• 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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Not a complete Grinch…

At the beginning of Advent I did a short post with a video of my favourite Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (The Piano Guys were even good enough to release their rendition of that hymn today on YouTube).

Today I wanted to share one of my favourite non-religious Advent-ish songs. The song is by Karmin, the group which rose to fame on YouTube after releasing their own version of Chris Brown’s Look At Me Now. Here’s their newly-released song, “Sleigh Ride”:

I’ll admit I still find it very strange listening to songs which talk about snow while living in Southern California…

So what’s your favourite non-religious Advent/Christmas song?

Resolution Update #6

Yesterday I mentioned that I’m starting to think about my New Years Resolutions for 2013. However, 2012 isn’t over yet! Time for an update…

1. Read through the New Testament Twice
I am actually on the verge of pulling this one back from the jaws of failure! After doing very poorly on this resolution all year, in November I managed to work my way all the way through the New Testament. I’m now on my second round through. I’ve just finished the Gospels and should be done with the epistles by the end of this month. Boom!

2. More dancing
Not too bad. Not amazing, but not bad. I’m got in some more West Coast Swing, a little bit of Salsa and even the occasional bit of Country 😉

3. Be more gentle with people
I’ve had to have a few tough conversations in the last couple of months and I’m pretty pleased with the way I approached them. Learning 🙂

4. No sodas/fizzy drinks
Still going strong. Apart from the occasional desire to grab a coke, I don’t really miss them.

5. Get into the best shape of my life
I am pretty much on track fitness-wise – I’m just trying to drop the last 5lbs. I just have to stick with the nutrition plan for the rest of this month!

6. Complete reading list
In getting back on track with Resolution #1, I’ve fallen a bit behind here. I’m currently reading Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth and a book on the Second Vatican Council. I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish the remaining books by the end of the month 🙁

7. Keep proper track of finances
So-so. Meh.

8. Tick something off my TODO list
It’s more informal now, but still going well.

10. Fast on Wednesday and Friday
Still good.

11. Give up Facebook for 40 days
I gave up Facebook for Lent.

12. Make an effort to dress well for Mass
Still good, and I even wrote a blog entry about it.

Resolution

Maybe

Just a quick micro-rant today concerning one of my pet hates…

You may think that “Maybe” is a fairly innocent word…

…but it’s not, not at all.

When someone sends you a Facebook invite, please don’t choose “Maybe”.

Check your calendar.

Make a decision.

Be decisive.

Thank you, that is all.

You may now begin playing your Advent music

Although you wouldn’t guess it from looking around, it’s not yet Christmas.

In fact, although we’ve been bombarded with Christmas stuff since the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas season doesn’t begin for quite some time. However, since today we enter Advent, it’s now time to bring out the Advent (not Christmas!) music! Here’s my favourite Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”:

So, what’s your favourite Advent song?

Things that make me happy

The other day I was thinking about things which make me happy. It’s actually quite a difficult exercise – if you don’t believe me, give it a go. What are the things which make you really, truly happy? Where are the places you can always find joy?

After sitting down and writing the list I’ve concluded that I’m actually quite easy to please. Although in many ways I’m extremely demanding of myself and others, it doesn’t actually take a whole lot to make me happy:

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