Holy Card Heaven

Saturday, June 29, 2013

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
we find life,
and the way to heaven.

May this heart so loving
reign in our hearts!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Love and Glory
to the Divine Heart of Jesus

Bouasse Lebel

Thursday, June 27, 2013

AS THE FATHER

HAS LOVED ME,

SO I LOVE YOU.

John 15:9

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

To rest on your heart,

O Jesus,

is all my happiness.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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

PATER noster,
qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra...

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Father's Day USA

Fear not.
Jesus watches over you.

hand painted

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The love of Jesus
equals His power.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

THE MOST HIGH HAS SANCTIFIED HIS TABERNACLE~ Ps. 45

She is a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed. ~ Song of Songs

Open to me your Immaculate Heart, O Mary. I have chosen it as home.

Souvenir of December 8, 1854

Friday, June 7, 2013

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Bouasse Lebel 3000

Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Heart,
furnace of love
where man becomes angel,

is the eternal flame
that illumines
the heavens.

Santin 317

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The Source of Graces.
Turgis

Friday, May 31, 2013

Mary, Mother of the Savior, pray for us.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Good Angel, lead me to my mother.
Bouasse Lebel

from small album~
Wayside Shrines

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Mary, Happiest of Mothers

Monday, May 27, 2013

SALVE REGINA
MATER MISERICORIAE

Friday, May 24, 2013

Lessons of Mary

Turgis

Thursday, May 23, 2013

O, Mary, take our flowers and our hearts

to offer them to Jesus your divine son.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

SHE IS MY REFUGE
O, my Mother, receive me into your arms.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

LOVE FOR MARY

Oh, my Mother,
that all might be for you,
the flowers and the fruits
of my heart.

Letaille

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Lord is our portion.

Obtain for us
to place in God
our most dear
affections.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

DEVOTION TO THE VIRGIN
IS THE RELIGION OF THE HEART

Thursday, May 16, 2013

HEAVENLY REFUGE

I will not leave you orphans.

small album~
Gentle Mother

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Love, obeisance
to our mother
hand painted
with mother of pearl inlay

Monday, May 13, 2013

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Friday, May 10, 2013

Mary leads us to Jesus,
her Divine Son.

Bouasse Lebel, Paris

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Sweet prayer at the feet of Mary.

Bouasse Lebel 692

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Let us pray together.

For Mary our hearts

Our Lady our love.

hand painted on silk

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Our Mother

Monday, May 6, 2013

[Garden Shrine]

Benziger

This is the flower of Mary I have chosen for you.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Simple, Sweet, Modest... Mary recognizes her doves.

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

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.

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.

Scheduling of the Cards and the Small Albums

Holy Card Heaven enters its seventh year on the first Sunday in Advent, 2015. 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.