• 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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Pro-lifer caricature and the meaning of “pro-life”

I just saw this picture shared on Facebook…

What does it mean to be pro-life?

I responded by saying that, to be pro-life means to seek to end the killing of children in the womb because it is intrinsically wrong to kill the most defenseless, innocent human beings. Even IF the above caricature were true (which I would vigorously argue against), that doesn’t change one iota the morality of abortion.

What about a broader definition?

In response to this, one of my friends wrote that he thought “pro-life” has a wider definition. I said that he could broaden the term if he wanted, but the genesis of that term comes from the movement which was focused upon ending the killing of those in the womb. That is the stated goal of the pro-life movement. 

I think this broadening of the term has been chiefly attempted by those who want to keep abortion legal and wish to discredit those who want to see it end. The argument is “You don’t get to ban abortion until an unspecified list of social programmes have been implemented to my satisfaction”. The beauty of this argument is, of course, it can never be satisfied…

The logic of the argument itself is nonsense anyway. Would someone object to me protecting a toddler from being killed by her mother because I don’t also support a programme for free after school babysitting? Of course not – a child’s life is at stake! So, if you don’t think that logic stands up when a toddler is involved, why would it stand up with a child still in the womb?

When Christians do it…

Now, I’m aware that some Christians also try to broaden the definition of pro-life. I’m sure they have good intentions and I have some sympathy with this attempt. However, I find that when this broadening happens, the term “pro-life” effectively becomes meaningless. When you broaden its meaning to cover everything related to human justice and flourishing, it basically ends up encompassing all morality! I mean, what moral choices would it not concern? At this point, “pro-life” simply means “moral”, and we already had a word for that…moral. All we’ve managed to achieve is to empty the term “pro-life” of its meaning.

When the argument changes…

I’ve spoken to many pro-choice advocates who have begun the conversation using an argument that we should provide comprehensive social programmes for the poor before we even consider arguing against abortion. However, I’ve noticed something often happens after continued conversation and the pointing out logical flaws with this approach. After a while, their argument degredates to something like this:

“My body, my choice”“Abortion on demand, no apologies”? I would suggest that this shows that their objection to the pro-life movement has little to with care for the poor.

I see something similar when a pro-choice advocate wants to talk about abortion in the case of rape. Rape is presented as the reason we need abortion, although after further questioning it is revealed that they think abortion should be made available regardless of whether someone was raped.

The reason behind all this is that they see the the ability for a mother to kill her unborn child as a fundamental right. I would ask, if this is the case, wouldn’t it be more straight-forward to state that up front? 

Asking for evidence

A few weeks ago, a friend on Facebook posted this:

This just didn’t seem right, so I asked him what evidence he had to back up this assertion. Several weeks later my friend still hasn’t responded to my request for evidence…

I went and looked at a Fact-Checker website which assessed that it was Mostly False.

People are often afraid of doing apologetics, but honestly most of the time you’re just asking some basic questions, particularly “Do you have any evidence to back up that claim?”. If none is presented, it betrays that the opinion is primarily held because the person would like it to be true, rather than as a result of conscientious study.

Goooooooaaaaal!!!

I was recently reminded in conversation that most American Catholics have never watched the TV show “Father Ted”. To be fair, it’s a rather bizarre TV show, with a distinctly quirky sense of humour. However, it’s well worth a watch.

So, in honour of England’s recent victory over Columbia in the World Cup, here’s the episode where Fr. Ted coaches the All-Priests Over 75 Five-A-Side Football Challenge Match…

If you’d like to be introduced to more wonderful British TV, I’d recommend looking at my Best of British series, where I talk about some of my favourite TV shows from home.

Music Monday: Spirit Fall

A song from the New Wine Conference, “Spirit Fall”, sung by Susie Woodbridge:

[Verse 1]
You breathe life, you restore
Awaken my soul
I know that I’ve been
made for more

[Verse 2]
You speak truth
You renew
When I’m in your presence
you show me the glory of You

[Chorus]
Spirit Fall x2

Fall on us for we are yours x2

[Verse 3]
You will make
all things new
Until you return
all of creation cries out for you

[Bridge]
There is power in your presence
Hope and healing in your presence
There is freedom in your presence
Spirit fall

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