Christ, King of the Universe Christmas Card
These deluxe Christmas Cards feature an engraving from an antique Altar Missal which is as rich in theology as it is in Scriptural typology. At the centre of the image stands Christ, His right hand raised in blessing, the other grasping the ‘tree of Life,’ His Cross. In the lower left, Adam and Eve implore salvation, bound to Eden’s tree by the coils of the ‘ancient enemy’. At the centre the ‘tree of Jesse’ is depicted, the genealogical line which springs from the Patriarch Jesse and finally flowers in the ‘rose without thorn’, the new Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The fruit of this flower is not ‘forbidden’ but rather communicates to each child of Eve salvation; old Eve’s offspring, all of fallen humanity, are also present, likewise awaiting the ‘King whose face all the earth desires to see’.
The sky is filled with angelic choirs adoring the mystery of God made man, the second person of the Trinity, eternally in communion with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now made ‘a little lower than the angels,’ but simultaneously ‘crowned with glory and honour,’ and ‘set over all the works of the Lord’ (see Psalm 8:6-7). In conquering death by death, Christ fulfils the verse of Psalm 8 in an entirely new and unforeseen way: ‘Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger’ (Psalm 8:3).
The greeting on the inside of the card reads:
May He Whose Face all the earth desires to see fill you with peace & joy this Christmastide.
Designed by the monks of Silverstream Priory, these Christmas Cards are printed on 300 gsm Conqueror Contour Cream paper. They measure 190 x 127 mm, and come with an envelope of proportional size.
