I love collecting stuff.  Inexpensive stuff is best for collecting, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way.    But there’s one inexpensive thing that I collect, and it’s a bit of an odd collecting fixation, but what the hey, I’ll share it with you anyway, since it’s in-line with the theme of this blog.  I have a weakness for collecting what are commonly called “holy cards.”  (I insist on collecting only the non-heretical variety.)

Holy cards are little picture cards of Jesus, biblical scenes, saints, or other Christian imagery.  They are found in Catholic and Orthodox sectors, and sometimes have a prayer or some other bit of writing on the back.  The cards can be smaller and printed on heavy paper, or larger and laminated, or hard plastic.  Much of the artwork in the RC cards is a bit saccharine; some of the phrases on the back are hopelessly kitschy.  At least 90% of holy cards in existence are saints of the RC church with prayers of invocation on the reverse side, which rules them out for me.  Typically I have to go through at least 50 cards or so before I find one I’d consider buying (it’s a good challenge)– but some of the cards are quite nice.  I either keep them for my own collection, give them away, or cut them to size for whatever use they can have in a scrapbooking or art project.  They’re VERY versatile.  Here are a few cards that I like:

1. A Christmas blessing
2. The Last Supper (This is little.)
3. Body and Blood of Christ
4. St. Patrick (I’ve seen this with St. Patrick’s Breastplate on the reverse side.)
5. Baptism of Christ

I’ve made up a bunch of these kind of little cards myself at various points in time, using photos of well-known paintings and whatnot printed onto a sheet of business cards.  On the reverse side, I put a related Bible verse and a hymn stanza, and got them laminated.  Then I started thinking about copyright issues, and also began to wonder if there would be a way to mass-produce these sorts of things for the Lutheran community, perhaps with new (but good) artwork and all the proper references added.  These things can be great, handy little learning tools or words of encouragement– why should the RCs and the EO have all the fun?

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