• 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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Symbolism: St. John’s chalice and snake

Over the next few months I’ll be writing some more about ancient Christian symbols (the fish, the anchor etc), but I thought I’d reboot my Symbolism Series by talking about something which caught my eye at Liturgy this morning.

In my parish, around the inner portion of the dome, we have paintings of the Twelve Apostles (with St. Matthias replacing Judas). This morning I ended up sitting next to the following painting of St. John:
John

It occurred to me that, while I know the book he is holding is symbolic of his Gospel, I had no idea of the symbolism behind the chalice and snake. When I got home I needed to satisfy my curiosity, so I did some research…

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Music Monday: More than you think I am

As I said last week, we’ve got a couple of weeks of an artist I recently came across, Danny Gokey. This week it’s “More than you think I am”:

If you like this, I’d also strongly recommend you check out the acoustic version here.

You always think I’m somewhere on a mountain top
But never think behind bars
You’d be amazed the places that I’d go to be with you
Where you are

So forget what you’ve heard
What you think that you know
There’s a lot about me
That’s never been told

I’m more than you dreamed
More than you understand
Your days and your times
Were destined for our dance
I catch all your tears
Burn your name on my heart
Be still and trust my plan
I’m more than you think I am
More than you think I am

Rumor has it there’s a gavel in my hand
I’m only here to condemn
But let me tell you secrets you would’ve never known
I think of you as my best friend

So much has been said
Even done in my name
But I’m showing you now
Who I really am

Let me open your eyes to see the heart of me, differently
Come closer than you’ve ever been
Let me in like never before
Bring me every broken part
The wounds and scars of who you are
And hide in me and you will see

Crisis-Ready

If you’ll indulge me, today I’d like to do a little bit of a PSA. This week I ticked off a long-standing item off my To Do List: Take a CPR course.

CPR

As a teenager I achieved the Bronze Medallion, a test which is taken by anyone who wants to be a lifeguard. It involves an extended series of challenges in a pool (swimming with your clothes on, picking up bricks from the bottom of the pool etc) but it also involves a practical and written exam concerning CPR. I did all this back in the early Stone Age, so for quite a few years I’ve been meaning to do a refresher course…

If I wanted to do a CPR course in England I would talk to the St. John Ambulance. However, in America I wasn’t sure to whom I should speak. I’ve since found out that the American Heart Association are the people to contact. However, as good fortune would have it, on Monday I drove through the Industrial District on my way to a coffee shop and passed a sign for CPR classes with the group called One Ounce of Prevention. So, as I was drinking my morning latté, I fired up Google, tracked down their contact details and gave them a call. By the time I hung up I was booked in for their class the following day.

The course itself was four hours long and covered CPR for adults and infants, the use of an AED, as well as basic First Aid (burns, breaks etc). Although the recommended ratio of breaths to chest compressions had changed (it does this practically every year) and there are fewer recommended checks prior to starting CPR, I was quite pleased that I remembered a good deal from the training from my teenage years.

For me though, the real benefit of the course was the simulated emergencies. It’s really quite terrifying how your mind can go completely blank when confronted by an unconscious body, even if it’s just a mannequin! “Wait, what did I need to check? What’s the next thing I have to do?” It’s really good to run through a few scenarios and get the routine more established in your head.

So, here’s my PSA… 88% of cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital. What would you do if you were confronted by someone unconscious and not breathing? Our instructor told us that nationwide there’s an average 9% chance of survival, but that around Seattle more people know CPR so that number rises to 19%. In Detroit, however, fewer people know what to do and the number is basically 0%… Would you know what to do?

Please join me in a “Stupid Boy Project”

Join MeOne of the first books I read when my sabbatical began was Yes Man by Danny Wallace. Although altered considerably, the book was turned into a movie back in 2009, starring Jim Carey. I had actually read this book before. In fact, that book had played quite a significant part in my final decision to move to America!

In the book, Danny resolves, for the rest of the year, to say “Yes” to every question, suggestion or invitation given to him, in the hope of becoming more open to what life sent his way. As you can imagine, this led to all kinds of adventures, such as when he received an email from the prince of Nigeria asking whether he could have Danny’s bank details… 😉

I’ve been a huge fan of Danny for years and I’ve read all the books and seen the shows chronicling his various adventures. These have included a bet with his friend Dave Gorman to find 54 other people also named “Dave Gorman”, converting his apartment into its own sovereign nation, as well as starting his own cult…albeit a nice one 🙂

If you have read any of Dave or Danny’s books, you will know that Danny’s (now) ex-girlfriend Hanne, referred to his escapades as “Stupid Boy Projects”. Well, September is just around the corner and I have a stupid boy project for you, dear reader! You won’t even need to send your bank details to the crowned sovereign of any nation…

Art Of Manliness

In September I will be working through the PDF guide from one of my favourite blogs, Art of Manliness. The eBook is called Thirty Days to a Better Man and each day you will read just a couple of pages and then set about given the task for the day. For example, on the first day the task is to “Define your core values”. The following day you will “Shine your shoes”. On Day 7 you will “Reconnect with an Old Friend”, on Day 10 you will memorize the poem “If” and on Day 30 receive a straight razor shave.

So, if you’re interested in joining me on this Stupid Boy Project, please download the PDF and I’ll see you on the journey next month to becoming a better man!

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