On Sharings of the Heart

From 1 to 12 December I journeyed A Virgin a Day with Rebecca of Recuerda mi Corazon and many others in her circle.

What a joy, grace and blessing this was.  Each day I sensed a deeper sense of joy and gratitude bubbling within.

I visited incredible websites, learnt many new things, made wonderful new friends and never did I use the word 'beautiful' so often.  As Lisa of PritiLisa said, it called for a Thesaurus to find some more ways of expressing our wonder and joy.

The power of sharing our deepest held feelings, values, traditions and truths.  The depth of devotion, to the Divine, each in our own particular and personal way, shared in a space of respect and honour and witnessing. For twelve days a circle of Light was held and the talking stick shared equally.

I am still making my rounds to each and every participant in a good bye, till next time our paths meet.

And such good news, it does not have to end!  Rebecca has extended an invitation to participate in Postcards from Paradise.  Please visit her at http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon on a Sunday and you will find myself and many others there.

Dont hide your heart but reveal it
so that mine might be revealed,
and I might accept what I am capable of


Rumi

Day Ten of Twelve Days of Mary

Eternal Mother of mine

I belong to you

as you move in me,

I move in you.

Divine Mother, mother of mine

You hold me in your arms

Loved for evermore

You fill me with my eternal self

Carried in your embrace

A flower for your hair,

Today I paint your feet

The Light of your Grace

Shines in me,

A treasured truth

In my heart’s embrace

A Jewel am I

In the crown on your head 

Forgotten are the dark dreams

Of childhoods past

Now I am yours

Now I belong

For ever more

Divine mother, mother of mine




'remember my heart'

http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/

my haiku a virgin a day

Over at Rebecca's Recuerda mi Corazon it is Haiku my Heart on Friday as well as A Virgin a Day.

innocence radiant in 

its purity, waiting, prepared

unconditional love

If you would like to join in, visit the following link for clear instructions on soulful Haiku, simplicity in seventeen syllables.

http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2010/06/haiku-.html

thank you for reading, commenting, sharing and celebrating!

Day Eight of Twelve Days of Mary

This beautiful image of Mary and Holy Child is available for free download for your art works on http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/12/vintage-clip-art-extraordinary-french.html

  

French Sacred Heart card at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/04/antique-clip-art-glorious-french-sacred.html

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/04/antique-graphic-amazing-french-holy.html

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/11/vintage-christmas-clip-art-madonna-and.html

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2010/12/vintage-christmas-graphic-image-madonna.html

Thank you to the generous Graphics Fairy!!

Please visit the other offerings as part of the Twelve Days of Mary by clicking here on this link :

http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2011/12/a-virgin-a-day-remember-my-heart.html

Day Six of Twelve Days of Mary

Mary, Heart of Fire

My Sacred Heart

My heart sinks,

On fire,

Setting into the ocean

Flaming arrows of light

I breathe in the Sun

The sweet saltiness of the sea

Receive its soothing warmth

To paint a path of golden light

Amber liquid

Searing my throat

Flowing down into my hurting self

Sewn together with love’s intent

Accept the agony of the piercing needle

Winding in and out

Attaching the bridal gown

With the silken thread

New choices

Sanctity to be restored

Free the sacred heart

Undo the silken cord

If you have not done so yet, please join us in Twelve Days of Mary here.  There are many others who are also sharing their visions and images of Mary, please visit.

blessings

Hettienne

Della Carita Capolavoro - Twelve Days of Mary

Della Carita Capolavoro - Masterpiece of Love

The Madonna and Child are God's supreme truth - Michelangelo

Della Carita Capolavoro

We are blessed with three mothers in the course of life; our biological mother, mother nature, and Mary, our spiritual mother. Mother is a metaphor in the case of nature and of Mary. They are mothers in the sense that they represent a structure that acts in a motherly way; forming, transforming, protecting, instructing, directing and redirecting, warning and initiating. This is an energy in the universe called mother nature and an energy in the soul personified as Mary. The life-giving powers in nature were sacred in ancient times. This referred not only to the physical but to the inner Source that is always alive and and one and the same in the world and the pscyhce. Nature has laws that exert an energy that compels and draws but also accompanies us through the phases of life.

Loved Beyond Measure

Aldobrandesca, a medieval mystic of Siena, when close to death had a vision of Mary with this message : 'Daughters, be obedient to the law of the Mother'.

Spanish Madonna

Mechtild of Magdeburg saw Mary as the spiritual mother of all humankind : 'I suckled the prophets and sages before God was born'.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Juliana of Norwich saw visions of the motherhood of God and also said 'Our Lady is our mother in whom we are all enclosed ..... and our saviour is our mother in whom we are endlessly born ..... To motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge, and this is God'

Heart of Power

Allah has chosen you, Mary. He has made you pure above all women - The Koran

Shrine of lost children

You will open the hearing of the wayfarer's heart (fu'aadi min saalikin) because the subtle knowledge of Her is Her proof. Grant us union with Her always and cause us to withdraw from every sensory existence.- Songs of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib

Inciting love in every heart, you bring forth generation after generation - Prayer to Venus, Mother of Rome, by Lucretius (d 55B.C.)

House of Gold

The Tao is the great mother, empty and yet overflowing, bringing forth the infinite universe. And it is forever inside you - Tao Te Ching

Mary held all these things within her, pondering them in her heart - Luke 2:19

I appreciate each and every one of you reading my heart's sharings and if I do not comment on your Virgin a Day immediately, it is because I am savouring this wonderful journey and am taking my time to visit each and every one who is participating.

I am also participating in the Twelve Days of Mary on my other blog, The Path of Divine Love, if you would like to join me in this pilgrimage.

Join us in these Twelve Days of Mary here

Her blessings to you!

Om shanty

Inspiration Avenue - English Literature and Twelve Days of Mary

As a member of Inspiration Avenue I participate every week in the weekly challenge.  This week I am participating in both Inspiration Avenue and Twelve Days of Mary.  You can find my Fourth Day of Mary here.

This week the challenge at Inspiration Avenue was English Literature.  I had actually already started planning a Miss Havisham storybox before Lisa announced the topic, so I was very happy!!

I remembered this passage from Great Expectations so clearly from my university days and this is the exact image that I imagined :

She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table near her hand — her veil was half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.

It was not in the first moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its luster, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly wax-work at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.

My son's girlfriend, Jana,  is an excellent crafter and artist herself and she loves to sew doll's clothing.  She made Miss Havisham's entire wedding dress, bouquet and veil from an old blouse of mine.  She stitched every bit by hand and this is the beautiful result!

As you can see, she is still sewing her trousseau, hat box and trunk half packed.  On the table is her wedding cake as well as her quill and the wedding invitations that she is still writing!  So tragic!

I used a wooden box and turned it into Miss Havisham's house complete with victorian weathervane on top.  I wanted it to look like a big book that has been opened, so I covered all the edges with book binding tape and added a collage of old book ends and book labels and some metal book corners!!

I had so much fun creating poor Miss Havisham - by the end of the box, her skeleton self had become quite pretty to my eyes!!

blessings
Hettienne

The Fourth Day of Mary

Mary, the Sacred Vessel by Hettienne

DIVINE MOTHER

Your presence fills me

Your child I am

You move through my heart

Painting it with love’s design

Compassion flows forth

from your hands

Your touch opens me

I am your Voice

I carry you in my hips

I carry you in my gait

My womb holds your Secret Mystery

My breasts aflame with light

Radiant through my sacred heart

Feeding your children

Wherever we are

Oh Divine Mother

You move through me

You move me

You transform through me

You transform me

Eternal is my gratitude

Blessed are You

You are my wealth

You are my beauty

You are my gift

You I give to the world.

If you have not done so yet, please join us in Twelve Days of Mary hosted by Rebecca - link is in my sidebar. - a wondrous time of walking to Her feast day in the Americas.

blessings

Hettienne

Twelve Days of A Virgin a Day

Prayers

Grace

I drink from Her cup

Filled to the brim

She shares drops of pure love

My beached heart

Soaks in the lapping waves

White horses galloping

Fear tamed by Grace

Like a child I can be

Trusting

Lying basking in the sun

Trusting

Loved in my deepest self

Collecting shells on the sand

I have been found

Wandering aimlessly in the dark

Struggling to reach a ghostly mountaintop

No steady footing

No sure guide

She saved me

Rescued me

Such love I have never known

What seemed far in the distant past

What seemed impossible to reach in the future

Is here now

So I reach for the stars

Filling my basket

With apples of Love

Peering into the pools of Her eyes

In the Grace mirrored

Of my deepest Self

Her Love sets your Heart free

May your day be filled with Her Grace

blessings

Hettienne

A beautiful mosaic on the side of a building in St Maries de la Mer, France 

Lady of Lourdes in the Basilica of Mary Magdalene  in St Maximin, France
taken during my recent trip

One of the many Mary altars in my home

Oh Divine Mother

Your Grace fills my heart

Blessed am I

For you have blessed me

Whole am i

For you have healed me

Oh Divine Grace

I walk in your Light

Your Love

A lantern for my feet

Ave Maria

a virgin a day

A Virgin a Day

From today, the first of December till Mary's Holy Day, the twelfth, I will be sharing Her with you as part of Rebecca's A Virgin a Day at Recuerda Mi Corazon.  If you want to join in, the link is here on my blog and her invitation is below.

Ave Maria

Mary, Maryam, Maria, Mares

Holy Woman

So much more

Than a head bowed down

Arrow fierce and fast

Directed at the heart

No sin of error here

Cloak of power

All-embracingly blue

Heart on fire

Flowing from the sacred well

Eternally walking on the bed of coals

You seduce me into dancing in the flames

Eyes blinded

Only the heart sees

And hears

The howling winds of compassion

Screaming through my ribcage

Cracked open

Finger by finger

Pomegranate juice flowing in my veins

Persephone’s ashes

Caked with the tears of Demeter

Entangled in the hair of Medusa

I follow where you lead

The perfume of your feet

The guiding light my holy woman

Sacred Am I

Ave Maria

You can find Recuerda Mi Corazon here http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2011/11/a-virgin-a-day.html and here is Rebecca's beautiful invitation :

each year beginning december 1, 

i post "a virgin a day" every day until december 12,

mary's feast day.

today i am 

calling all virgins...

enchanting, traditional, contemporary, 

exotic, edgy, campy, irreverent, irresistible,

unusual, joyful, rapturous, lovely,

glorious, ordinary, astounding,

simply

 bring her on!

i hope you will join me in a pilgrimage of marys.

feel free to re-post this invitation on your blog,

and link back to

recuerda mi corazon.

as december grows busier we will

quietly greet the new day one mary at a time.

mr. linky will be here to gather all the virgin sightings.

just add your name and direct link back to your virgin 

so we can effortlessly share the divine. 

***

(here's the virgin a day participation button linked to this post)

A Virgin A Day