Holy Card Heaven

Friday, May 13, 2016

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

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Love, obeisance to our mother

hand painted

with mother of pearl inlay

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Text is different in each language:

O, Mary, obtain for us perseverance. French

Mother, suffer me to come to thee. English

Mary's children are called to be worthy. German

Bouasse Lebel, Paris pl. 150

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

O, Mary, take our flowers and our hearts

to offer them to Jesus your divine son.

Monday, May 9, 2016

The pilgrimage to the Virgin is the road that leads to happiness.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Throughout the world, the Feast of the Ascension falls on Thursday May 5, 2016 and is celebrated on that day in the USA in the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and the state of Nebraska.

In all other dioceses of the United States, the Feast of the Ascension is transferred to the following Sunday, May 8, 2016. Happy Feast Day wherever you are!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Sweet Mary, Mother dear, pray for us.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Good Angel, lead me to my mother.

Bouasse Lebel

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Feast of the Ascension, 2016

copper engraving, verso of title page ~ from book
by Theophilo Spizelio Vetus Academia lesu Christi dated MDCLXXI (1671)

In all other dioceses of the United States, the Feast of the Ascension is transferred to the following Sunday, May 8, 2016. Happy Feast Day wherever you are!

[Garden Shrine]
Benziger

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Hand-colored engraving signed by artist

Offerings to Mary

Blot

Monday, May 2, 2016

Sunday, May 1, 2016

MAY: The Month of Mary

Images gathered for the month of May celebrate devotion to Mary.

miniature ink and watercolor unsigned

Samall Albums ~ Trinity Sunday

Feast Days and Solemnities in May for which holy cards are included:
1. St. Joseph the Worker: (optional Memorial), May 1
5./ 8. Feast of the Ascension Celebrated 40 days after Easter in most of the world, the Feast of the Ascension falls on Thursday, May 5, 2016. In the USA it will be celebrated on that day in the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and the state of Nebraska. In all other dioceses of the United States, the celebration of the Feast of the Ascension is transferred to the following Sunday, May 8, 2016.
8. Repose of St. John, Evangelist May 8 ( Eastern Church)
15 Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016
22 Trinity Sunday, May 22, 2016
29 Corpus Christi, Sunday, May 29
31. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin: Feast, May 31
31. Queenship of Mary: Solemnity May 31/Aug.22

Italics indicate a Movable Feast

Feast of St. Joseph, the Worker, May 1

Divine Child

You lived by the work of your hands.

A. Jourdain, Paris

Friday, April 1, 2016

Dear Friends,
For now, I will revisit Holy Card Heaven at the beginning of each month to give you links to the small albums for that month.

CHRIST LOVED US AND WASHED US IN HIS BLOOD.
Original hand painted illumination signed by artist with monogram

Von genies! penned beneath in German: By genius!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Dear Friends,
January 31st was the last daily post. In time I hope to return, but for now I need to rest. April 23 will be the first anniversary of the passing of my beloved husband with whom I began this work.
Thank you for understanding,
Victoria

HASTEN TO JOSEPH

Through Joseph, you come to Jesus.

Bouasse Lebel 1500

Monday, February 1, 2016

JESUS MARY JOSEPH

Unite us with the sweet chain of love.

Turgis

Sunday, January 31, 2016

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST

O God so great, who has made you so small?.. Love.

What do you ask in return?.. Love.

~St. Bernard

Letaille

SHE IS MY MOTHER!!

I have chosen her

to dispense all my favors and share my power.

Bouasse Lebel 776

Thursday, January 28, 2016

St. Thomas Aquinus, January 28

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, January 28

One Gracious Presence

The Brook lost in the River

My Lord and my God

~St. Thomas [the Apostle]

John 20:28

Link the Commentary on Sirach 14:40-42 in the writing of St. Thomas Aquinas

I, wisdom, have poured out rivers. I, like a brook out of a river of mighty water: I, like achannel of a river, and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise. I said: ‘I will water my garden...’ Sirach 14:40-42

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Sunday, January 24, 2016

St. Francis de Sales: Memorial, January 24

St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of Writers
Small album ~ Doctors of the Church

"I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is a Lamb; God the Holy Spirit is a Dove..."
~St. Francis de Sales

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
~St. Francis de Sales

Saturday, January 16, 2016

By you O Mother and Virgin, heaven trembles with elation
and the angels and the archangels rejoice. ~St Cyril

The pure simplicity of the soul is my joy and delight.

Bouasse Lebel 826

Friday, January 15, 2016

Holy Virgin

Chez Jean, Paris

Thursday, January 14, 2016

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

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Victorian scrap die cut figure

Monday, January 11, 2016

Happy the soul who loves me.

Bouasse Lebel 999

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Baptism of the Lord: : Solemnity, January 10, 2015 (USA)

"He came to save all through himself – all, I say, who through him are reborn in God; infants, and children, and youths, and old men. Therefore he passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, sanctifying infants; a child for children, sanctifying those who are of that age . . . . so that he might be the perfect teacher in all things, perfect not only in respect to the setting forth of truth, perfect also in respect to relative age." ~Tertullian (Against Heresies A.D. 189)

THE SOURCE

Full of grace and gentleness,
the child Jesus has given
drink to his small precursor.
In Heaven, happy conqueror,
I will get drunk on glory
at the source of his Heart.

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.