St Therese d'Lisieux wearable shrine and altar and vial of sacred salts

'For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; 

it is a simple look turned toward heaven,

it is a cry of recognition and of love,

embracing both trail and joy. - St Theresa of Lisieux

I have always, well, let me re-phrase that,

since I came to know about the saints,

felt a deep connection with St Theresa of Lisieux.

“God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.” 

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

This is a hand soldered hanging shrine.  I placed a holy card

between the two sheets of glass. 

Trust and trust alone should lead us to love” 

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux, Collected Letters of St Therese of Lisieux

“i can nourish myself on nothing but truth” 

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

Images of the Divine carry enormous energy and Presence. There are various ways of explaining it, but the ancients believed that the Spirit of that aspect of the Divine lives in Its image and form. Those of us who can see light around living beings, can see the light around sacred objects. In holy places of pilgrimage one can often smell the fragrance of the Divine.

Each one of my pendants, shrines, paintings and other sacred art are first infused with holy water from Lourdes (which I brought back), and then infused with holy relic oil of more than 53 Saints & pure essential oils. A mixture of one hundred oils are used, including frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, agarwood and rose. It is also immersed in blessed pink dead sea salts, infused with rose petals steeped in holy oil of a third relic of St Therese of Lisieux and it is packaged with blessed salts, frankincense and sprinkled with holy water collected form many sacred places in the world. So it becomes sort of holy object to be handled with reverence and care.

This shrine comes with a bottle of the rose petals that I

gathered from the rose garden at St Therese's chapel

in Lisieux, France.  I steeped the petals

in the third relic oil of St Therese and then dried them.

I mixed it with pink salts which I carried with me

on my pilgrimage to Lisieux and the relics

of St Therese,

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” 

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

St Francis of Assisi wearable altar and shrine

The Canticle of the creatures by

St Francis of Assisi

Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,

Yours are the praises, the glory, and the honor, and all blessing,

To You alone, Most High, do they belong,

and no human is worthy to mention Your name.

Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,

especially Sir Brother Sun,

Who is the day and through whom You give us light.

And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;

and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,

in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,

and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,

through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,

who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom You light the night,

and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth,

who sustains and governs us,

and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love,

and bear infirmity and tribulation.

Blessed are those who endure in peace

for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,

from whom no one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin.

Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,

for the second death shall do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks

and serve Him with great humility.

I recently visited  the beautiful Assisi and 

Santa Maria degli Angeli where St Francis

lived and dwelled and this visit was the inspiration

for this shrine.

Statue of Santa Chiara and St Francis in Assisi

Doves have nested in St Francis' statue's hands in the rose garden for centuries

His Canticle of the Creatures really epitomises his spirit

of simplicity and love for all.  St Frances and Santa Chiara

were both vegetarians and many miracles with wild animals

and nature have been recorded.

uring this pilgrimage, as well as previous pilgrimages,

I visited well-known and lesser-known pilgrimage

sites that has special meaning and spiritual meaning to myself.

We weave our own tapestry of myth and meaning

of our inner lives, (as said earlier, you can read more

about this ideology on www.pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com)

Wherever I go, I collect petals of the flowers from

sacred shrines, even bits of soil from the earth

and sand from crypts.  I also carry with me

small vials of blessed salts and blessed petals

as well as holy water and holy oil.  These I touch

to the holy places and to the relics of Saints where

it is possible.  We are surrounded by energy and there

are places that have more intense spiritual energy

than other places.  Also some places you immediately

sense great Love and Compassion and other values

which some of us treasure.  In places like Lourdes

and Lisieux, in the garden of St Terese, the fragrance

was almost overpowering - although some people

smell nothing.

Included with this shrine, is small vial of blessed

salts and rose petals, lavender, as well as 

myrrh that I brought back on this pilgrimage.

The content of this bottle had been carried

by me, and touched to the crypt where St Francis

lies, as well as the crypt where St Chiara's body

lies and I had it with me during a mass in

Santa Maria degli Angeli!!

Now available at https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/163376562/st-francis-of-assisi-pendant-rosary

blessings 

Hettienne