Monday, August 25, 2008

Introducing Anglican English Altar Cards!

Hello everyone. Well, I thought we were done designing for awhile but we just had to get some English altar cards created for the Anglican Church. We have two simple sets to offer you: a Gold version and a Red version. Unfortunately, we do not have the English texts to design Requiem sets at this time but we will research them in time.

These are brand new as of mid-August 2008. They are not in our product catalog yet. But, the same dimensions and pricing information applies to these Anglican altar cards. We hope that you like them.

It was very humbling to design these. While entering the texts, and reading the prayers as I went, it was so touching to understand the prayers since they are in English. For me, there simply is nothing better than the Roman Catholic Latin Mass. It is so timeless, so beautiful on such a deep level. But, I must admit, that it is very nice to understand what the texts say as I typeset them. In the future, I hope to have a better understanding of just how precious these prayers are.

We hope these new cards are suitable for your needs. If you notice anything amiss about them, please let us know. We are here to serve you as you serve others.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Updated Altar Cards Catalog

Hello everyone. After a whirlwind month of designing new Latin altar cards, we have updated our catalog to reflect the new additions. We've added four new large print, two standard print, and one letter sized set of altar cards. It feels very good to have finally finished the work and have such a good range of selections for you.

In addition, the newly updated catalog mentions our new program that we call "Download Delivery Fulfillment." Download Delivery Fulfillment is a fancy way of saying that for the first time, we will be offering the ability to order, submit payment, and receive your order via downloading within hours.

Let's say it's Monday. You can pick out your altar cards and other things by browsing our online pictures, note their part numbers on page four of our catalog, email us with your order, submit payment via PayPal (to Myriad Creative Concepts), and we would have your order to you via upload by Tuesday's end - no matter where you are in the world. Then, you can download your Latin Mass materials to a Flash drive, take them to your neighborhood printing company, then framing shop, and have them beautifully framed by the weekend. You could conceivably celebrate the Tridentine Mass with your brand new, great looking, custom framed altar cards by Sunday. Plus, it would be cheaper than ordering a printed set from us!

Anyway, we think it's a really cool idea. If you're interested, contact us for the details.

Where did we ever get such an idea? Well, I read a life changing book last year called "The World Is Flat," by Thomas L. Friedman. The book discusses how the modern world made a great leap around the year 2000 by getting so connected. The phenomenon has its advantages and disadvantages but it is real and here to stay. It seems to me to be a great venue to promote the venerable, time-honored Tridentine Mass throughout the world.

At any rate, that's enough for now. I'm beginning to ramble. Enjoy the rest of your week.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Inn At The End Of The World

Hello everyone. I hope you are well and your week going smoothly. Today, I've added another fantastic blog to our Favorite Blogs lists. "The Inn At The End Of The World," named after the pub that C.S. Lewis hung out at, has its finger on the pulse of what is going on in the world in relationship to Catholicism and human rights. And, I must admit, I'm a sucker for anything C.S. Lewis.

This wonderful blog is hosted by a conservative traditional Catholic I know only as John. I'm sorry, I just don't know his last name yet. The first post I read, I completely disagreed with. But, I like this guy's fearlessness and willingness to call 'em as he sees 'em. The Georgian War, homosexual rights, you name it, and it is being scrutinized. I can't wait to dig a little deeper into his posts to see if he's written anything about this year's Olympics in China in relationship to China's relationship (!) with the Tibetans.

Take a look at "Inn At The End Of The World." Like "A Catholic Life," be prepared for some excellent reading.


Monday, August 18, 2008

"A Catholic Life" Blog Link Added

Hello everyone. I hope your week is starting off well. Just wanted to write a quick post to let you know of a new link we've added to our Favorite Blogs. A Catholic Life, by Seminarian Matthew who describes his site as follows: "Catholic Doctrine, News, and Opinion from a Traditionalist Roman Catholic."

Seminarian Matthew has won several Outstanding Blog awards with "A Catholic Life."

If you know of other really good links that we should consider for this blog, please let us know.

Have a great evening.

Last But Not Least, Introducing Our New Standard Gray Requiem Altar Cards

Hello everyone. As the headline states, this is our last new altar card project that we will be introducing for the foreseeable future. Now, priests can view a wide and complete range of easy to read Latin Mass materials in our product catalog. (which will be updated shortly). Recent additions include: our Travel Letter Size, Standard Red, Standard Gray Requiem Latin Altar Cards. and five Large Print Altar Cards that are really easy to read.

This has been exacting and precision layout design work and has been exhausting. However, knowing that we now have a complete range of materials for priests that are very easy to read is well worth the effort. Now, to get some supper ...

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Travel Altar Cards For The Tridentine Mass

Hello everyone. Continuing on with the recent project of freely offering all of the cards necessary to celebrate the Latin Mass to any priest who couldn't afford to buy them from us, we noticed that there was one puzzle piece missing. We didn't have a set small enough to be printed on a personal computer printer. Everything else could but not the altar cards. So, I whipped up a plain set today based on the free Microsoft Word downloads available from Una Voce. For the graphic, we found a picture of the oldest known Chi Rho symbol artifact which is now on view at the Cluny Museum in Paris, France.

This set of letter sized Latin altar cards is being offered as a free download to any priest or seminarian to print on their personal computer if necessary. The type is very small on the center card but if you have good eyesight you should be alright. The center card is the size of a sheet of paper while the side cards only 1/2 sheet. After lamination, these would be perfect for use while traveling because they can easily fit in a briefcase.

Like our other work stored online at Google Docs, one must have a Google Gmail account to access it. So, if you would like to download these travel size altar cards, just send me an email from a Gmail account and I will send you an "invitation" to view and download them.

For anyone who would like me to professionally print them and send them to you, the cost per set would be $15.00 plus $8.50 shipping and handling.

That's about it for now. I apologize for talking so much about our own work so much lately. We've just been very busy with bringing new materials out. Just a few more design projects and I should have some time to see what everyone else has been up to.

12/15/2010 Update: Please note that this post is two years old. Since then, we no longer offer altar cards for download. However, we have designed some very good Travel Altar Cards for Low and Requiem Latin Masses. If you are interested, please visit us online here.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Introducing Our New Red Latin Altar Cards

Hello everyone. In an effort to provide the best Latin Mass materials possible, we have added a brand new set of Tridentine altar cards to our line of Latin Mass materials. We named this version "Standard Red" and a large image of it can be viewed here. It features larger than average easy to read type and conservative red graphics. The center card type is 14 points which is larger than any standard 12 x 18 cards that we are aware of (except our own). The side cards have even larger, 16 point type. For most situations, these altar cards should really fill the bill for celebrating daily and Sunday Masses.

Shortly, a new black Requiem design will be designed as its companion. Right now, only our very large print altar cards have a companion Requiem set. We've always got projects and revisions in the works as we strive to improve the quality and range of our work.

Regarding our new large print altar cards, I just picked up the first batch from the printer today. They look terrific. The colors are just as I'd hoped for and the blue set looks especially good with its light blue color. The type is huge and will be perfect for priests who need especially easy to read altar cards.

Yesterday, I got an idea to offer free altar cards to priests who cannot afford them. Although we can't afford to print and ship them at no charge, we thought we could put them online for free downloading. This morning, I got my first email request from a priest in the South Pacific. That just made my day knowing that someone so far away could have access to our work for their ministry. He said that he had two fellow priests learning the Latin Mass. The priest requested sets of cards for them. He has a set of his own already.

Lastly, I would like to dedicate my new Standard Red altar cards to my late cousin, Clyde Wonderly who passed away yesterday as I was putting the finishing touches on the design. Clyde was 83, was a great cousin and friend. He was a World War II vet who served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. and enjoyed restoring cars. I will always cherish his war stories. Clyde, may you rest in peace.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Free Latin Mass Altar Cards and materials *

Hello everyone. We have decided to give select Latin Mass altar cards and other materials to qualifying Roman Catholic priests and seminarians at no charge. *For complete details, click here. It has bothered us for some time that Una Voce, SSPX, and probably others have been freely offering Tridentine Mass materials to priests and seminarians yet we charge for ours. Links to their offerings are listed in our Latin Mass Resources. We believe that the celebration of the Tridentine Mass is so important that we want to offer our services in some way to those who cannot afford to pay for them.

Therefore, to any priest or seminarian who is authorized by the Roman Catholic Church to celebrate Mass but cannot afford to buy our materials, we have placed several files online that can be downloaded, printed, and framed.

The large print altar cards include Stained Glass and Requiem Gray both of which are very easy to read. The Vesting Prayers are our Red Greco-Roman cards.

It would please us no end to hear that even priests in the remotest parts of the world have access to our free altar cards and Mass materials for their work with their parishoners.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

9/1/2008 Update: Please note that we have recently added English Altar Cards. They include Gold and Red versions. They too are available for download to priests who cannot afford to pay for them.

5/10/2012 Update: Note that this is a very old blog post and that we no longer offer any altar cards without charge because we cannot make up that expense in other areas to keep our business in the green.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Latin Altar Cards Upcoming Revisions

Today, I'd like to take a few minutes to announce some changes we're making to a few of our designs. Requiem Vintage Diamond, pictured, is the first revision completed. The center card remains the same while the two side card's crosses have been removed so that the text could be larger making them easier to read. Since this is a minor improvement, we will delay release of the new version until our inventory has been exhausted.

Other designs scheduled for minor revisions include Pieta and Requiem Black. Again, these are minor revisions to graphics. The Latin texts will remain the same or larger in type size. Our latest project design based on the Iquitos Cathedral in Peru, has been placed on hold until these revisions have been completed.

Lastly, I'd like to let you know that I stumbled upon a bit of information about a true Latin altar card artist! As mentioned in a July post, I have been curious about artists in the past who have designed the beautiful Tridentine altar cards of yesteryear. Well, it seems that a talented English woman named Nina Somerset designed a set of altar cards as well as other things for her church in London. Take a look at the pictures of her work. They're absolutely gorgeous. If I ever get a chance to go to London, I hope to see them in person.

That's about it for now. Until next time, enjoy your week!



Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Large Print Gray Requiem Altar Cards

Hello everyone. As yesterday's post stated, we will soon be offering more large print altar card designs. Pictured here are our simple large print Requiem Gray altar cards. Once framed in traditional black mouldings, they should have a nice finished look to them.

On another subject, I'd like to remind you about one of our links to an excellent resource for information about the Tridentine Latin Mass. Una Voce offers FREE downloads of Latin Altar Card texts. They are in the popular Microsoft Word format. For any priest that may be interested in downloading them and having them printed and framed, let me know and I will try to answer any typesetting and printing questions that you may have.

Thanks for visiting. We hope you will like these new Latin Mass altar cards. Enjoy your evening.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

New Large Print Altar Cards Soon Available


Hello everyone. In response to requests, I have been burning the midnight oil lately designing four more large print Latin Mass altar cards: Red, Gold, and Blue for the Low Mass, and a Requiem Gray for the funeral Mass. Very large versions can be viewed online along with our popular Stained Glass large print version over in our Picasa pictures.

Like our other altar cards, they measure 12 inches high with the center coming in at 18 inches wide and the sides 8 inches. The center card type is a large 15.6 points. The side card type is a huge 20 point. For the font, I chose Times because it is a Serif font that is known for easy readability. So, the next time you fire up your word processing software, select Times font and type some characters in these point sizes. It's the biggest type that I could fit on the cards.

Originally, the plan was to again use Father Felix Just's stained glass window photos in these designs. They just didn't look right though. So, I thought, why not just leave out a picture so that some of the center card's center section type could be bigger. The resulting designs are admittedly pretty plain, but I think they look pretty darned good.

Within two weeks, I expect the bugs to be worked out and have a printed supply on hand.

In conclusion, please take a look at them over in Picasa. We hope that you like them. Your honest feedback is really appreciated though even if it's negative. Our goal is to give priests cards that they can read and as attractive as possible with the little room available for graphics. So, if you are not seeing what you want, please let us know so that we can design for you.

As always, thanks for visiting our blog. If there's anything we can do for you, just let us know. Have a great week!

08/14/2008 Update: These large print altar cards are now ready and in stock! Click here to view our catalog.