“Gift-giving Ideas for the Christmas Season”

 ”If the Advent season is a time of preparation, the season of Christmas is most definitely a time of celebration. Most of the customs and traditions associated with the feast are celebratory in nature, celebrating not only the birth of Our Lord but also, in a very real sense, celebrating life itself. Perhaps it is because of the presence of the Infant Jesus, an infant with the power all infants seem to embody to bring people to a point of quiet reflection of thankfulness and praise. There are not many people who can look at a small infant and not think of the fragileness of life and the wonder of creation. For many reasons, and possibly because of the atmosphere that surrounds the season, there is a sense of celebration. There is no other time of the year when the landscape is so drastically changed, when lights and garlands and trees, when brightly colored packages and abundance of good cheer seem to be present everywhere.”

- from the Essential Advent and Christmas Handbook

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Bible Gift Ideas for Christmas

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Book Gift Ideas for Christmas

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“The Christmas Mystery”

Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night:

The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal

And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible

The angels and shepherds praise him

And the magi advance with the star,

For you are born for us,

Little child, God eternal!

To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become ‘children of God’ we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born from God.’ Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this ‘marvelous exchange’:

O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.”

- Catechism of the Catholic Church 525, 526

Christmas cards are here. Orders yours today!

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Shop online at www.catholicchurchsupply.com for all your parish’s
church supply needs - church Advent candles, incense, vestments, altar
linens, holy water sprinklers, chalices, clergy shirts, censers, missal
stands, sanctuary lamps, altar server apparel and so much more!

A Christmas Hymn from the Early Church’s Liturgy of St. James -

“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”

Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descending
Comes our homage to demand.

King of kings yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords in human vesture,
In the body and the blood,
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads it vanguard on the way
As the Light of Light, descending
From the realms of endless day,
Comes the powers of hell to vanquish
As the darkness clears away.

Listen

Christmas Cards, official items printed with a Christmas message and sent to wish others a “A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”, were first printed in England in 1843 making them as old as the opera Don Pasquale, the United Free Church of Scotland, the British colony of Natal, a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and your grandmother’s fruit cake.

Sir Henry Cole commissioned John Callcott Horsley to create the first Christmas card. Sir Cole must have had a lot of friends and a lot of free time since he had 1000 printed. Unfortunately, he didn’t give thought to the sensibilities of the times setting off what could be one of the earliest politically correct protests when temperance groups objected to the image on the card depicting a child drinking wine with his family. In our family we believe that children shouldn’t have liquor until they are at least three so the temperance protest is understandable. It should also be noted that the first card didn’t actually include an image of anything religious proving that the English are a bunch godless heathens only interested in selling tea and the worst food on the planet.

Actually, if you look carefully at the card you will see some unhappy figures on the edges. Sir Cole was very concerned about the poor in England and wanted to remind his friends to do something charitable during the Christmas season so he had these cards sent instead of handwriting individual letters. (This is true). (So was most everything else I said so far).

Americans, always quick to copy the British in everything except military tactics, started mailing cards in 1845/6 but had to import them from Europe for thirty years until a someone figured out that yes, Christmas cards can be printed outside of the British Isles. Louis Prang, a German immigrant, started selling multi-colored Christmas cards in Europe in 1865 and started selling them in the United States in 1875. Within six years he was producing over five-million cards a year. That’s equivalent to 10% of the US population at the time.

The first home-photograph card was introduced by Kodak in 1902 which has made it possible for everyone to see how great your family and dog look in matching sweaters.

The first White House Christmas card was sent in 1953 when Dwight Eisenhower was president. Just another reason why everyone liked Ike. The cards were sent to 2000 of his most personal friends. White House Christmas cards now get sent to about 1.6 million people which kind of takes away the thrill of getting one.

If you send Christmas cards, you aren’t alone. The average US household receives an estimated 20 cards a year, down from 27 in the 80’s and 1.9 billion, yes that’s with a “b”, Christmas cards are sent in the US each year.

We recommend visiting the Christmas card gallery to see some examples of antique cards.

This history was culled from Wikipedia, Christmas in St. Charles, Emotion Greeting Cards and our seven-week-old daughter, Maria who thinks Christmas cards taste great.

If you want to help the US get to 2 billion cards sent each year, we recommend browsing our Christmas card section with a giving heart.

You might also like our posts on Saint making and All Saints Day.

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Aquinas and More is helping you take care of your Christmas shopping early so you can enjoy a spiritually rewarding Advent. Take 15% off just about everything on our site from Wednesday (21) evening - Monday (26) evening.

All orders over $55 will include a free copy of Catholic Men’s Quarterly and receive free standard shipping in the US. (Magazine subscriptions not included).

Here are some highlights:

The Shepherds’ Prayer

A young man with no name, orphaned as a baby, sets off to find out
the truth about the circumstances of his birth, the fate of his
parents, and his heritage. Having been raised in a culture where
bloodlines mean everything, he seems forever condemned to live as an
outsider on the fringes of society.

His only clue is a cryptic message on a lambskin
blanket about a child born in a stable in Bethlehem, near where his
adopted father had rescued him as a baby so long ago.

The townspeople offer no help, but later he seeks
out a band of shepherds who, it’s said, are evildoers who caused a
terrible massacre.

Can these rough herdsmen lead him to the truth he
is seeking? Burying his fear, he sets out to find them. He is
determined to learn the truth. What really happened in that stable
thirty years earlier?

The answers will change his life forever…and maybe yours.

Kissing the Face of God Christmas Card

This adorable card has been a runaway bestseller this season. More are on the way!

We also have plenty of other Advent and Christmas items available.

Since almost all of our jewelry is available for shipping within three business days, now the best time to get that special Christmas present.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Aquinas and More staff.

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 ”The Feast of Christ the King is November 25″

“Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 in his encyclical Quas Primas. Pope Pius connected the denial of Christ as king to the rise of secularism. At the time of Quas Primas, secularism was on the rise, and many Christians, even Catholics, were doubting Christ’s authority, as well as the Church’s, and even doubting Christ’s very existence. At the time, Pius XI witnessed the rise of dictatorships in Europe, and saw even Catholics being taken in by these earthly leaders. Just as the Feast of Corpus Christi was instituted when devotion to the Holy Eucharist was at a low point, the Feast of Christ the King was instituted during a time when respect for Christ and the Church was waning, when the feast was most needed. In fact, it is still needed today, as these problems have not vanished, but instead have worsened around the world.

Pius hoped the institution of this feast would have the following various effects:

1. That nations would see that the Church has the right to freedom, and immunity from the state (see Quas Primas, 32).
2. That leaders and nations would see that they are bound to give respect to Christ (see Quas Primas, 31).
3. That the faithful would gain strength and courage from the celebration of the feast, as we are reminded that Christ must reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies (see Quas Primas, 33).”

- excerpted from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

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“By attributing to Jesus the divine title “Lord,” the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honor, and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus, because “he was in the form of God,” and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory.

From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ’s lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not ‘the Lord.’ The Church . . . believes that the key, the center, and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in its Lord and Master.”

- from the Catechism of the Catholic Church 449, 450

“Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”… Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

- from the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 18, verses 33, 36, 37.

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Our complete line of beautiful Catholic jewelry from the Stuller Company is on sale at 30% off for a limited time!

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Advent and Christmas Suggestions

Are you looking for replacement Advent candles for your home or your parish? We have them! To browse our selection of Advent candles, please click here.

To browse our huge selection of Christmas cards, please click here.

To browse our selection of 2008 calendars, please click here.

Aquinas and More Catholic Goods now has Christmas Cards available. Be sure to check out our website for old favorites and over 30 new designs for 2007. To insure that you get the style you want, we encourage you to order early.

Our most popular design so far this year is “Kissing the Face of God.”