• 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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Location, Location, Adoration

I’ve just had someone ask me about Eucharistic Adoration in San Diego. I know that some of the pilgrims who read this blog are practically professional Adorers, having visited virtually every chapel and church in the county, so…

Where and when can you go to Adoration in San Diego?
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New Resolutions

Okaaaaay….it’s new resolution time… Here’s what 2012 has in store for me…

1. Read through the New Testament Twice: This is actually quite a modest goal if I’m honest. I did toy with the idea of reading the entire Bible this year, but in the end I favoured this goal in the hope that I will achieve the daily prayerful Lectio Divina reading that I tried (and failed) to do in 2011.

2. More dancing: This is being carried over from last year.  My goal is to be dancing weekly by the end of 2012.

3. Be more gentle with people: Later this month I’ll do a blog entry explaining exactly what I have in mind here…

4. No sodas/fizzy drinks: Sodas are the new chocolate 😉

5. Get into the best shape of my life: This is another resolution continued from last year. I’m aiming to complete this resolution by my next birthday in April. I’ve signed up for the Warrior Dash and I may do a half-marathon…

6. Complete reading list: I’m going to be a bit more purposeful in my reading in 2012. I have assembled a list of twelve books that I want to finish by the end of the year. I’ll do a post on these books when they’ve all arrived.

7. Keep proper track of finances: Last year I got some way towards achieving this goal. This year I’m going to be a bit more specific: I’m aiming to check my bank accounts and check my budget once a week.

8. Tick something off my TODO list: I usually have a list of TODOs up on the mirror in my apartment. I want to get into the habit of ticking off something every day, even if it’s just something simple like “Answer Joe’s email” or “Do washing up”.

10. Fast on Wednesday and Friday: Fasting twice a week was a practice of the Early Church and I’d like to integrate it into my life.

11. Give up Facebook for 40 days: Just to show I can 😉 I’ll probably do it after Daughters Of The King.

12. Make an effort to dress well for Mass: For years I was an altar server, so the only thing that mattered was that I wore black shoes since a cassock covered everything else. I’ve therefore never given much thought to what I’ve worn to the liturgy but a few months ago I decided that I should address this.

Is it life?

I’ll get around to writing up my resolutions tonight, but just now I wanted to share a video I stumbled across last night. These are some comments by Planned Parenthood’s College Outreach Group. Their approach is utterly mind-boggling!

Last Year’s Resolutions

Tomorrow I’ll post my new resolutions for 2012, but I thought I’d first do a quick review of those from last year.

1. Spend 30 minutes every day in Scripture: A lot of my time in 2011 was spent reading and studying Scripture, but I didn’t manage to achieve the quiet lectio divina style of reading for which I was aiming.

Final Grade: C

2. More dancing: I did quite a bit here. I taught a good handful of times, went out social dancing a few times, attended Swing Diego and did a couple of months of West Coast Swing classes. However, I didn’t manage to settle into a regular pattern of dancing.

Final Grade: D

3. No more rushing: I think I really nailed this one. I had a busy year, but I didn’t overbook or frantically run about from appointment to appointment.

Final Grade: A

4. No chocolate: Did it. It was horrible. I love chocolate.

Final Grade: A

5. Get into the best shape of my life: At the beginning of the year I began keeping a closer eye on my diet. However, I didn’t really get into the way of regular exercise until towards the end of the year. I began running with John in the mornings but finally signed up for Bootcamp. Within two months of joining Bootcamp I lost 4% body fat and 8lbs. I go four or five times a week.

I’m not yet in the greatest shape of my life, but I’m well on my way to getting there. I’ve signed up for the Warrior Dash in March, by which time I hope this resolution will be achieved…

Final Grade: B

6. At least five minutes of guitar practice every day: I haven’t strictly fulfilled this, but I now to play very regularly and I think I’m much improved.

Final Grade: B

7. Keep proper track of finances: Much improved from the beginning of the year. I now have a financial adviser and I have my American finances in reasonable shape now. For a good while I kept a budget and checked my bank balances, but in the latter part of the year I’ve got out of the habit.

Final Grade: C

8. Get back to England for a couple of weeks: I went and it was wonderful 🙂

Final Grade: A

So, my final report card was:

D x1, C x2, B x2, A x3

Not bad! I’ll write about my new resolutions tomorrow 🙂

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