Holy Card Heaven: October 2011

O my soul, when will you be ever docile in the sweet movements of grace?
Letaille

O, Mother of Mercy! We sigh unto thee in this valley of tears. Letaille

Small album~
The Rosary, Our Lady's Psalter

O, Mary, accept the first fruits of my day. Dopter

The 15 Mysteries of the Rosary

The Rosary: Mary's Psalter.

May the peace and joy of the Divine Child Jesus abide in your heart.

Small album~
Doves and the Christ Child

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary
Each Pater is a diamond, each Ave a flower added to the crown we offer to Mary.
Bouasse Lebel 112B

Small album~
The Rosary, Our Lady's Psalter

Jesus, I give you my heart.

Small album~
Amo te Jesu

Let our hearts
be under its aegis.
Mary will protect them.

HER ROSARY
Holy Mother, listen to my voice,
I am one with choirs of Angels,
and I say with them: Ave Maria!
Letaille 4027

As the Father has loved me,
so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.
John 15:9

Small album~

God of Childhood

Go to Joseph Whoever you are, pray to St. Joseph. He can and wants to grant your petitions. His power knows no bounds, and his kindness extends to all who call on him with confidence. Letaille 1021/Boumard

St. Teresa of Jesus: Carmelite Solemnity, October 15

Portrait
Euorpean postcard

Doctor of the Church
"Doctor of Prayer"

I often consider, my Christ, how pleasing and delightful are your eyes to one who loves you.
~ St. Teresa of Avila ( St. Teresa of Jesus)

Evil will not reach you;

God confides you to His angels.

Breval

Small album~
Holy Guardian Angels

Untitled
Bouasse Lebel

Sermon on the Guardian Angels
by St. Bernard of Clarvieux

Pure like Mary, Humble like Mary.

Small album~
The Holy Name of Mary

O, Mother of Mercy! We sigh unto thee in this valley of tears. Letaille

Visit of the Good Master
Bouasse Lebel

Small Album~
Heart speaks to heart ~ Cor ad cor loquitur

With everlasting love I have loved you and drawn you to myself.

Small album~
God of Childhood

Small album~
Gentle Mother

St. Dominic receives the Holy Rosary.Bouasse Lebel 3396

The Rosary
excellent source of information

Rosary in the Desert: Mary's Psalter

Nature's Troubador

"But as for me, I desire this
privilege from the Lord,
that never may I have any
privilege from man, except
to do reverence to all..."
~from The Little Flowers of St. Francis

Music video:
Prayer of St. Francis - Make me a Channel of Your Peace

Small album~
Holy Guardian Angels

The Wishes of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
I wish to spend my Heaven
doing good upon the earth.

Blessed Thérèse of the Child Jesus
in meditation in the monastery garden
3rd class relic card - published by the Carmelites before her canonization

Magnitude of the Small Virtues
Gentleness and simplicity
are the favorites of Jesus.
Bouasse Lebel, 1362

Guardian Angels: Solemnity, 1st Sunday in October (by papal privilege)

My good angel,
do not abandon me.
Vve. Bouasse Lebel, Paris
Pl. 565

Feast of the Guardian Angels
"...Although October 2 has been fixed for this feast in the Roman calendar, it is kept, by papal privilege, in Germany and many other places on the first Sunday (computed ecclesiastically) of September, and is celebrated with special solemnity and generally with an octave."
Catholic Encyclopedia

Guardian Angels ~ Small Album

WELCOME TO HOLY CARD HEAVEN

One of our favorite holy cards says simply, "Heaven is the home of loving souls." In a way, an album of holy cards is like a little heaven; the truth that inspired the cards greets us anew with each tender image, and we feel at home. Little by little I hope to bring together a collection of this gentle faith art for the delight and comfort of any loving soul who happens by.

Ethereal messengers of God's Love and Light, the small engravings that gather here fly in day by day. Little paper shrines that shelter the sacred, they are gathered here in the hope of sharing their beauty and meaning with another generation. To those who love them, they have much to give; like time spent in a restful garden, they are a feast for the eyes and a feast for the soul.

This gentle art can be used today to enter safely into the inner landscape allowing its imagery to guide the soul. Visual poetry employing symbol and metaphor as carriers of meaning, the path to which they invite us is always one in which God's own Love leads the way.

You can click on an image to enlarge it and see the artist's loving attention to detail. It is especially meaningful to be able to see the faces at a higher resolution. In many of the images, the sweetness of expression is at once joyful and serious, and, for a brief moment, we seem to draw close to the Presence of pure goodness, pure happiness.

The blessing I ask for any who come this way is again taken from a favorite holy card: "May a tender Friendship surround you always, and may all your days be a smile of heaven."
Fr. François Fénelon

About the Cards in this Collection

While some are from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands or other parts of Europe, Paris was perhaps the main place of publication. Dates are seldom available but most are from the mid 1800's to the close of that century. The depiction of persons is Eurocentric, but the symbols in the early holy cards are universal and inclusive: the image of the Heart as symbol for the incarnation of divine love, the image of the small bird as a symbol for the human soul eager but fragile and in constant need of God's love and care, the Living Water, the garden enclosed, the door that opens into Light... through visual poetry, the early holy cards continue to speak a language that reaches across the barriers of time and space and can be received by everyone.

Our favorite holy card illustrates the hope we hold as Christians that the door to heaven will be opened to the soul refined by love. It is the refinement of the soul by divine love that the art of the holy cards helps us to contemplate. The card has an engaving of the dove in flight into the mystery of Trinitarian love. The Uncreated Light overlaid by the symbol for the Holy Trinity is at the heart of the card. The writings of the early fathers, as well as those of the the Carmelite saints and Christian mystics throughout the ages - both in the Church in the east and the west - help us to approach the mystery of Trinitarian love not only as the theological underpinning of Christian belief but also as the action of the Spirit of Love in and through which we live and move and have our being.

Scheduling of the Cards and the Small Albums

Holy Card Heaven enters its fourth year on the first Sunday in Advent, December 2, 2012. Day by day the cards will continue to be moved into the new church year depending for their placement on the dates of the movable feasts and seasons. This way no cards need get lost in the distant past, new cards can be added, and we can appreciate the collection a little differently with each passing year.
Small Albums, each with a different topic, will change from month to month and will be linked in the top right column.

St. Teresa of Jesus: Carmelite Solemnity, October 15

Guardian Angels: Solemnity, 1st Sunday in October (by papal privilege)

Followers