Recipes: Oatmeal Honey Bread or Fasting Bread

 

Good Morning!

Recipes: Oatmeal Honey Bread or Fasting Bread

This morning, I had the pleasure of waking up in Herzegovina. It is a bright and sunny morning and the air is starting to warm up as the sun rises over the mountain.

I picked up some wonderful bread from the local bakery here in a Medjugorje called Oatmeal Honey Bread or "Fasting Bread". The local baker offered me the recipe. So, I thought this recipe would be a nice addition to our Recipe Box. It is a great bread for fasting as it has plenty of protein and fiber. This recipe will make two loaves. It should take 4 hours from beginning to end.

Ingredients

Add 2 tablespoons of dry yeast to 1/2 cup warm water and let stand for 10 minutes (good yeast foams up)

In large mixing bowl add (mix well):
2 cups oat bran flour
3 1/2 cups white flour
1 flat tablespoon salt
1 cup quick (not old fashioned) oatmeal

Make a little hole in the center of your bowl before adding:
dissolved yeast
2 eggs beaten (eggs should be room temperature)
1/4 vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup of honey, maple syrup or light molasses (your choice)
3/4 cup of warm water (Add water little bit at a time, when bread is dry add a little more, if too soupy too much water, no fear - can always add a little more flour to stiffen up the dough).

Roll onto floured surface and knead into a large ball. Place in a lightly oiled large bowl to let rise for 2 hours (on a warm place preferably). Cover with spray-oiled plastic wrap and let rise. Then when risen, punch down and roll onto floured surface again and split the dough into two balls. Roll flat and shape into elongated rolls and place in an oiled bread pan. Cover again with lightly spray-oiled plastic wrap. Let rise again for about an hour. (If you are planning to freeze all or some of the dough, this would be the part of the recipe to do so. Form the dough into loafs and put it in an airtight freezer bag. Good frozen up to one month.)

When dough rises to just above the top of bread pan, (a rounded look), you can take egg white and a little water and brush lightly on top of bread and sprinkle quick oats on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower temperature to 375 degrees for another 35-40 minutes. When bread is nicely browned and the top taps hollow sounding, take out and cool on wired surface.

Why Organ Transplants Are Not Always Successful

 

Why Organ Transplants Are Not Always Successful
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Medical sciences are all making spectacular progress in recent years. Technological advances in medicine have changed many aspects of our life. One of these advances is in the field of organ transplantation.

Although organ transplantation is technologically fascinating, it is not without its risks. One of its biggest problems that face the medical community is the chance of survival when undergoing organ transplantation.

When organ transplants fail, most surgeons blame it either to the failure of the surgery itself, the transplanted organ did not work as expected, or because the body rejected it.

## Why Organ Transplants Fail?

As you know, the human body is made up not only by flesh, bone, and blood, but also by soul (spirit). Spirit itself is an embodiment of knowledge or ability to think and create. It is our mind, our soul, and inner-self. God gave this only to humans, and no other living things have it in this world.

When doctors cut and transfer only a small part of the body to another person's body, the surgery can be performed successfully and you can easily think that the patient's soul will not matter.

Now, what about transplant of large organs? When doctors perform transplant of larger organs, you will be facing two challenging questions:

1. Will the soul be transferred along with the organ to the recipient?
2. If the soul is not transferred, can the transplanted organs survive?

Unlike our flesh, bone, and blood, our soul is not transferable.

If the transplanted organs do not contain its soul, then the entire surgical procedure will become unsuccessful.

Many doctors believe or think that transplant operations can go wrong because of some mistake. But that's not it! Doctors performing the surgery are not making medical mistake, but rather, they never really realized that the transplanted organ has its spirit or soul missing.

## Organ Transplant in Animal Research are Different

Animals and humans are completely different in nature. Animals do not have soul or spirit! Therefore, doctors and scientists will succeed in performing organ transplant from one animal to another without any doubts.

But if doctors will implement these same ideas and techniques (which they gathered from animal research) to humans, then they are making a very big mistake.

Remember, doctors will almost always be successful in transplanting small areas of our body as this process will not involve the human soul. It is during large organ transplants and whole-body transplants where you must consider its soul.

One more thing--a person's spirit or soul is like a brain. It is what gives us the ability to think. Imagine if God placed a soul in an animal's physical body!

So animals, birds, and plants, do not have souls. If a chicken has soul, and we are killing and cooking thousands of chickens every day, then wouldn't that be a cruel act? Thus, God did not give animals souls.

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Urban Zen: Meditation In Bigger Cities

 

Urban Zen: Meditation In Bigger Cities

Meditation in the big city can sometimes be a daunting task! More and more
cities are creating more spaces for relaxing, keeping your cool and de-stressing
in a city setting. The practice of urban zen helps us temporarily let the
physical world go so that we can begin to see ourselves as we truly are -
spiritually enlightened beings.

Big cities are creating more outdoor and public spaces for relaxing, recreation and refreshing your spirit with nature! Find a bench, grassy knoll or special place in your city where you can reconnect with sky, nature or sea (if possible).

Meditation is a time-honored technique that can take you into infinite
dimensions of consciousness. It is a simple effort that becomes effortless as we
do it more and more. One major principle to meditation is the ability to
completely quiet your mind. Quieting the mind comes as a result of meditating
over a long period of time, but any time you are looking within, you are
meditating. Meditation helps us live a healthier, less stressful life. The
physical and psychological benefits are wonderful and many people meditate only
for those reasons.

There are many meditation methods. Some are passive -- such as observing the
breath. Others are active -- in the sense that you actually do something like
repeating a word or mantra. The meditations that you will find here will help
you develop on many levels. No matter what style or form you follow, meditation
should always be gentle. Do not force anything. Allow your efforts to flow
naturally and effortlessly.

These meditation can be done anywhere and do not require anything but yourself!

Letting Go. Fold your hands gently in your lap and close your eyes. Take a few
deep breaths. Then just sit. If you have never meditated before, you will
probably feel as if your mind is full of thoughts. Don't try to stop the
thoughts, just watch them. Imagine that you are on the bank of a river and that
your thoughts are the river going by. Don't try to stop the river, just watch
it. Within a week, you will see the river begin to slow down. You may become
impatient, or even bored. That's okay. If you find yourself complaining, just
watch the thoughts pass by. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes. You may find that you
fall asleep because you are so relaxed. That's good because, in many ways, you
have begun to let go. Continue at this pace and each day allow just a little
more time for yourself to meditate. Doing this allows you to relax and forget
about time.

Progressive Relaxation is just that. A slow transition from a tense, immobile
state to a calmer more supple mind and body. This is a way of releasing tension
in the muscles. There are many variations of Progressive Relaxation. Here is one
of them:

Begin by laying on your back in a comfortable position.

Take a series of deep slow breaths and then focus your awareness on different
parts of the body in turn, becoming aware of any muscular tension and releasing
it.

One way to do this is to first tense a muscle deliberately and then relax it.

You can start with the top of the body, tensing and relaxing the muscles of the
upper face, then moving on to the jaw, neck, chest, front of the arms, abdomen,
thighs, lower legs, feet, and toes.

Then do the same down the back of the body. Finally, lie still with the eyes
closed, concentrating on your breath. Allow the whole body to relax into the
ground. Feel the floor underneath you, supporting you. Feel the earth supporting
the floor. Feel yourself now deeply rooted and grounded into the earth beneath
you.

Enjoying this deep feeling of peace and freedom from muscular tension.

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