New Christmas Cards are Now Available
Our new Christmas cards with artwork by Kelly Klages are now available for purchase! Illumination (left) features the style of an illuminated manuscript with its decorated initial and elaborate border. The Holy Family (right) is based on a beautiful 19th-century stained glass. The red and blue borders surrounding each image also wrap around to the back, giving these cards a wonderful richness. As with our other cards, the envelopes included are superb quality with a classic gold-foil lining.
If you send out a lot of Christmas cards or want to stock up for future years, keep in mind that we offer a bulk discount for purchases of 15+ sets of any of the Christmas cards. Email us at emmanuelpress@gmail.com for details.
Meet the Artist Behind our New Christmas Cards
This year we collaborated with artist Kelly Klages to create two new Christmas cards with stained glass and illumination nativity scenes.
Kelly Klages is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a degree in Studio Art from Goucher College in 2003 and interned at Beaumont Pottery in Phoenix, Maryland. In 2004, Kelly married Alex Klages and moved to Winkler, Manitoba, where Alex was called to serve as pastor to two congregations in the Lutheran Church-Canada. Kelly’s work has been on display in various galleries and locations throughout southern Manitoba, including the Pembina Hills Art Gallery, the Tiger Hills Art Gallery, and the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg.
Over the years, Kelly has taken a special interest in detailed portraiture, liturgical 
artworks, and miniature painting. Her primary medium is acrylics, but she enjoys experimenting with many forms of art and crafting. In 2011, she created a book of illustrated hymns for children called Hosanna, Loud Hosanna, using colored pencil. She maintains a blog about Lutheran art at Confessional Lutheran Ecclesiastical Art Resources (CLEAR).
Kelly Klages currently lives in Morden, Manitoba, with her husband and three children: Anastasia, Micah, and Timothy.
*These new cards will be available for purchase on our website within the two weeks. Subscribe to our email updates in the right-hand column or “Like” us on Facebook to keep updated!
September Sale: All Books up to 35% off
With all books (and the BPB CD) up to 35% off, now is the time to add to your library or purchase a gift for a friend, family member, pastor, or seminary student. Take a look at our books using the Books tab above. The sale runs through Saturday, September 14.
Don’t know what they’d like or whether they already have it? Then consider a gift certificate from Emmanuel Press. If you order soon, there’s plenty of time for the lucky recipient to use it during our September Sale.
What we’re working on now… We’re putting the finishing touches on two new Christmas cards and editing a revised and expanded edition of Prof. John Pless’s DIDACHE. First published in 1996, DIDACHE is, in the words of Prof. Pless, “a manual for adult catechesis using the Holy Scriptures, the Small Catechism, and the hymnal (at that time, Lutheran Worship)….I’ll bring it in sync with the Lutheran Service Book and add a few things I’ve learned from teaching Catechetics these last thirteen years at Concordia Theological Seminary.” Look for more information on these projects in the coming months!
Also, we have just a few 8″ x 10″ prints remaining from the first run of Ed Riojas’ Office of the Holy Ministry artwork. Our customers have found these to be stunning artwork for a pastor’s office as well as unique, inexpensive gifts for ordinations, installations, or other occasions.
Free Download: Solid Declaration Readings as Bulletin Inserts – Trinity III
We have just added the third set of Trinity bulletin inserts in our Downloads tab. This set includes Solid Declaration readings for Trinity 13 through Trinity 18.
Many thanks to Pr. Craig Meissner for choosing the readings and to Pr. Erich Fickel for formatting the inserts.
New: Emmanuel Press Gift Certificates
Do you know someone who would love to learn Gregorian chant as found in The Brotherhood Prayer Book or the significance of liturgical worship as described in Ceremony and Celebration, The Conduct of the Service, and An Explanation of the Common Service? What about an expectant mother who would benefit from the comforting prayers of Starck’s Motherhood Prayers for All Occasions? Or someone who looks every year for Christmas cards with substance and without dancing elves?
Basically, do you know someone who would like our theological books and ecclesiastical greeting cards, but you just don’t know what to choose or whether they already own it? Consider a gift certificate from Emmanuel Press. Whether it’s a gift for a friend, family member, seminary student, or pastor, just give us the details and we’ll take care of the gift giving for you.
To purchase a gift certificate, simply email us at emmanuelpress@gmail.com. Please provide the amount (from $5 up to however-generous-you’re-feeling), the recipient’s name, where you’d like it sent, and any special message you’d like for us to include. We’ll email you a Paypal invoice for quick and convenient online payment and then send the gift certificate in a classic gold foil-lined envelope.
*We’ve added a convenient Gift Certificates tab above and updated the FAQ tab, too.
Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Pastor’s Prayer
“O Lord God, Thou hast set me to be a bishop and pastor in Thy Church. Thou seest how unfitted I am to bear such great and responsible office; and had not Thy counsel hitherto sustained me, I had long since brought all to ruin. Therefore, I cry unto Thee: gladly will I submit and give my lips, my tongue, and my heart unto the teaching of the people, and ever learn and occupy myself in Thy word to consider the same diligently. Use me as Thine instrument: but, dear Lord, leave me not; for were I to be left unto myself, I would quickly bring all to ruin. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer, #254.
Free Download: Solid Declaration Readings as Bulletin Inserts – Trinity II
We have just added the second set of Trinity bulletin inserts in our Downloads tab. This set includes Solid Declaration readings for Trinity 6 through Trinity 12.
Many thanks to Pr. Craig Meissner for choosing the readings and to Pr. Erich Fickel for formatting the inserts.
A Hymn for the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elisabeth
Audio: Listen to A Hymn for the Visitation chanted.
Now in holy celebration sing we of that Mother blest,
In whose flesh for men’s salvation God incarnate deigned to rest,
When a kindred salutation named in faith the mystic Guest.
Lo, the advent Word confessing,
Spake for joy the voice yet dumb,
Through his mother’s lips addressing
Her, of motherhood the sum,
Bow’r of beauty, blest and blessing,
Crowned with fruit of life to come.
“Whence,” she cried, at that fair meeting,
“Comes to me this great reward?
For when I first heard the greeting
Of the Mother of my Lord,
In my womb, the joy repeating,
Leapt my babe in sweet accord.”
Lo, at that glad commendation joy found voice, in Mary’s breast
While in holy exultation she her Maker’s power confessed,
At whose word each generation now henceforward names her blest.
Triune Godhead, health supplying, Ruler of eternity,
On the Fount of Grace relying, we uplift our hearts to Thee,
Praying that in realms undying we at one with Life may be.
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.
__________
Festum Matris gloriosae, 15th century, trans. by L. Housman
*An excerpt from The Brotherhood Prayer Book
*The fresco above is from the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, Germany, the same location of our fresco notecard artwork and several of our Christmas cards.
Free Download: Solid Declaration Readings as Bulletin Inserts – Trinity
We have added the third installment of our popular free download: Solid Declaration readings formatted as bulletin inserts for Holy Trinity through Trinity 5. Find them here in our Downloads tab. Bulletin inserts for the remaining Sundays in Trinity will be posted in the coming weeks.
Many thanks to Pr. Craig Meissner for choosing the readings and to Pr. Erich Fickel for formatting the inserts.
Seed-Grains of Prayer: Ascension Day
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Highest, Who now no longer walkest on earth in suffering and humiliation, but sittest on the right hand of God the Father, mighty Lord over all that is in heaven and on earth; Who fillest immensity; we pray Thee, send thy Holy Spirit unto us. Give us pious preachers of the Word. Endow them with rich gifts. Maintain them in Thy Word. Defend them against Satan and all Thine enemies. And maintain Thy kingdom on earth mightily until all Thine enemies shall be put under Thy feet, and we, through Thee, overcome sin and death, and all things. Amen.”
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer, #295