• 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.

    Read more »
  • 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.

    Read more »
  • 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

    Read more »
  • PWJ: S4E102 – Bonus – “Season Finale” (Part 1)

    David, Andrew, and Matt wrap up Season 4 with the Season Finale. This is Part 1…

    Read more »
  • 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.

    Read more »
  • 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.

    Read more »
  • 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!

    Read more »
  • 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.

    Read more »
  • 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.

    Read more »
  • 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”.

    Read more »

Five (hundred) Gold Rings!

barnyDuring this Advent and Christmas season, everyone became engaged or got married.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit! Seriously, there were a lot of engagements. It seemed like every day Facebook was announcing yet another one. During one particular twenty-four hour period, four new engagements were announced!

All this is wonderful news, of course. It’s great to see so many of my male friends, both in America and England, manning up, getting down on one knee and popping the question. For the last few weeks my News Stream has been filled with lots of happy pictures 🙂

As the number of engagements and weddings increased I thought about doing something here on the blog to mark the occasion. I’ve written a little bit about marriage before, but mainly focusing on the theological dimension and the exhortations of the Early Church Fathers. This time I wanted to share something of value concerning the day-to-day life in a Christian marriage, some advice on how to lead one another to Heaven and to keep God at the centre of the marriage as the “third strand”.

However, given that I’m not married myself, I don’t think I’m really in a position to give this advice! So I’ve decided to outsource this post, turning it over to my friends who are already married! I am also going to email my married friends and ask them this question:

As a Christian spouse, what piece of advice would you give all my friends who are committing to marriage?

Please comment below…

UPDATE: I put all the advice together into this post here, Wise Words for Newlyweds.

Wise Words on Wednesday: Peace On Earth

justice

“Peace is not merely the absence of war; nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies; nor is it brought about by dictatorship.

Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called an enterprise of justice. Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.”

– Vatican II, Church in the Modern World 78.

2013 Resolutions

The other day I did a review of my 2012 Resolutions and it’s now time to write some for 2013!

Resolution #1. Go dancing at least once a week.
Last year one of my less successful resolutions was to dance “more”. This year I’ve decided to continue the resolution, but this time be a bit more specific. I have to go somewhere at least once every seven days.

Resolution #2. Check bank statements once a week.
Like the entry above, this is a resolution carried over from 2012 which has been made a bit more concrete in an attempt to force me to do it properly. Last year I said “Keep better track of finances”. In 2013 I have to log into my Internet banking once a week.

Resolution #3. Complete Reading List
I’ll be publishing my 2013 reading list here later this week.

Resolution #4. Give up Facebook for Lent
Now that I’ve got my blog posts publishing directly to Facebook, I’ll have absolutely no reason not to get that digital monkey off my back…

Resolution #5. Guard free time more jealously
Last year was the “Year of Martha“. My schedule was packed and at times things got quite stressful. My aim this year is to make absolutely sure I don’t take on too much and that I get plenty of time to rest and recharge. This will involve a weekly Holy Hour, come what may. 2013 is going to be the “Year of Mary” 🙂

Resolution #6. Invest more time in friendships
This resolution flows from #5. I have some really good friends. I should spend more time with them.

Resolution #7. Blacklist TV Shows
Also flowing from #5, I’ve got to stop wasting time watching junk on TV. No more Scrubs, Family Guy, Always Sunny in Philadelphia etc.

Resolution #8. Run a half marathon and do a 15 minute plank
Here’s the mandatory fitness resolution.

Resolution #9. Cook a proper meal once a week
I really do enjoy cooking, but I don’t do it nearly as often as I should. That will change.

Resolution #10. Write the book
I’ve had “Write a book” on my bucket list for several years now and this year I’m going to finally cross it off. It’s going to be an expansion on my Leading Bible Study blog series and I’ll probably publish it with Lulu.com (although I will probably also send the manuscript to Ignatius Press just for fun of pretending to be a real author).

resolution

What are your resolutions for 2013?

When someone leaves

Last week I came across that great article on Our Sunday Visitor‘s website talking about how to respond when someone you love leaves the Church:

When Someone Leaves Church

It’s really tough when you have to sit and watch someone walk away from the Faith. You want to “fix” the situation and, when you discover that you can’t do it quickly, you all too often do things which simply drives the person further and further away….

There’s some real gold in this article.

1 453 454 455 456 457 581