• 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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Quick Apology: Biology 101

During my Advent hiatus from blogging, a friend of mine posted the following image on Facebook:

NotAChicken

I rightly assumed this graphic to be an argument in favour of abortion, essentially arguing that the unborn aren’t really human. How might you respond to a graphic such as this? Well, in today’s post I would like to share a modified version of the Facebook comment which I posted in response, so that if one of your friends also posts this image you’ll have an example of how you might construct your own reply. Or, of course, if you’re short on time, you could just paste a link to this article 🙂

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Welcome to the Year of Mercy!

I know I said I wasn’t going to be blogging, but here are some memes I created to mark the beginning of the Year of Mercy. I hope you like The Karate Kid

Please share your favourite 🙂

Music Monday: Even Unto Death

I’ve decided to take a little break from blogging during Advent. There’s a lot going on in my life at the moment, not least of which is the culmination of a project at work. I’ll be back blogging regularly in the New Year. In the meantime, expect lots of “Classic Pilgrim” posts on the Facebook Page.

Since this post will be the first thing on the blog which visitors will see for the next month, I spent a little bit of time thinking about what would be my last entry. When I realized that this post would be a Music Monday entry, the decision was easy…

Justin

Last week I found out that my friend Justin Schaefer died. So, with this in mind, today’s song is “Even Unto Death” by Audrey Assad. Many of Audrey’s recent songs have meditated on the subject of death:

Death, be not proud, though the whole world fear you:
Mighty and dreadful you may seem… [but] if your sleep be the gates to Heaven, why your confidence?

– Death be not proud, Audrey Assad

Today’s song focuses not such much on death, but of a life poured out for love of Jesus. This is what makes me think of Justin. I first met Justin through the Taizé services which he organized during his stay in San Diego, later leaving to work for Christ the King Service Corps. Justin was a real class act, a real gentleman and a wonderful man of prayer.

May he rest in peace.

Jesus, the very thought of You, it fills my heart with love
Jesus, You burn like wildfire and I am overcome

Lover of my soul, even unto death
With my every breath I will love You x2

Jesus, you are my only hope
And You, my prize shall be
Jesus, You are my glory now and in eternity

In my darkest hour, in humiliation,
I will wait for You, I am not forsaken
Oh, I lose my life, oh, my breath be taken
I will wait for You, I am not forsaken

One thing I desire to see You in Your beauty
You are my delight, yeah, You are my only
You have sacrificed, oh, Your love is all consuming
You are my delight, yeah, You are my glory

I will love You, even unto death, I will love You
With my every breath I will love You
Jesus, the very thought of You
Jesus, the very thought of You…

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