• The Crucifix Prayer

    Blessed are you, Lord God,
    Father all-holy,
    for your boundless love
    The tree, once the source of shame
    and death for humankind,
    has become the cross
    of our redemption and life.

    When his hour had come to
    return to you in glory,
    the Lord Jesus,
    Our King, our Priest, and our Teacher,
    freely mounted the scaffold of the cross
    and made it his royal throne,
    his altar of sacrifice, his pulpit of truth.

    On the cross,
    lifted above the earth,
    he triumphed over our age-old enemy.
    Cloaked in his own blood,
    he drew all things to himself.

    On the cross,
    he opened out his arms
    and offered you his life;
    the sacrifice of the New Law
    that gives to the sacraments
    their saving power.

    On the cross,
    he proved what he had prophesied:
    the grain of wheat must die
    to bring forth an abundant harvest.

    Father,
    we honour this cross as the sign
    of our redemption.
    May we reap the harvest of salvation
    planted in pain by Christ Jesus.
    May our sins be nailed to his cross,
    the power of life released,
    pride conquered,
    and weakness turned to strength.

    May the cross be our comfort in trouble,
    our refuge in the face of danger,
    our safeguard on life’s journey
    until you welcome us to
    our heavenly home.

    Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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  • The Prayer of St. Ephrem

    {Making a prostration}

    O LORD, Master of my life,
    grant that I may not be infected with the
    spirit of slothfulness and inquisitiveness,
    with the spirit of ambition and vain talking.

    {Making a prostration}

    Grant instead to me, your servant,
    the spirit of purity and of humility,
    the spirit of patience and neighborly love.

    {Making a third prostration}

    O Lord and King,
    grant me the grace of being aware of my sins
    and of not thinking evil of those of my brethren.
    For you are blessed, now and ever, and forever.

    Amen.

    Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings,
    You have power over life and death.
    You know what is secret and hidden,
    and neither our thoughts nor our feelings
    are concealed from You.
    Cure me of duplicity;
    I have done evil before You.
    Now my life declines from day to day
    and my sins increase.
    O Lord, God of souls and bodies,
    You know the extreme frailty of my soul and my flesh.
    Grant me strength in my weakness, O Lord,
    and sustain me in my misery.
    Give me a grateful soul that I may
    never cease to recall Your benefits,
    O Lord most bountiful.
    Be not mindful of my many sins,
    but forgive me all my misdeeds.
    O Lord, disdain not my prayer –
    the prayer of a wretched sinner;
    sustain me with Your grace until the end,
    that it may protect me as in the past.
    It is Your grace which has taught me wisdom;
    blessed are they who follow her ways,
    for they shall receive the crown of glory.
    In spite of my unworthiness,
    I praise You and I glorify You,
    O Lord, for Your mercy to me is without limit.
    You have been my help and my protection.
    May the name of Your majesty be praised forever.
    To you, our God, be glory.
    Amen.

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  • PWJ: S4E103 – Bonus – “Season Finale” (Part 2)

    David, Andrew, and Matt wrap up Season 4 with the Season Finale. This is Part 2 of that Finale. Listener Survey: https://forms.gle/X4zq7Uk69KmYo1v3A

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  • PWJ: S4E102 – Bonus – “Season Finale” (Part 1)

    David, Andrew, and Matt wrap up Season 4 with the Season Finale. This is Part 1…

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  • PWJ: S4E101 – Bonus – “Jack vs Tollers”

    After the previously-planned interview fell through at the last minute, David sat down to record a solo episode to talk about his newborn son, Sidecar Day, blue flowers in Narnia, and also to make his tongue-in-cheek case as to why C.S. Lewis is better than J.R.R. Tolkien.

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  • PWJ: S4E100 – AH – “After Hours” with The Gray Havens

    The Gray Havens are an American Christian folk pop husband and wife duo, David and Licia Radford, from Crystal Lake, Illinois. On October 8th they will be releasing their new album, Blue Flower, so David Radford came on the show to talk to Andrew and David about how C.S. Lewis inspired their recent work.

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  • PWJ: S4E99 – AH – “After Hours” with Mike “Gomer” Gormley

    As we approach the end of Season 4, David is joined on the show by Michael “Gomer” Gormley. Among other things, they discuss Ted Lasso, tea, and the Atonement. Also, find out what Gomer would do if he ever became the Pope!

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  • PWJ: S4E98 – AH – “After Hours” with Patti Callahan

    New York Times bestselling author, Patti Callahan, returns to the show to talk about her forthcoming book, “Once Upon A Wardrobe”, which will be released on October 19th.

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  • PWJ: S4E97 – AH – “After Hours” with The Tolkien Road

    A few months ago, John and Greta from The Tolkien Road podcast did a series of episodes on religion in Tolkien’s Legendarium. David invited him onto the show to talk about those episodes and to encourage the Pints With Jack listeners to listen to them.

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  • PWJ: S4E96 – AH – “After Hours” with Rod Bennett

    Author Rod Bennett joined David to talk about a presentation on he gave at a big Christian rock festival about C.S. Lewis’ relationship to “Pulp Fiction”.

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The Reformers and the Fathers

Several months ago I had a lively online exchange with a Protestant from the Reformed tradition. The conversation got really interesting and I had intended to write a series of posts based on our discussion. Alas, before I could do this, his blog was suddenly taken down, meaning that I was unable to use the record of our exchange to save me some work in constructing my posts (yes, I’m rather lazy).

To make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again, today I wanted to do a short post which is effectively a slightly expanded reproduction of my comments on an article over at Reformed Reader, in response to the blog author’s claims concerning Christian history and the Early Church Fathers.

john-calvin

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What does it take to be a mother of a Saint?

Augustine and MonicaToday is Mother’s Day in America, so I’d like to say a few words about one of my favourite mothers in history. St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine, the great Father of the Early Church. She was born in Tagaste, North Africa, to a Christian family. When she reached a marriageable age, she was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan of infidelity and foul temper. Monica endured a lot during their marriage, but through her patience and kindness, Patricius underwent conversion and was baptized a year before his death.

Monica and Patricius had three children, a son called Navigius, a daughter called Perpetua, and another son, Augustine. Navigius appears to have been a faithful son, Perpetua later entered the religious life, but Augustine? Well, his path in life was something of a bumpy ride…

While away at school in Carthage, Augustine had what we might call today “The True College Experience”. He partied a lot, took a mistress and became a follower of the Manichees (not to be confused with manatees!), a belief system which bore the marks of what we would recognize today as something akin to New Age. Having excelled in his education, Augustine went in search of fame and fortune.

The future Saint was not exactly the greatest son to his mother. For example, when he discovered that Monica was intending to accompany him to Rome, he snuck away on an earlier ship, abandoning her at the port! During all these tumultuous years Monica prayed, fasted and wept for her son. When she sought help from a local bishop, she was told “God’s time will come…it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish”.

The rest of Augustine’s story is well worth recounting, but I do not have room here today. To cut a long story short, he eventually embraced the Catholic Faith and became a priest and bishop. While they were together in Ostia, Monica said these words to her son:

“Son, …now that my hopes in this world are satisfied, I do not know what more I want here… There was indeed one thing for which I wished to tarry a little in this life, and that was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. My God has answered this more than abundantly…” – The Confessions, Book IX, Chapter IX

Five days later Monica fell ill and it was clear that she was dying. Augustine’s brother, Navigius, said he didn’t wish her to die abroad, particularly since earlier in her life, Monica had spoken of her great desire to be laid to rest with her husband. However, now on the threshold of death, she responded:

“Lay this body anywhere, and do not let the care of it be a trouble to you at all. Only this I ask: that you will remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you are” – The Confessions, Book IX, Chapter XI

Monica died a few days later. I would like to close this post with Augustine’s own words as he grieved for the mother:

I closed her eyes; and there flowed in a great sadness on my heart…  I was full of joy because of her testimony in her last illness, when she praised my dutiful attention and called me kind, and recalled with great affection of love that she had never heard any harsh or reproachful sound from my mouth against her. But yet, O my God who made us, how can that honour I paid her be compared with her service to me? – Book IX, Chapter XII

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