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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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”.
If, as a result of this livestream, you’d like to read The Great Divorce, I’d recommend listening to Season 2 of my podcast, Pints With Jack, where my co-host and I discuss this book chapter-by-chapter.
As a Thursday bonus episode, here is the audio of my interview on the Talking Beasts podcast where Brian and I discussed the merits of Dr. Michael Ward’s Narnia Code.
S3E32: “Talking Beasts and the Narnia Code” (Download)
“We go to universities to be challenged, not coddled. Words are not violence. Try hard not to offend others, but try hard not to be offended either. Free speech – uninfringed – makes our society stronger”
[Verse 1] I wanna hear the people singing I wanna feel the walls come down I wanna start a new beginning Finding a freedom in the sound
[Verse 2] I know the power of resurrection I know the life within Your name I know You’re the author of salvation I will never be the same
[Chorus] There is no fear when I am standing in Your light Made me a promise, You are always by my side My hands are lifted to the One who changed my life I’m only free when I am standing in Your light Standing in Your light Standing, standing Standing in Your light Standing, standing
[Verse 3] I see the chains around us breaking I see Your people unashamed I see revival in the making All for the glory of Your name
[Bridge] Spirit burning bright (Burning bright) With me through the night Making all things right (All things right) Standing in Your light Spirit burning bright With me through the night Making all things right Standing in Your light
About six months ago I recorded another interview with Bear Woznick. This time we spoke primarily about C.S. Lewis and my podcast, Pints With Jack. This weekend the video was finally published:
Let me steward well, Lord Christ, this gift of homesickness—this grieving for a childhood gone, this ache for distant family, lost fellowship, past laughter, shared lives, and the sense that I was somewhere I belonged.
It is a good, good thing to have a home.
But now that I have gone from it, let me steward well, O God, this homesick gift, as I know my wish for what has been is not some solitary ache, but is woven with a deeper longing for what will one day be.
This yearning to return to what I knew is, even more than that, a yearning for a place my eyes have yet to see.
So let me steward this sacred yearning well. Homesickness is indeed a holy thing, like the slow burning of an immortal beacon, set ablaze to bid us onward.
The shape of that ache for another time and place is the imprint of eternity within our souls.
So let those sorrows do their work in me, O God. Let them stir such yearnings as would fix my journey forward toward that place for which I’ve always pined.
O my soul, have there not always been signs? O my soul, were we not born with hearts on fire? Before we were old enough even to know why songs and waves and starlight so stirred us, had we not already tiptoed to the edge of that vast sadness, bright and good, and felt ourselves somehow stricken with a sickness unto life? Hardly had we ventured from our yards, when we felt ourselves so strangely far from something—and somewhere that we despaired of ever reaching—that we turned to hide the welling of our eyes. We knew it, even then, as the opening of a wound this world cannot repair— the first birthing of that weight every soul must wake up to alone, because it is the burden of that wild and lonely space that only God in his eternity can fill.
And as we wait, this sacred, homesick sorrow works in us to cultivate a faith that knows one day, he will.
That is the holy work of homesickness: to teach our hearts how lonely they have always been for God.
So let these sighs and tears, Lord Christ, prepare me for that better gladness that will be mine. Let all your children learn to grieve well in this life, knowing we are not just being homesick; we are letting sorrow carve the spaces in our souls, that joy will one day fill. O Holy Spirit, bless our grief, and seal our hearts until that day.
