Holy Card Heaven: February 2013

My Divine Master, whether I run or rest, I am all to You, and You are all to me. O divine Heart of Jesus, your memory is my delight; I hunger and thirst for your love.

At the mere sound of my appearing

Once opened the door softly.
There calleth: Come child to me,
Here you will find peace and rest.

HEART OF JESUS ABODE OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL
I want to expire in the Heart of Jesus.

I am happy with those who are as sweet and gentle as the lamb.

Visit of the Good Master

Bouasse Lebel

Jesus, our refuge

FOR ALL IS
THE HEART OF JESUS OPEN

REFUGE OF THE PURE SOUL

Fleeing into the heart of Jesus

the soul finds therein protection against all temptation.
Turgis

To rest on your heart, O Jesus, is all my happiness.

Implore God, repent, and you will rest in the Heart of Jesus.

Turgis

THROUGH JESUS I RAISE MY HEART IN PRAYER.

Through my heart, flooded by Divine Light, allow the incense of the prayers to evaporate.

Mon. Bouasse Lebel

Sweetness is pleasing to God

Fruit of Love

Love is helping the poor

and blessing our greatest enemy

because they are our brothers,

and that is the only way
to please God.

CARITAS

God is Love; and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God and God in him.

1 John 4:16

Bouasse Lebel M92

Christ, the Divine Gardner, is depicted here within the heart of the believer gently and carefully working to uproot the weeds that mar its beauty.

Ash Wednesday 2013

The Call of the Sheep
Dopter

WAKE UP
It is time to think of Jesus.
Bouasse Lebel, Pl.1411

And a wonderful way to "wake up and think of Jesus" during the Lenten season is to visit ENLARGING THE HEART ~ Mark Armitage's gracious offering of devotional readings from the early fathers and the saints.

Holy guardian angels,
watch over us as our
Lenten journey begins...

Shrove Tuesday, Feast Day of The Holy Face of Jesus

Link:
Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus

Small Album: The Holy Face

The Feast Day of the Holy Face of Jesus is observed on Shrove Tuesday, a movable feast celebrated this year Liturgical Year on Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The name "Shrove Tuesday" is derived from the custom of confessing sins and being "shriven" (absolved) just before Lent.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Feast Day

Holy Family by Leber

old color lithograph

MODEL OF SOULS

Mary & Joseph, grant that my love for Jesus may equal your own.

Turgis

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Help us ever to lead a pure and blameless life.
Bouasse Lebel, Paris pl. 1119

EARTHLY TRINITY Three hearts beat as one.
Bouasse Lebel 794

Jesus invites us to His table. It is His Body that nourishes us.
Bouasse Lebel1398

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, unite us with the sweet chain of love. Turgis

NOVENA to the HOLY FACE

begins today

The Holy Face of Jesus

(after the Holy Shroud of Turin)

This image is a reproduction of the drawing by Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face

(Celine Martin) sister of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

JESUS MARY JOSEPH

Teach us how
to share the suffering.

Turgis

JESUS, MARY, JOSEPH
Pour over us the treasures of your graces.
Turgis

Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) Feb. 2

Blessed are those to whom the
divine Savior will be revealed.
Felix, Paris

First Friday

FEBRUARY: Devotion, The Holy Family

2. Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas Day) (F) Feb. 2
11. Our Lady of Lourdes (F) Feb. 11
14. Sts. Cyrl and Methodius: (F) Feb. 14
12. Shrove Tuesday - The Holy Face of Jesus
13. Ash Wednesday + Lent begins + Day of Obligation + Fast

February Small Albums:

Small albums ~ Lent:

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.

Ash Wednesday 2013

Shrove Tuesday, Feast Day of The Holy Face of Jesus

Our Lady of Lourdes, Feast Day

Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) Feb. 2

First Friday

FEBRUARY: Devotion, The Holy Family

Followers