• 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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Music Monday: Bless the Lord, my soul

A little bit of classic Matt Redman today…

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name

The sun comes up
It’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing
When the evening comes

You’re rich in love
And You’re slow to anger
Your name is great
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness
I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons
For my heart to find

And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come
Still my soul will
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years
And then forevermore
Forevermore

One Minute Review: Becoming Mrs Lewis

This past week I’ve been working my way through Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan, a novelisation of the relationship and romance between my hero, C.S. Lewis, and Joy Davidman. I hadn’t known that much about either Joy or her writings prior to starting this book, most of which was gleaned from the rather unreliable Shadowlands movie.

I have to say that, by the time I finished this book, my appetite had greatly increased to know more about this fascinating woman. In fact, I immediately ordered two books by Dr. Don King, one an edited collection of her letters, and another of her poetry, short extracts of which we were treated to at the start of each chapter. 

The book is beautifully written. I can’t emphasize that enough. Patti Callahan took me on a journey. I couldn’t help be drawn in as I travelled with Joy, experiencing the highs of her trip to England, as well as the lows of her crumbling marriage. 

C.S. Lewis Chronology

We’re currently going through “Surprised By Joy” at the moment in our book club and I wanted to assemble a workable chronology for the events of C.S. Lewis’ life and the years in which he published…

1898 – Born in Belfast (November 29th)

1905 – Family moves to “Little Lea”

1908 – Mother (Flora Lewis) dies

1910 – Attends Campbell College

1911 – Attends Cherbourg House, Malvern

1913 – Enters Malvern College

1914 – Begins tutoring with W.T. Kirkpatrick in Surrey

1917 – Starts at University College, Oxford

1918 Wounded in action

1919 – Spirits in Bondage: A cycle of lyrics

1923 – Graduated from Oxford University

1925 – Hired as a don in English

1926 – Dymer

1929 – Father (Albert Lewis) dies

1929 – Becomes a theist

1931 – Becomes a Christian

1933 – The Pilgrim’s Regress

1936 The Allegory of Love

1938 – Out of the Silent Planet

1939 Rehabilitations and Other Essays

1939 The Personal Heresy

1942 – The Screwtape Letters

1942 – A Preface to Paradise Lost

1943 – Perelandra

1945 – That Hideous Strength

1945 – The Great Divorce

1949 – The Weight of Glory

1950 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

1951 – Prince Caspian

1952 – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

1952 – Meets Joy Davidman

1953 – The Silver Chair

1954 – The Horse and His Boy

1954 – Hired as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University

1954 – English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama

1955 – Surprised By Joy

1956 – Marries Joy Davidman in a civil ceremony

1957 – Marries Joy Davidman in an Anglican ceremony

1958 – Reflections on the Psalms

1960 – The World’s Last Night and other essays

1960 – Studies in Words, The Four Loves

1961 – An Experiment in Crticism

1961 – A Grief Observed

1963 – Lewis dies at home (November 22nd)

1964 – Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

1964 – Poems

1964 – The Discarded Image: An introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

1966 – Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

1966 – On Stories: And other essays on literature

1966 – Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

1967 – Letters to an American Lady

1970 – God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics 

1977 – The Dark Tower and Other stories

1979 – They Stand Together: The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves

1980 – The Weight of Glory (Expanded version)

1985 – Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.S. Lewis

1985 – C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Children

1991 – All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C.S. Lewis, 1922-1927

1994 – Letters of C.S. Lewis

Fiat Award 2019

The San Diego diocese will be giving me an award next month:

The San Diego Young Adult Office is pleased to announce David Bates as one of our FIAT AWARD recipients for 2018! David will be honored at the Annual Christmas Gala on December 15th.

David Bates was born in England where he worked as a software engineer. In his search for adventure, he moved to the United States over ten years ago, living in Washington DC, Seattle & finally settling in San Diego.

While David continues to work in IT, he is also a Catholic speaker, presenting at events around the country on Scripture, Church History & Evangelization. His talks can be found on his blog, RestlessPilgrim.net, & on the podcast Theology With An English Accent.

An active member of the San Diego Young Adult community since 2010, David has been involved in many different ministries at parish level, such as playing guitar for Our Lady of the Rosary Lifeteen Mass & leading the JP2 Group at St. John the Evangelist for several years. He is now a member of Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church where he is a choir member & cantor.

David has also served at Diocesan level, as a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council & the Young Adult Commission, the group which inaugurated many San Diego traditions including the Annual Diocesan Young Adult Mass. David maintains the SDYAM Podcast which contains recordings of all the San Diego Theology On Tap talks. He orchestrated the “Daughters of the King” gala events & helped organize retreats for the Goretti Group. For fun, David enjoys dancing & has taught salsa & swing lessons at many youth & young adult church events.

Recently David has been pouring most of his time into the podcast, “The Eagle and Child” where, with his co-host Matt, he unpacks the works of C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologist & author of the Chronicles of Narnia. David also hosts a monthly book club where Lewis’ works are discussed at a local coffee shop. In addition to leading monthly Taize prayer evenings and a running group, he also organizes, as part of The Finer Things Club, outings to the theatre, the Symphony & other cultural events. He is currently writing the final chapters of his 1st book, The Table of the Word, a guide to starting and leading a Parish Bible study.

My pastor put an announcement in the parish bulletin on Sunday. As you may guess, he has a sense of humo(u)r about my being English…

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