Holy Card Heaven

Friday, April 3, 2015

Good Friday

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Old Flemish hand-colored engraving

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday)

This image of Judas the betrayer restraining the soldiers while Jesus prays recalls these words by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen:

Judas, if true love never ceases,
how could you, my friend, have come to this?
To sell me for thirty silver pieces,
betray me with a kiss?
Judas, remember what I've taught you;
do not despair while hanging on that rope.
It is because you sinned that I have sought you;
I came to give you hope.
Judas, let's pray and hang together,
you in your halter, I upon my hill.
Dear friend, even if you loved me never,
you know I love you still.

Spy Wednesday 2015

FORCE (the prayer is addressed to the Holy Spirit)

Come, Divine Force, Come and communicate to my soul a little of that courageous will that vanquished all the enemies of salvation.

Mme. Bousse Lebel (very early holy card)

On this day in a past year, Fr. Lawrence asked us to ponder the response of the disciples when Christ told them that one of them would betray Him: "Lord, is it I?" He went on to explain that by their example of humility in the presence of their Lord, we know

The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar

Small Albums April Devotion ~ The Blessed Sacrament

Small Albums ~ Easter Season

Small Albums for Holy Week

Feast days in April:

2. St. Francis de Paola
21. St. Anselm
26. Our Lady of Good Council
26. Good Shepherd Sunday ( 4th. Sunday in Easter) 2015
29. St. Catherine of Sienna

Italic indicates a Movable Feast

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The Passion Flower

I Prefer it to All Others

Monday, March 30, 2015

Savior of the World

Benziger

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Palm/Passion Sunday

The Passion Flower
Meaning of the Passion Flower

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Ever in these places
my heart sacrifices itself,
and far from overwhelming,
the Cross returns life to it...
Pillot, Paris
date penned on back 1834

O, kind Mother, the contrite sinner
finds, in your compassion, his anchor of salvation
[Our Lord, Jesus Christ].
Saintin

Friday, March 27, 2015

Harm will not reach you.
God has entrusted you to His angels.

Breval

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Jesus will give me the robe of innocence.

Langlume

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The Annunciation, Solemnity: March 25

I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Bouasse Lebel 794B

The Virgin Mother to her Child ~ Ephrem the Syrian from ENLARGING THE HEART
Image from: Small Album ~ Annunciation

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Vigil of the Feast of the Annunciation

All Hearts are Drawn to Him.

Monday, March 23, 2015

THE ONLY SALVATION

Friday, March 20, 2015

Sheltered by the Cross,

the lily grows in peace towards heaven.

Bouasse Lebel, Paris Pl. 1472

Thursday, March 19, 2015

St. Joseph: Solemnity, March 19

The Patriarch, St. Joseph

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

I see and retrace the virtues of Mary.

Vve. Bouasse Lebel

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

St. Patrick: Feast Day, March 17

Erin Go Bragh

{Ireland Until the End of Time} St. Patrick, pray for us.

Bouasse Lebel 644

Your hearts are gardens precious to Jesus.

Sprinkle with the Living Waters of His Cross the lilies He has sown.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Grant, O my God, that my prayer, like a sweet melody,
rises to you, so that it draws on all whom I love a merciful glance.

Mme. Bouasse Lebel

Jesus, our Refuge

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Laetare Sunday, March 15, 2015

Garden of Prayer

The waters flow forth with joy from the Fountain of Salvation.

O, good Cross, so much love of my Savior

do I receive when I hold you in my arms.

Pannier 961

Eternal Happiness is the reward of the faithful hearts
who cling to the Cross with love. Basset

Saturday, March 14, 2015

O Life Giving Cross, I place at your feet,

my joys and my sorrows.

Mon. Vve. Bouasse Lebel

Friday, March 13, 2015

THE GOOD SHEPHERD LEADS HIS FLOCK

AND CARRIES THE LAMB TOO WEAK TO WALK.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Jesus, I give you my heart.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

First Day of the Novena to St. Joseph, March 10

Good St. Joseph, grant my desire
[to know the Lord Jesus as my savior].

I am the Good Shepherd

Dopter

Monday, March 9, 2015

SPEAK, LORD. YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

Sunday, March 8, 2015

LOVE OF TENDERNESS

How empty are the delights of the world

to the soul who has once tasted the caress of his God.

Draw me into the bonds of Thy love.

O, Jesus, that your love might be the peace and repose of my soul,

the strength and happiness, the aspiration of my life... the whole of my heart.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

FIRST FRIDAY

RETURNING TO JESUS

You have lighted my heart, O, my God,

it traveled... it is Yours.

Turgis

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.