• 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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Taking the Mickey

It’s known as “The Happiest Place On Earth”

Many of my fellow San Diegans have been shocked when they’ve found out that I’ve lived here for nearly two years and yet never been to Disneyland.

Well, this last weekend I finally went. I had my picture taken in front of the castle. I saw Goofy. I managed not to tut too loudly or roll my eyes or shake my head too much. I went on the rides. I managed to keep my lunch down. I bought mouse ears…

I remember once hearing Greg Proops, an American comedian who performs a lot in England, succinctly explain the difference between the Americans and the English. He said that, to understand the difference between our two peoples, one only has to look at our differing reactions to Disneyland…

The American: “Hey kids! Look! it’s Mickey! He really DOES live here! That is AWESOME! Hey, let’s go get our picture taken with him, c’mon! YEAH!”

The Englishman: “Oh please…”

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Worship of St. Hippolytus

St. Hippolytus of RomeOn Thursday we will be continuing the JP2 Group‘s study of worship in the Early Church by reading another extract from the Early Church. This text comes from the writing of Hippolytus of Rome (c AD 170 – 235) entitled “Apostolic Tradition” and was probably written in about AD 215.

Bishop: The Lord be with you.

All: And with your spirit.

Bishop: Lift up your hearts.

All: We lift them up to the Lord.

Bishop: Let us give thanks to the Lord.

All: It is proper and right.

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Be a man!

This afternoon I wanted to advertise the upcoming Be A Man! event. At the end of this month, Matt Fradd, the most recent addition to the Catholic Answers team, will be recording his latest talk before a live audience of men here in San Diego. Here’s some of the event blurb from the flier:

Chuck NorrisIn the first part…[Matthew] invites the men to listen to powerful, moving, and often-times hilarious stories. Then, he poses questions to show the men, or perhaps even to convince them, that who they desire to be, and who God commands them to be, is in fact the same man. 

In the second part of his talk, Matthew lays out five rules that every man must break (yes, that’s right, break) if he wants to fulfill his deepest desires and follow God’s commands.

Matt really knows what he’s talking about. He’s an Australian who married a Texan and, quite frankly, it doesn’t get much more manly that that!

Accent-uated Differences

I spoke to Matt on the phone a few weeks ago and we bonded over the highlights of Australian culture (Tim Tams and The Castle), as well people’s inability to identify our accents:

I'm Australian!

The most common question I get asked is “Are you Australian?”  Well, my friends, you now have the opportunity to come and hear what a real Australian sounds like.

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