One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2012 is to gain a deeper appreciation of church history. Like many evangelicals, I’ve been remiss in learning about the heroes of the faith, especially those that came after the apostles and the early church fathers.
As an aid to my focus, I’ll be using The Fellowship of St. James’ superb ecumenical calendar of the Christian year, Anno Domini .
This unique ecumenical calendar is thus an inspiring expression and daily reminder of the communion of the saints to which we all belong. It includes prophets, apostles, martyrs, missionaries, monks, children, married and unmarried, peasants and kings, preachers, bishops, and pastors, all members of the mystical Body of Christ, that great cloud of witnesses. In this way we can remember the saints every day, and be encouraged by their witness to Christ, the Lord of all.
If you’re a Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, this would make a great Christmas gift for the evangelicals on your list who can’t tell St. Theresa from St. Botolph.
Speaking of gifts, I’ll be posting gift recommendations over the next few weeks, so if you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
