• 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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Music Monday: Hallelujah

Yesterday we finished the series on abortion and so it’s back to the regularly-scheduled posts. So, for today’s “Music Monday”, here is Peter Hollens and Jackie Evancho singing “Hallelujah”…

VERSE 1
I heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
You don’t really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

CHORUS
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

VERSE 2
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
Well she tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and cut your hair
And from your lips she drew Hallelujah

VERSE 3
Baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked the floor
used to live alone before I knew ya
But I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Our love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

VERSE 4
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
It’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not someone who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and broken Hallelujah

Quick Apology: “What about pregnancy in case of rape?”

Today marks the final most in my series of articles to mark the March For Life. I’d like to end with a post concerning one of the toughest situations concerning abortion: pregnancies which are brought about by rape or incest. Such cases, according to Planned Parenthood accounts for less than 1% of abortions. Today I would like to explain in humility how I try to respond when this difficult issue is raised.

Objection

It is not unusual to find people who are against abortion, but who grant an exception for these “hard cases”. For example, I have heard the following:

“Don’t misunderstand me, I think abortion is wrong, but I can’t say I’m fully pro-life. I think that if a girl gets raped and finds herself pregnant, she should be able to get an abortion, otherwise she’d have a constant reminder of what happened to her for the next nine months. It just seems cruel to force her to go through with the pregnancy. Would you really expect her to raise the child of her rapist?”

How might you respond to this understandably emotionally-charged objection?

Response

When pro-life advocates respond to pro-choice objections, there is a great emphasis on logical consistency and reasoning. However, particularly when the subject of rape is raised, this can have the unintended consequence of making the pro-lifer appear unfeeling and clinical.

Therefore, throughout the abortion debate, but especially when the subject of rape is raised, I think it’s important to communicate a genuine compassion and empathy prior to offering the logical rebuttal. We need to show that we understand the tremendous trauma of such an event and the great burden which has now been placed on the woman without her consent.

Why is abortion wrong?

When someone tells me that he thinks abortion is wrong except in the case of rape, I usually postpone discussing the question of rape and instead first spend a little bit of time asking that person why he is generally against abortion.

The person will usually explain that he recognizes that the unborn are defenseless human beings who therefore should not be killed. If that is the case, I will ask if any of this changes as a result of the circumstances of the conception. Is the unborn child any less defenseless? Is the unborn child any less human?

The truth is that the child conceived in rape is just as valuable as the child conceived in love. Here is a one of many signs I saw at March For Life last year:

ConceivedFromRapeThe woman holding this sign was not responsible for the circumstances of her conception.

How many victims?

I think it’s also important to take a step back and ask ourselves why rape is such a terrible crime. It’s awful because an innocent person has her body violated in an act of violence by a stronger aggressor. Given this description, is abortion really that different? The act of rape made one victim, but abortion makes another, compounding the first act of violence with another.

If a rapist is brought to justice, he will not receive the death penalty for his horrendous felony. Does it seem reasonable that the child, who has committed no crime and never asked to be conceived, to receive a punishment which even the rapist would not receive?

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Abortion and Quality of life

For today’s entry in this series, I would like to address another comment which appeared on Facebook last year in response to my presence at the March For Life in Washington DC. One of my former work colleagues wrote the following:

“Pro life has to do with wanting people to live lives, including unborn children. But is the quality of life for both child and mother taken into consideration, or is it only about “saving” the life of the child?”

The question concerning quality of life is often raised in the abortion debate. The motivation behind it is good – we don’t want people to suffer, we want them to live the happiest lives possible.

Pregnant

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Some things you might not know about Roe vs. Wade

Since yesterday was the anniversary of the infamous Roe Vs. Wade decision, here are some things you might not know about it:

1. “Jane Roe” of Roe v Wade is now pro-life

2. Roe and Doe permit abortions up to birth

3. Contrary to Roe, there is no fundamental “right” to an abortion in the Constitution

4. Support for abortion before Roe was decided was fabricated

5. After Roe, abortions peaked

For more details for each of these points, please click on the image below:

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 8.39.49 AM

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