• 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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Islam and violence

I’ve had an interest in Islam for quite some time now. Particularly during the weeks when I was reading through the Qur’an, I would regularly have people ask me about the relationship between Islam and violence.

Given that tomorrow is the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, I thought it appropriate to post this debate between Robert Spence and Dr. James White, which I think brings up most of the major points which have to be considered in relation to this question:

Pregnant, Christian and unmarried

Pregnant

A while ago I read an article about an eighteen-year-old girl who attended a small, private Christian school here in the USA. Despite being President of the Student Council and an Honours student with a 4.0 average, Maddi Runkles was removed from the Council and banned from “walking” in her graduation ceremony. The reason for this punishment was that she had become pregnant…

While it is understandable that the school felt the need to do something to make it clear that Maddi’s actions did not align with the behaviour expected by the school, I think the school’s response was extremely poor. Yes, it causes scandal when Christians don’t live up to Christian morality, but I think it causes even more harm when we teach the world that Christians think appearances matter more and that it’s better to sweep our faults under the rug.

You see, when Maddi became pregnant, she had a choice. She could either face her parents, go through the physical and emotional strains of pregnancy, deal with the critical looks from her teachers, the gossip from her classmates (under the guise of “prayerful concern”) and the mocking recriminations from those she had ever tried to evangelize….or she could have had an abortion. Would she have received the same punishment, I wonder, had it been discovered that she’d had an abortion?

Regardless of how pro-life Maddi was up until this point in her life, I have no doubt that, upon finding out she was pregnant, abortion looked like an extremely tempting option. One short appointment at a Planned Parenthood clinic and the “problem” would go away… Yet, thank God, she didn’t do this. In the choice between life and death, she chose life. The Guttmacher Institute reports that 54% of women who receive abortions identify as Christians. Especially in light of this, Maddi’s school should have been falling over themselves to support her in her decision to keep her baby and walk this difficult road.

As a friend of mine commented, Catholics can confess the worst possible sins to a priest in private, but then publicly walk towards the altar at Mass to receive the Eucharist…something which we can only ever do through the grace and mercy of the Lord.

Wise Words On Wednesday: Important Choices

matt

You were made to choose how you live your life, not to let life simply happen to you. If life is just happening to you, then you’re caught up in the mire and mediocrity of accidental living. An accidental life will never be fulfilling to a creature that was made to choose.

We are here to make important choices. The problem is that we’re so busy that we perpetually put off such choices for just one more day…and life quickly passes us by.

It’s all too easy to mindlessly fill our lives with noisy distractions and busy ourselves with endless activities. We find ourselves simply reacting to a never-ending stream of stimulations, constantly tied up with the urgent and never quite getting to the important. Rather than seizing the day, the day seems to be seizing us! We often feel overwhelmed and helpless, hopelessly held captive by the circumstances of our lives

– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish

Music Monday: Face Down

We’re going back in time today, to a song which has a lot of significance to me in my own Christian journey back when I lived in England. This is Matt Redman’s “Face Down”:

Welcomed in to the courts of the King
I’ve been ushered into your presence
Lord I stand on your merciful ground
Yet with every step tread with reverence

And I’ll fall facedown
As your glory shines around
Yes I’ll fall facedown
As your glory shines around

Who is there in the heavens like you?
And upon the earth who’s your equal?
You are far above you’re the highest of heights
We are bowing down to exalt you

So let your glory shine around!
Let your glory shine around!
King of glory here be found!
King of glory!

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