• 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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Catholic Artists

If you’ve followed this blog for some time, you will know that each Monday I do a post where I share some Christian music, either ancient or modern. I recently discovered a website which will help me select contemporary songs by Catholic artists, The Catholic Playlist Show:

catholic-playlist-show

Since I’m not regularly in Protestant circles these days, my exposure to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is not as great as it used to be, so this site and podcast is ideal for me. The other amazing thing is that about this site is that the Catholic Playlist Show exclusively showcases Catholic artists. Honestly, I think I could name all the prominant contemporary Catholic musicians I know on a single hand, so we’ll see if this site manages to change that!

The existence of God: The Argument From Desire

There are many topics I’ve wanted to write about but either through lack of time or, more recently, writer’s block, I’ve never quite managed to tackle them. However, today I will begin to scratch a writing itch which I’ve had for some time. Over the next month or so, I will be publishing articles which relate to the classical proofs for the existence of God.

Argument From Desire

A few days ago, I was talking with a friend on Facebook who is a former Catholic. During our discussion, I mentioned a philosphical proof for God, known as the “Argument From Desire”. He asked me to explain it, so I wrote a brief summary of the proof and we spent a little bit of time going back and forth. So, drawing upon this conversation, I thought that this would be good topic with which to begin this series of posts on the philosophical arguments for God…

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Wise Words on Wednesday: Culture Today and Christianity

Rick

Today in our culture…

materialism is idolized,
immorality is glamorized,
truth is minimized,
sin is normalized,
divorce is rationalized,
and abortion is legalized.

In TV and movies…

crime is sensationalized,
drugs are legitimized,
comedy is vulgarized,
and sex is trivialized.

In movies…

the Bible is fictionalized,
churches are satirized,
God is marginalized,
and Christians are demonized.

Also in our society…

the elderly are dehumanized,
the sick are euthanized,
the poor are victimized,
the mentally ill are ostracized,
immigrants are stigmatized,
and children are tranquilized.

Our families now live in a world where…

manners are uncivilized,
speech is vulgarized,
education is secularized,
advertising is sensualized,
and everything is commercialized.

Now, unfortunately Christians, you and I, we’re often disorganized, and we’re demoralized, our faith is compartmentalized, and our witness is compromised.

– Rick Warren

Another Planned Parenthood employee becomes pro-life…

If you’ve been involved in the pro-life movement, chances are that you’ve come across Abby Johnson, the former Clinic Director of Planned Parenthood who is now an outspoken pro-life advocate. In the abortion debate, Abby’s testimony carries particular weight given her former employment by the nation’s most well-known abortion provider. Well, I recently heard about someone with a similar story…

A few weeks ago a reader told me about Patricia Sandoval, a lady who was also once an employee of Planned Parenthood. Like Abby, she is now a pro-life advocate and travels internationally sharing her testimony. Most of the videos on her website are in Spanish, but here’s one in English where she describes her (rather traumatic) journey:

I think stories like this need to be heard more often for a couple of reasons…

Firstly, I have been told many times by pro-choice friends that the abortion debate is over, abortion is legal now and that’s never going to change. I’m told that nobody’s opinion is going to be swayed on the matter. However, this is something which Patricia’s story clearly disproves.

The other reason why I think stories like this are important is that they remind us of the forgiveness, goodness and grace of God. They show us that it doesn’t matter how dire the situation or how dark our past, Jesus actively seeks out those who are hurting, to heal their wounds and to do something beautiful.

So with that in mind, please share this video on social media to remind the world that (a) the abortion debate is not over and (b) there’s nowhere that God’s grace cannot reach.

Music Monday: Hide In The Fairytale

Today’s Music Monday is a little different from usual, a little more “metal” than most music I usually post. However, I absolutely loved the lyrics! A rock meditation on Original Sin and concupisence!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you “Hide in the Fairytale” by the band Theocracy:

A child in sweet duplicity
For innocence? Or slavery to nature
And the bents that haunt him straight out of the womb?
He doesn’t have to learn the things unseemly that his instinct brings
To carry like a burden from the cradle to the tomb
You’ll never have to teach him how to lie
If we are born in innocence, well, don’t you wonder why?
For selfishness already dwells inside
The birthright of Adam, the curse of the old man

Day and night
Jekyll and Hyde in the fairytale
This is much more frightening
Darkness and light
Feed the new man and tear the veil
See the old man dying

Behold the loving family man
Who tries to do the best he can
And loves his wife and children even more than his own life
But just like that, a wandering eye leads to a suffocating lie
And selfishness and deep betrayal cuts them like a knife
If mankind doesn’t have a sinful drive
Then tell me why he’d wreck his life to get some on the side?
The warring of two natures deep inside
Starving the new keeps the old man alive

Soul-sickness nailed to a cross

Humankind in innocence, a lie so thinly veiled
Man born without soul-sickness: this is the fairytale
Hide in the fairytale

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