Chris Manion's Blog, page 8

Do This One Habit of the Rich. Hint: Nothing to do with Money.

Photo by Erica Schoonmaker

Rich people have an amazing and admirable habit that does not involve money, according to Ken Rutkowski’s Facebook page.

They read. A lot.

TDo you know what the majority of them read?Non-fiction. They read to learn.  They rarely read for entertainment. They know they’ll never live long enough to learn from all the mistakes they can possibly make. So they learn from others, by reading biographies to learn others’ life stories and lessons. They read history books. They read self help books. They read about topics that intrigue them. In short, they value learning.

I read so I can learn from other people’s mistakes. Click here to read more about what others have learned from all my spiritual reading. I shared much of it in God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul.

Photo by faungg’s photos

Wealthy People’s Habits

https://goo.gl/hp3aG0

Interviewing 233 wealthy individuals (177 of whom were self-made millionaires) with at least $160,000 in annual gross income and $3.2 million in net assets.

According to my research on the wealthy:

* 85% read two or more books a month for education and learning purposes

* 63% listened to educational audio books during their commute to work

* 88% read 30 minutes or more each day for purposes of education and learning

* 58% read biographies of famous successful people

* 51% read history books

* 55% read self-help books

* Only 11% of the rich read for entertainment purposes. Billionaires like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg devote many hours a day to reading for the purpose of learning.

In short, the rich deserve to be rich because they put in the work that success requires. And part of that work is reading to learn. If you only read for entertainment, you are one of the 99%. If you read to learn, you are doing what the top 1% do.

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Five Minute Friday: Work

One shared prompt. Five unedited minutes. That’s the challenge of an online writing group I have discovered. This is my first five minute, unedited submission on the topic of Work.

My work. My life’s work. What is the legacy of my life’s contribution? I photograph and write and love and pray. Encouraging others, sharing my God-given gifts. This is what I do.

I can’t keep from thinking about Dmitri. He’s the subject of a documentary. A minister, if I remember correctly, who was sent to prison in Russia for some silly little something. Perhaps sharing his faith. Or speaking out against an injustice. Like Nelson Mandela, he spent way too many years there unnecessarily. Yet God uses everything and tests us sometimes. I don’t know which this was, if not both, but Dmitri spent seventeen years in prison. And this is how he spent them: he prayed every day. In song. The fellow prisoners jeered at him. Threw excrement at him. Made fun of him. He persevered.

When the guards came to execute him, over one thousand prisoners sang his prayer song. The guards stopped. “Who are you?” they asked.

That is the work I want us all to do.

Photo by h.koppdelaney

 

For the full story on Dmitri and its happy ending, click here.

 

 

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Nothing satisfies that ache in my heart

photo by Annie Spratt

Do you find yourself saying “Nothing satisfies this ache in my heart? Nothing …” I did.

There’s a loneliness you feel that has nothing to do with your life as you know it. Right?

There’s an ache in your heart that you cannot fill.

It’s not from lack of food. Or lack of a boyfriend or girlfriend.

It’s not from some lack in your childhood.

I’ve felt it for years and called it loneliness. I didn’t know what else to call it.

When did the answer come to me? I’m not exactly sure. But if you’re ready to hear it, I’d like to share it with you.

You know how you can sorta pick up on how a person’s feeling when you know them really well? They don’t have to say anything necessarily. If they do, you hear “it” in the tone of their voice. If they don’t, you see it in their movements, their pace, some action they take betrays it to you, for you know them so well. You ask what’s up, what’s wrong. They shrug. Now you know you’re onto something.

That is how it is with God when we ignore Him, when we think we can get along in our life without Him. It takes us a long time, sometimes, to figure out how wrong we are. Good thing God is patient. He waits forever, although we may get some soul nudges from time to time.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” St. Augustine

That ache. It’s your soul; its longing for connection with the One Who made you. And it’s His ache too, for He’s so near to you that your soul picks up on it, the same way you know when a good friend is hurting. I know, I know. You probably don’t think He’s very near at all, way up in heaven and hardly paying attention to you. That’s how I used to think. It’s convenient to think that way because if He’s not paying attention all the time, that means we ought to be able to get away with a few things when He’s not looking, when He’s busy with the more important matters on any given day.

The truth is we are the most important matter to Him. You and me. He waits for us like a new parent hovering over an infant making sure it is still breathing as it sleeps.

Our soul picks up on this. It senses His nearness and aches to be held by Him.

That’s the ache.

The only way to get rid of it is to turn to Him. Let Him in. Desire to have a closer relationship than you have now. Opening your heart to Him eases the ache and brings you peace.

It does. It’s okay to try. No commitment. Just close your eyes and try and sense Him. Get quiet. Let your soul in stillness wait. He will come. And when He does, your ache will melt.

Read how to soothe your aching soul here and here (Amazon)  

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How Do You Know God Answers Your Prayers? For sure?

God answers prayers. I heard this all my life and was pretty sure people who told me this might be slightly mistaken. It seemed to me that I didn’t get any answers when I prayed. 

Sure, every once in a while, I’d pay attention to the fact that I did get through the trial about which I was praying, but in the rare moments that I did notice my prayer had been answered, it didn’t seem definitive. Because it could have been a coincidence. I didn’t see any evidence of God anywhere. You know, like George Burns’ voice saying, “There. You got what you wanted. Now, will you believe in me?” So I never gave Him credit.

My Lesson in Written Prayer

All of that changed when I attended a workshop on prayer journaling. “Bring a notebook and a pen,” my friend had told me. Easy enough. After a talk and an explanation of four things you can put in your journal, the trainer charged us to find a private place in which to write in our journals for the first time.

Because I had a formula to follow, I didn’t find the actual writing very difficult, although I felt a little silly writing to God. I preferred talking to Him. Since I’m almost always willing to give new things a try, I pushed through my uncomfortableness. You never know what you might learn or discover.

The trainer gave us the following order of topics which I used to begin writing my prayer journal.

How to Write a Prayer Journal

Tell God how you’re feeling at the moment.

What a day I’m having, Lord!
So-and-so makes me so frustrated.
When will it ever end?


Offer Him praise.

You are holy, Almighty Father, and all creation rightly gives you praise.
All life, all holiness comes from You, O Wonderful Counselor, my Prince of Peace.
I praise You, God, from Whom all blessings flow, even when I can’t see them.


Ask Him for help with something bothering you. Then add your prayers for others.
End with thanksgiving.  

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I kept it up for a few months, not every day, mind you, but at least several times a week. Months later, I remembered the instructor, Karen Mains had instructed us to go back after some time and mark in the margins when any of our prayers had been answered.

As I reviewed my earliest pages, I noted where a healthy baby had been born, where a surgery had been successfully completed, and even where I had become calm in a stressful situation. As I repeated this reviewing process every few months, I could see with my very own eyes the truth I’d been told years ago.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS.

My entries written in blue and black ink, helped me see the proof over and over again. I stared at it in my own handwriting.

First of all, I had written little prayers, particular to me and those who asked me to pray for them. Next, I had prayed them. And most of important of all, God had answered them. The proof in the margins of pages of notes thanking God for each answered prayer forced me to a clear conclusion. God does answer prayers.

Sometimes, when you’re proven wrong about something, you might get irritable like me at first. I really kind of relished being able to complain that God didn’t ever answer me. Ever. Now, an old childhood habit of whining with a poor-me, give-me-some-attention pout surely had to die now.  I could no longer say God doesn’t answer prayers. I knew it was not true.

Tips: How to Begin your Prayer Journal

Always be grateful

Don’t take my word for it. If you want to have your own proof, I encourage you to begin your own prayer journal. Try it for a month or so. Remember that God has His own timing on things, so don’t be too hasty to look for quick answers.

Next, Click here for tips, do’s & don’ts in prayer journaling from my friend and fellow spiritual writer, Jean Wise. She suggests you date each entry and I agree with her. By doing so, I learned about God’s timing and how often I’d rediscover the same truths.

“Keeping a journal has taught me that there is not so much new in your life as you sometimes think. When you reread your journal, you find out that your latest discovery is something you already found out about five years ago. Still, it is true that one penetrates deeper and deeper into the same ideas and the same experience.”

Thomas Merton

In Conclusion

I hope this has helped you learn how to begin a prayer journal and a few of its benefits. Keeping a prayer journal will help you by:

unloading and clarifying your concerns
learning about yourself
discovering that your deepest needs often stay the same over the years
improving your relationship with God
praying more consistently for your friends and loved ones

Finally, consider how you prefer to write, either digitally or with pen and paper. You might start your prayer journal in your phone notes or on a tablet. Or, you might enjoy buying yourself a beautiful writing journal or use a composition notebook that’s sitting on a shelf. Most importantly, open your heart to God and start one.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

 

For more about ways of praying, read the first two chapters of my spiritual memoir FREE here. My journey to intimacy with God, about hearing God’s voice as I searched for a way to make Jesus my best friend might answer some of your questions.  Questions you might not even know you have. This book could be an answer to some of your prayers.

“An arresting and absorbing memoir that tells the deeply personal story of one woman’s relationship with God. It’s also a how-to-succeed-in-business story, with the emphasis on both spiritual and economic growth. A touching and beautiful testimony.” William McKeen, author of Outlaw Journalist and Mile Marker Zero.

 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2

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No Way to Treat a Navy Commander or the US Flag

 

A US flag, a petty perspective, and aesthetics.

I felt thunderous  disbelief as I read a recent story in the news. And no, I’m not talking about Trump or white supremacists for a change. I can only call it an unnecessary assault on a Navy Commander.

A Shocking Story of a US Flag and a Florida Neighborhood

When you’ve used your God-given talents to rise to the rank of commander, I think you’ve earned the right to have the US flag on your mailbox, for crying out loud. Actually, every citizen in this country should be able to show their patriotism by displaying the flag of the land they love.

The story in Northwest Florida Daily News (8-14-17) of 82-year-old retired Navy Commander John Ackert made my blood boil and my temple pulse. Ackert is being asked by his Tallahassee subdivision to remove the covering for his mailbox which features a US flag because it didn’t conform to the standards set by the Southwood Residential Community Association.

Really.

Previously, they’d requested he remove stickers from his front door window showing support of the  Navy, the Sheriff’s office, and Special Olympics.

Really.

All in the name of aesthetic value.

If you missed the story, Ackert purchased a vinyl mailbox covering for his mailbox. It has been there since 2013. He replaces it whenever the sun bakes out its colors. Apparently, someone has decided it suddenly violates his neighborhood community covenant.

Someone reports that a little lady on her golf cart with nothing better to do, drives around  Southwood checking properties in the neighborhood, to make sure all homes conform to someone’s idea of beauty.

Photo by L Hollis Photography

One day when Ackert opened that flag-draped mailbox of his, he found a letter that caused quite a shock.  His homeowner’s association, the Southwood Residential Community Association, had written him to say the flag on his mailbox “devalues the aesthetic value of the homes in the neighborhood.” 

They plan to fine him if he doesn’t comply.

Aesthetics means dealing with the beautiful or “pleasing in appearance.”

 

Here’s what’s beautiful.

It’s beautiful to live in a community like mine in Destin, FL that values its patriots and retired military personnel. They get saluted here. We highly value and respect all military, active and inactive here. And in plenty of other communities throughout the U.S.  My father-in-law was a Navy man.

A Naval Commander is a senior officer who commands a ship or SEAL team. Their career track is toward flag positions. The flag is central to their identity. As a country, we owe a great deal to them.

Here’s what devalues a neighborhood.

I’ll tell you what devalues the aesthetics of a neighborhood: small-minded people telling a retired Navy commander, having given 30 years of his life to defend his neighborhood and his country, that he cannot post a flag on his mailbox.

“This is a very, very petty thing,” Ackert was quoted as saying in USA Today.

If he lived here, I’d point out that flag-covered mailbox to everyone who visits me. I’d be proud that a Naval Commander chose to live within our neighborhood. I wouldn’t want to live in his.

 

 

If you have emotions  interfering with your happiness, you might want to check out this post.

For a little inspiration, click here.

Check out Recovering Historical Memory here.

To order my book, God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul, click here for Amazon and here for B&N. Posting a book review online will make us forever friends. As my father would always say: “You’re a nice person.” Thanks in advance for reading and reviewing my work.

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Secret Prayer Instruction: Go into your inner room, close your door. Trust.

I never knew the secret prayer. I never got the secret message early in life. The one about praying in your room behind your closed door.

But that’s where the transformation of my heart took place. On my bed. My back against propped up pillows. It’s where I meditated first thing in the morning.

Alone. Or so I thought.

The Door is the name of the chapter in my book where the powerful excerpt below was taken. I balled my eyes out writing it.

http://npaper-wehaa.com/beachcomber/2017/06/#?article=2929344

It’s difficult to trust God fully. We WANT to. We say we do when we feel challenged, but in our heart of hearts, we are afraid. We do not trust Him. We suspect He will somehow be angry with us, or won’t forgive us, or won’t let us in to heaven because of something we did, or failed to do.

Mea culpa. Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa.

We beat our chests with our fists in the confiteor reminding ourselves of what idiots we are, how often we turn away from God, break His rules and, screw up.

We remember that He knows everything, omnipresent, omnipotent, all-knowing God who supposedly loves us no matter what. When we remember that He sees everything cumulatively since our earliest days, the weight of all those mean days, sinful days, taking-God’s-name-in-vain-days adds up to what seems an insurmountable wall. It sure is easy to see why we hesitate to trust.

Of course, we’re thinking of God in human terms when our thoughts limit God in our minds. He’s so far above our thoughts, but how can we fathom that? So we can trust Him? We can’t. Trust comes from faith. And faith is a gift from God, not something we can work to earn.

His longing for us echoes in our souls. Our souls long for Him as an echo. We want to know Him, to love Him, to fill that sense of longing. And when we desire it with all our hearts, God steps in with some quiet, or challenging shift that makes everything different.

In an instant.

Read more here.

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Holy Spirit and Gospel and Charisms, Oh My!

At a meeting years ago in River Forest, IL where I used to live, Ed Jeep asked the group: “Who do you pray to: The Father, The Son or The Holy Spirit?”  Of the ten or twelve people in the Lawrence’s living room that night, I remember being the only one who acknowledged praying to the Holy Spirit. I received an unusual look from Ed when I said this. I wasn’t sure what it meant.I didn’t always pray to the Holy Spirit, but at that particular time, it seemed to be Who I was drawn to pray. I never questioned these things. I trusted the Holy Spirit’s direction even when I didn’t understand I was leaning into Him.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

Who do you pray to?

Photo by Waiting For The Word

“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.” Psalm 135:7

As a Catholic, I used to think of the Holy Spirit coming to us through the sacraments of Baptism

or Confirmation or on the feast of Pentecost. Who can limit the Holy Spirit? The Spirit blows where it wills.

 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Holy Spirit Power and Mystics

Marcellino d’Ambrosio, Ph.D. wrote a wonderful piece on Pentecost on a recently discovered site, the CatholicMom.com, that resonated with much of what I share in my first book, God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul.

“The gospel is Good News not just because we’re going to heaven, but because we’ve been empowered to become new people, here and now. Vatican II insisted that each of us is called to the heights of holiness (Lumen Gentium, chapter V). Not by will-power, mind you. But by Holy Spirit power. Holiness consists in faith, hope, and especially divine love. These are “virtues,” literally “powers,” given by the Spirit. To top it off, the Spirit gives us seven further gifts which perfect faith, hope, and love, making it possible for us to live a supernatural, charismatic life. Some think this is only for the chosen few, “the mystics.” Thomas Aquinas taught to the contrary that the gifts of Isaiah 11:1-3 (wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord) are standard equipment given in baptism, that all are called to be “mystics.”

Charisms

“Vatican II also taught that every Christian has a vocation to serve. We need power for this too. And so the Spirit distributes other gifts, called “charisms.” These, teaches St. Thomas, are not so much for our own sanctification as for service to others. There is no exhaustive list of charisms, though St. Paul mentions a few (I Corinthians 12:7-10, Romans 12:6-8) ranging from tongues to Christian marriage (1 Corinthians 7: 7). Charisms are not doled out by the pastors; but are given directly by the Spirit through baptism and confirmation, even sometimes outside of the sacraments (Acts 10:44-48).

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

The Largest Pentecostal Church in the World

“Do I sound Pentecostal? That’s because I belong to the largest Pentecostal Church in the world. Correcting the mistaken notion that the charisms were just for the apostolic church, Vatican II had this to say: “Allotting His gifts ‘to everyone according as he will’ (1 Cor. 12:11), He [the Holy Spirit] distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. . . . These charismatic gifts, whether they be the most outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation, for they are exceedingly suitable and useful for the needs of the Church” (LG12).

“Powerful gifts, freely given to all. Sounds like a recipe for chaos. But the Lord also imparted to the apostles and their successors a unifying charism of headship. The role of the ordained is not to do everything themselves. Rather, they are to discern, shepherd, and coordinate the charisms of the laity so that they mature and work together for the greater glory of God (LG 30).

The Spirit and His Gifts are like a Credit Card

“So what if you, like me, did not quite ‘get it’ when you were confirmed? I’ve got good news for you. You actually did get the Spirit and his gifts. Have you ever received a new credit card with a sticker saying ‘Must call to activate before using?’ The Spirit and his gifts are the same way. You have to call in and activate them. Do it today and every day, and especially every time you attend Mass. Because every sacramental celebration is a New Pentecost where the Spirit and his gifts are poured out anew (CCC 739, 1106).

“That’s why the Christian Life is an adventure. There will always be new surprises of the Spirit!”

Copyright 2017 Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D.

click here to read her full article. Click here to read of a few surprises of my own in God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul, endorsed by Fr. Thomas Keating.

CCC refers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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The Counter-intuitive Welcoming Prayer

 WELCOMING PRAYER

The welcoming prayer is the most effective prayer I’ve yet to encounter that helps me release unwanted emotions.

The following is from the Lux Divina list of the online contemplative community referenced in my book . Writer anonymous shares:

 

Photo by lindz graham

“What I know comes from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book Centering Prayer

and Inner Awakening which I highly recommend. She has a whole chapter on the Welcoming Prayer that is very helpful. Here’s a brief summary.

“When confronted with a powerful emotion, follow these three steps. Don’t try to rush through them too quickly:

    1. Focus and Sink In

2. Welcome

3. Let Go

 

The Real Work is in the First Two Steps

“Focus and sink in is to feel the emotion as a sensation in your body. If

you are angry, how does that anger feel within you? A tightness in the chest

or jaw? A clenched fist? Heat rising up your face? Don’t try to do anything

with the feeling except stay present to and aware of it. The importance of this

step is that it keeps you from the pitfall of dissociation or repression. You

have owned and held the awareness of your feeling.

Photo by pharelkim

“When you are ready, you gently move to the next step which is the

counterintuitive one, to welcome the emotion. In the midst of the emotion you say to yourself,

“Welcome anger…or fear…or pain…” whatever it is that you are feeling. The point of this step is that by creating an atmosphere of inner hospitality you disarm the emotion’s power to hurt or control you. It just is. An

important point of clarification she makes here is that the welcome is for the

physical or psychological content of the moment only, not a blanket condoning

of a situation. For example, a person who has been abused is not welcoming

abuse, but rather the feelings the abuse created within them, what is on their

emotional plate right now. Or a person who has cancer is not welcoming cancer,

but the fear that having cancer has created within them.

The Third Step of the Welcoming Prayer: Letting Go

“The real work of welcoming is accomplished in these first two steps, so

don’t be in a hurry to move to the third too soon. Stay with them and let them

do their work, just as you might knead a tight muscle until it relaxed and

released. When you are ready to let go you can do it very simply or in a more

complex way. The first way is to simply say, “I let go of my anger (or whatever

the emotion was).” Or if you prefer, “I give my anger to God.”

“The longer way was developed and preferred by Mary Mrozowski, the

founding genius behind the Welcoming Prayer. She preferred the following litany:

Cynthia Bourgeault

    I let go of my desire for security and survival.

I let go of my desire for esteem and affection.

I let go of my desire for power and control.

I let go of my desire to change the situation.

“Simple…but not easy. Episcopal priest and author, Cynthia Bourgeault, says if we do this “Christ will storm

the hell in you…” That’s a bit strong, I know, but sometimes, that’s exactly what we need since we cannot seem to release a particular emotion on our own.

For more on the welcoming prayer, click here.

For more about prayer on my faith journey, here’s a link for my book.

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Belong, Be Song, Be Still: A Triple Threat to God’s Opposition

 We belong to God.

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 18:3

We belong. It’s the most core psychological need we have according to Maslov. Fatigue makes us forget sometimes that we belong to God. That we give Him delight when we make ourselves still and let Him sing His song in our heart.

The title of this post — Belong. Be Song. Be Still. — kept repeating themselves within my mind as I awoke from a nap. Perhaps their insistent drumming on my subconscious caused my awakening. Who knows?

Exhausted from months of birthing a book and watching grandchildren as our son’s family moved out-of-state and our daughter resumed training teachers after the birth of her second son, I had come under persistent attack from the enemy of all that is holy. My spirit was spent, my body screamed for sleep. I’d expected to nap most of the afternoon.

Belong. Be song. Be still. They had a strong, rhythmic beat, but were a strange combination of words. Why were they pressing on me?

Be Strong. Be Holy.

Photo by Prestonbot Be Still

These last two — Be strong. Be holy.  — sneaked in as I wrote the first five words. Without effort, without thinking, grace seemed to be giving me a pentagram of armor as protection from future assaults from the evil one.

I don’t like writing or thinking about the legions who follow the fallen angel who’s full of pride and deceit. I don’t know anyone who does. From time to time, however, I’ve wondered if that doesn’t play a trump card into Lucifer’s hand. If I avoid thinking or writing about him, why do I do so? Fear is my usual answer. And yet, I know our Lord Jesus Christ instructed us not to be afraid hundreds of times in the Word of the Bible, probably thousands of time to His apostles. To choose fear goes against Jesus’ instruction. His gift to us is love and peace.

“Peace I leave you,” He clearly said. What am I doing choosing fear over His peace? Being a silly goose, a blustery Peter, an easy target for evil to pick, that’s what. I’m drawn to birds and babies because they remind me to keep to a simple trust, to sing the song in my heart, and to be happy.

 

At all times, we have a choice. It may not always feel so, but it’s true. God made us with free will to choose Him or not, to choose Love or not.

Photo by dobak Be Song

We choose to surrender to His will, or stick to what we prefer, what we can control. It was a bold move, giving us that choice. It was His only choice. True love isn’t love if it’s forced or constrained. He created us out of love. He gave us free will out of love. When we come to Him with our free will — where we belong — what sweet joy that must give Him. What joy leaps into song. How still our heart becomes when it feels Him draw us close.

Prayer

Our pastor always ends every daily Mass with the Memorare, a beautiful prayer asking Jesus’ mother, our mother in heaven, to pray for us. Then he adds this one to the greatest archangel of all.

St. Michael the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray. And do Thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, BY THE POWER OF GOD, cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

For a delightful story about how St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used the Memorare prayer, click here.

Photo by dobak

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Puff Pancake Recipe

Here’s the recipe for the Puff Pancake I mention in Chapter 29 of my book, God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul. I’ve been baking it for over 30 years. My favorite way to eat it is to squeeze fresh lemon juice over it and sprinkle with powdered sugar. My children prefer syrup. Enjoy!

Photo by anthonylagoon

Puff Pancake
Ingredients:

3 tbsp. Margarine or butter

1 cup milk

3 tbsp. Honey

1-2 Tablespoons ground flax seed

½ tsp. Salt

3 oz. Cream cheese, softened

6 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

½ tsp. Baking powder

Directions:

Heat oven to 400° F.  Grease a cast iron skillet or deep-sided stone baker with 1 tbsp. butter.  Add remaining butter to skillet or stone; place in oven until butter just sizzles.  While skillet/stone is in oven, place remaining ingredients in blender.  Blend at high speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and blend at high 1 more minute.

 

Remove skillet/stone from oven; immediately pour in batter.  Bake at 400° F for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and dark golden brown.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice, if desired. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, jelly, syrup or sauce, or fresh fruit.

6 to 8 servings.

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