Holy Card Heaven

Thursday, February 20, 2014

SWEETNESS AND HUMILITY

Learn from Me
for I am meek and humble of heart.
Matt. XI:29

Baumard

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Ask, ask, and ask again. Jesus loves to give.

Bouasse Lebel

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Let us go to our Lord
in perfect simplicity of faith,

with fervour and with love.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

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

Friday, February 14, 2014

Give Me, my child, your heart. Proverbs 23:26

Benziger

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

My Sweet Jesus, I give You my heart.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Model of Souls

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

Turgis

Friday, February 7, 2014

First Friday

RETURNING TO JESUS

You have lighted my heart, O, my God,

it traveled... it is Yours.

Turgis

Thursday, February 6, 2014

May our actions be beautiful roses
to adorn the lawn of Jesus.

Bouasse Lebel

Friday, January 31, 2014

St. John Bosco: Memorial, January 31

St. John Bosco's Feast Day

St. John Bosco

Quotations

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Icon of the Most Holy Virgin

St. Mary Major, Rome

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Jesus, to Thee Be glory
who is born of a Virgin.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

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

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Oh, my sweetest Jesus!

Oh, Jesus, my dearest friend!

Oh, my Love!

For You, my God, all for You. Bouasse Lebel

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Friday, January 10, 2014

All good things are come to us with Him:
Joy
Peace
Sweetness
Fervor
Innocence

KISSES OF HIS MOUTH

Jesus kisses your flower...

With that kiss, what longing!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

KISSES OF HIS MOUTH

Jesus kisses your flower... with that kiss, what longing!

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

VIRGIN MOST SWEET
Oh when his eyes
are fixed on You,
speak, mother, for me...
It is not possible
to be rejected
the flower presented by You!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

My Beloved is Mine
and I am His

Monday, January 6, 2014

Jesus, Son of Virgin Mary

Sunday, January 5, 2014

ROSES OF CHRISTMAS
Our humility, our love, our sweetness are like Christmas roses we spread over the creche of divine Jesus.
Bouasse Jeune Pl. 1012

The Lord is pleased with simple souls.

Be they small or large,
all must be allowed
to learn of Jesus in his crèche.
Bouasse Lebel 1334

Saturday, January 4, 2014

I SLEEP

My Child is dreaming.

Blessed is He!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Mary, Mother of the Savior,
pray for us.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Gloria in excelsis Deo

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year
PEACE
God bless you
Chas Von de Vyvere-Petyl Bruges, Belgium

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.