Holy Card Heaven

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Way of the Cross
leads to divine light.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My Good Angel, help me to understand

the merits of the Cross.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A few days still, and we will be united in Heaven.

For you the Crown in Heaven.

For me the Thought on earth.

This card is for
Sheila of blessed memory,

born on this day
in 1892.

Monday, March 4, 2013

The gift of piety
is to love prayer
more and more.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Jesus will give me
the robe of innocence.

Langlume

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Good St. Joseph, I offer you my heart to give to Jesus.
Turgis

Friday, March 1, 2013

First Friday

Sweet Heart of Jesus,
be my love.

Miraculous image of Christ.

Gladbach

Monday, February 25, 2013

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

Sunday, February 24, 2013

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

Friday, February 22, 2013

Jesus, our refuge

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sweetness is pleasing to God

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Saturday, February 9, 2013

MODEL OF SOULS

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

Turgis

Thursday, February 7, 2013

EARTHLY TRINITY Three hearts beat as one.
Bouasse Lebel 794

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

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

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

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

Sunday, February 3, 2013

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

Friday, February 1, 2013

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:

Monday, January 28, 2013

My Beloved is Mine and I am His

Thomas Aquinas Feast Day, January 28

The Brook lost in the River
My Lord and my God
~St. Thomas [the Apostle]

Eucharistic symbol also possibly alludes to the commentary by St. Thomas Aquinas on Sirach 14:40-42 See his commentary on ENLARGING THE HEART

From small album~
Holy Card Retreat

Friday, January 25, 2013

Mary Most Holy

Liberatrice

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Mother of God

and the Christ Child

untitled engraving

Dopter

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Child Jesus

Fonteney et Peltier

Monday, January 21, 2013

DIVINE BIRD KEEPER The birdsnatcher has taken advantage of your inexperience, but I am the Poor Dove and I will rescue you.
Bouasse-Lebel 1177

Sunday, January 20, 2013

As a mother

caresses her child,

so I comfort you.

Bouasse Lebel 782B

THE GOOD SHEPHERD
LEADS HIS FLOCK
AND CARRIES THE LAMB
TOO WEAK TO WALK.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Sweet Unity in the Cross of Jesus

Thursday, January 17, 2013

FAITHFUL FRIEND
Bouasse Lebel

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mary Most Admirable

Pray for us.

INCOMPARABLE FRIEND
I will draw all to myself by my divine simplicity.
Bouasse Lebel 400

Monday, January 14, 2013

The Most Beautiful Gift of Mary

Little Jesus,
my sweet Lamb,

would that my heart
might be your cradle.

I hold Him
and will not let Him go
because I chose Him

for all my Good.

Lataille

Saturday, January 12, 2013

By you O Mother and Virgin, heaven trembles with elation and the angels and the archangels rejoice. ~St Cyrille
Benziger,
Einsiedeln, Switzerland

Friday, January 11, 2013

See how He loved her.

Bouasse Lebel, edit Imp.
679

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.