO about the life and times of Frank Sinatra, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney; and The Expanse, a ten-episode epic space thriller for Syfy Network.  

ABOUT CANTINAS ENTERTAINMENT, LLC

Cantinas Entertainment, LLC, founded in 2014 by Greg Campbell and B. Wayne Hughes Jr., seeks to inspire and engage audiences disillusioned with the landscape of cynicism – and to offer a dependable choice in entertainment.  Upcoming projects include a film based on Brenda Spahn’s book “Miss Brenda and the Loveladies," with Donald Petrie (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “Miss Congeniality,”) set to direct. 

God bless!