Three days: Get a signed copy of God With Us
Starting today and ending Friday, November 20, all purchases of God With Us by David H. Petersen will be signed by the author. With Advent just 11 days away, now is the time to pick up a copy just in time for the start of the season.
Many customers tell us that they’ve given God With Us in bulk to family members and friends, since these 59 brief sermons serve well for daily devotions. As Pr. Larry Beane writes, “This book is a treasure trove for private or family devotions, as well as a solid source of homiletical material for daily chapel or Divine Services. If you are looking for some additional spiritual refreshment this Advent through Epiphany seasons, this is a perfect combination of brevity and potency, of meditation and instruction, but most of all, of our Lord Jesus Christ who has come to save us from our sins!”
Read the reviews, learn how we developed the lectionary for this book, take a look at the Table of Contents and Scripture Index, and find excerpts throughout the site. Better yet, sign up for occasional emails on the right sidebar or follow us on Facebook, where we post more frequent excerpts.
*Be sure to peruse our Christmas cards while you’re here. Reasonably priced, unique, gorgeous artwork…combined with a clear confession of our Savior’s birth.
Our new Christmas cards are now available!
This year we collaborated with local artist Meghan Schultz to create three beautiful new designs. Meghan’s background is in graphic design and advertising with a special interest in fine art and calligraphy. While busy as a homeschooling mother, she finds time to pursue art as a personal hobby and also to create liturgical artwork for her home congregation, Redeemer Lutheran Church – Fort Wayne. Meghan recently designed a coat of arms for Redeemer, which was then rendered in hand-carved wood, and she’s currently working on several custom projects.
Working with such a versatile artist led to some unique details in “Magnificat” (left). We paired the depiction of Mary and Jesus (from “The Virgin of the Lilies” by 19th-century artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau) with hand-lettered words from the Song of Mary. We also added hand-drawn fleur-de-lis in the corners as a nod to Bouguereau’s French heritage and the lilies in his original piece, symbolic of Mary. The text inside features a verse from the beloved hymn, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” 
The illuminated artwork for “A Child is Born” (right) is from a 14th-century choir book from a monastery in Italy. The words on the manuscript in Latin are from Isaiah 9:6, which is also quoted in the inside greeting: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” You can view the inside text in its entirety on our Christmas cards page.
Finally, we decided to redesign one of the very first Christmas cards that we introduced back in 2011. The 
artwork for “Nativity” (left) is a fresco from the Imperial Cathedral in Speyer, Germany. This Nazarene-style fresco was painted in the cathedral’s interior walls in the mid-1800s by Johann von Schraudolph at the behest of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The city of Speyer is significant in Reformation history; adherents of the Reformation were first called Protestants when they protested the Holy Roman Empire’s ban against Martin Luther and his teachings at an Imperial Diet in Speyer in 1529. This year, we updated the card to give it a beautiful linen-textured background and words proclaiming Christ’s birth.
Visit our Christmas cards page to have a closer look at the covers and view the inside greetings. If you send out a lot of Christmas cards or want to stock up for future years, take advantage of our bulk discount, which begins with orders of 15 sets. Contact us for more details before placing your order so that we can create a customized invoice.
Coming soon: New Christmas Cards for 2015
More details very soon….Subscribe to our email updates or like us on Facebook (see the right sidebar) for the latest news! In the meantime, visit our Christmas Cards page to see our current selection.
A Hymn for St. Michael and All Angels’ Day
Thee, O Christ, the Father’s splendor,
Life and virtue of the heart,
In the presence of the angels
Sing we now with tuneful art,
Mostly in alternate chorus
Bearing our responsive part.
Thus we praise with due thanksgiving
All the armies of the sky;
Chiefly him, the warrior primate,
Of celestial chivalry,
Michael, who in princely virtue
Cast Abaddon from on high.
By whose watchful care repelling —
King of everlasting grace–
Every ghostly adversary,
All things evil, all things base,
Grant us of Thine only goodness
In Thy paradise a place.
Laud and honor to the Father,
Laud and honor to the Son,
Laud and honor to the Spirit,
Ever Three and ever One,
Consubstantial, coeternal,
While unending ages run. Amen.
__________
Tibi, Christe, splendor Patris, Rabanus Maurus, 9th cent., trans. by J.M. Neale
As found in The Brotherhood Prayer Book
NEW: Psalm 23 Greeting Card
Browsing the internet and various bookstores, it can be difficult to find greeting cards with substance and a clear Christian confession. Our conversations with friends and customers helped us to realize that we were not the only ones facing this dilemma. So, five years ago, we at Emmanuel Press began offering ecclesiastical greeting cards as an alternative to the usual fluff of mediocre art and cliché sayings.
Our newest card, Psalm 23 (left), is the first in a planned series of greeting cards combining sacred artwork with the prayerful, comforting words of the Psalms. This particular stained glass is located behind the altar at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It depicts Jesus, our Good Shepherd, in vibrant stained glass on a light gray background. Psalm 23 is printed on the inside left side, leaving the right side blank for personal correspondence for any occasion. Visit the Psalm 23 page to have a closer look at the artwork and to see the inside text.
We are always on the lookout for beautiful sacred artwork! If you know of stained glass or have other artwork or card ideas to share, please contact us.
Seed Grains of Prayer: Prayer for Cleansing of the Soul
“Righteous God, turn my desire and thoughts, that I may fear and serve Thee in love with all my soul. Sanctify me wholly, and turn away from me all that is not purely Thine. So sink my life in Thyself that my will may ever yield to Thine, to be governed by Thee; for neither mine own nor the help of any creature can give me counsel. Grant that I neither fall into nor remain in sin. Quench my thirst for things temporal. Uproot in me all self-love and selfishness. Banish evil passions and covetous desires. Destroy all lusting and cleaving unto the things of this world. Gather my soul unto Thee, and retain in me a pure and peaceful conscience unto my latest breath. Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and majesty be unto thee, O God, forevermore. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed Grains of Prayer, #200
Seed-Grains of Prayer: For Grace to Pray Aright
“Merciful God, we do indeed not know what we should pray, neither how we should present our petitions unto Thee. We are by nature negligent and indifferent to pray, and our little earthly occupations do so easily keep us away from, or at least hinder us in our prayers. To all this come the manifold temptations of the devil, ever ready to make us err on all sides in our prayers. Therefore, I pray Thee, O Lord, my God, pour out upon me abundantly the Spirit of grace and prayer, that I may boldly surmount every hindrance and pray unto Thee diligently according to Thy will, and obtain all those things that are salutary and needful for me both in soul and body, now and evermore, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, my only Savior. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer, #3
Strodach on Liturgy
“The minister will study the liturgy of the Church in order to know its antecedents, its history, meaning and harmony, its symbolism, spiritual power, and eloquence. He will study it as the means to an end of worship, in the spirit of devotion: that he may rightly and sensibly guide his people in their devotions. He will seek to teach his people so that they know its story, its meaning, the richness of its treasures, and how to use it unto edification and make it, as it must be to him, the expression of sacred moments and the means to spiritual enrichment. The forms themselves are inspiring, but how much more this all is enhanced when one realizes, that through these, through these very prayers, these selfsame canticles, the actual words that we are using, countless throngs of men and women through the long centuried past have lifted up their hearts to God, and I am uniting mine with theirs in these latter days…. ‘I believe in the Communion of Saints’…!”
-Paul Z. Strodach, A Manual on Worship
New download: Church Father excerpts formatted as bulletin inserts
Click on the Downloads tab above to find a new (free!) download of Church Father excerpts formatted as bulletin inserts for Easter through Pentecost.
New download: Church Father excerpts formatted as bulletin inserts
Click on the Downloads tab above to find a new (free!) download of Church Father excerpts formatted as bulletin inserts for Pre-Lent (Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima) through Palm Sunday.