Holy Card Heaven

Monday, June 20, 2016

THE CROSS IS THE MAGNET OF LOVE!

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Good thoughts are born of the soul.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

My God, receive me into your adorable Heart.

Bouasse Lebel, 389

Friday, June 17, 2016

Sweet unity in the cross of Jesus.

Hand painted

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

His Heart watches over us.

Monday, June 13, 2016

St. Anthony of Padua: Feast Day, June 13

About

St. Anthony of Padua

Petithenri, Paris

Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Perfect Gifts of the Heart of Jesus

Faith that illumines,

Hope that consoles,

Love that vivifies.

Bouasse Lebel 3005

Saturday, June 11, 2016

The Source of Graces.

Turgis

Friday, June 10, 2016

RETURNING TO JESUS

You have lighted my heart, O, my God,

it traveled... it is Yours.

Turgis

Thursday, June 9, 2016

[Sacred Heart of Jesus]

Dopter

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

To repose on your Heart, O Jesus,

is all my happiness.

Mon Viv. Bouasse Lebel 529

From small album: Amo Te Jesu

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Monday, June 6, 2016

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

Sunday, June 5, 2016

At the mere sound of my appearing

Once opened the door softly.
There calleth: Come child to me,
Here you will find peace and rest.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: June 4, 2016

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

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Solemnity) June 3, 2015

Soul of My Savior sung by Ricard Carney

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Bruge

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Bouasse Lebel 3000

June Devotion: Sacred Heart of Jesus

Small Albums for June

Feasts in June for which holy cards are included:
3. Sacred Heart of Jesus (S) 2016
5. Immaculate Heart of Mary (M) 2016
13 - St. Anthony of Padua (M) - in 2015 superseded by Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
24 - Nativity of St. John the Baptist (S)
29 - Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles (S)

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a moveable feast, which means that it depends on the date of Easter Sunday. It is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost Sunday, which falls on the 50th day of Easter.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Feast of the Visitation

The greeting of St. Elisabeth:

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

18th Cent. Flemish engraving on vellum

Monday, May 30, 2016

Memorial Day USA May 30, 2016

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Feast of Corpus Christi May 29, 2016

This is My Body

BREAD OF HEAVEN

Support my strength to do good.

Bouasse Lebel 3350

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Vigil of the Feast of Corpus Chrisiti

“Behold the Love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament”

large 18th Century holy card signed the Antwerp engraver Pierre Balthasar Bouttats (1681-1756).
Front in Dutch

Friday, May 27, 2016

Bouasse Lebel 3080

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Lover of souls.
As a mother loves her son.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

O, Lady, I recommend myself to thee

because thou watchest over me forever. ~ St. Godric of Walpole [Finchale]

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Trinity Sunday 2016

Let us not attach ourselves to the foreign land,

not search for sweetness, except in the Light.

Small Album~
Most Holy Trinity

Saturday, May 21, 2016

HEAVENLY REFUGE

I will not leave you orphans.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Ave Maria

You Rescue the Orphan

vers 1850, "recueillez l'orphelin"

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.