Holy Card Heaven: July 2013

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Ask, ask, and ask again.

Jesus loves to give.

Bouasse Lebel

Jesus Christ is my love
and He is book for me.

Wentzel

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Eucharist & Solitude

O Christian soul, let be the desert, if you ask Heaven to rain on you, the manna of the Eucharist.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

No one would be left behind

in this whole vast world

if they rose to You as this bird

to Your feet.

M. Spotl

Monday, July 22, 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Faithful Sheep

The faithful sheep quench their thirst at the life-giving sources of the Savior.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Nest of the Dove

I will retire into solitude and there I will listen to what the Lord tells me.

Letailler

Thursday, July 18, 2013

FOUNTAINHEAD
OF ALL MERCY
SOURCE OF GRACES

O my Jesus, how dry the heart that moves away from you.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Let us draw from this divine source

that always overflows and never runs out.

Related tangentially to this image, I share the beautiful words Fr. Lawrence shared at Mass this morning:
"Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes – the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries." elizabeth barrett browning

Friday, July 12, 2013

Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Divine Gardener

The heart that is watered by the tears of the Heart of Jesus

will by its sweet fragrance enrapture the Church on earth

and in Heaven.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The Divine Master sprinkles and makes fruitful
this visit of His choice.

I am the Fountain of Living Water which brings the virtues into being.

Letaille, Paris

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Fountainhead of all Mercy

Fountainhead
of all Mercy,
Source of Graces

O my Jesus, how dry the heart that moves away from You.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Christ loved us and washed us in his Blood.

CHRIST LOVED US AND WASHED US IN HIS BLOOD.
hand painted illumination

Friday, July 5, 2013

First Friday

O, Good Pelican

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Divine Blessing

Divine Blessings

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Jesus Nourishes our soul...

Jesus Nourishes our soul with His Precious Blood

What greater proof of love could Jesus give us than the sacrifice of himself?

Basset

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.

Holy Card Heaven