Triumph of the Immaculate Heart

www.etsy.com/shop/thefrenchmadonna

You who radiate peace, dear Mary,

help us to break this obsession with war

and vanquish the culture of death.

Too many people have died, Blessed Mother,

and no amount of official explanations

and strategic manipulations

can possible justify such suffering.

At this very moment, all over the planet,

dozens of battles are raging,

like bursts of flame exploding

from different zones of a forest on fire.

Whether they take the form of the 

massive bloodshed of entire communities

or single acts of domestic violence,

your Mother-Heart will not tolerate such hatred.

You break yourself open

and offer us the only true antidote

to the poison of global strife:

universal love.

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart

from

Mother of God

Similar to Fire

by

Mirabai Starr

I Am the Immaculate Conception

I Am the Immaculate Conception

wearable shrine on Etsy.com

For the past four years I have visited the Lourdes sanctuary

once a year.  I have written about my many pilgrimages

to Lourdes on my blog Cloister of the Heart.

I have also dedicated nine days a year on my blog to

an Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes

where I create and share art inspired by Lourdes

for nine days in a row culminating on the feast day

of Our Lady of Lourdes.

My visits to Lourdes have inspired my work as an artist.

The miracle of Lourdes is not limited to specific religion

or church.  It is an on-going event which inspires hundreds

of thousands of people from all walks of life and

from all philosophies to visit Lourdes and to see for

themselves what it is that draws so many to visit 

a spring the grotto of Massabielle.

This wearable shrine or rosary is called

I Am the Immaculate Conception, the words

that the 'lady in white' spoke to young Bernadette

in her own mother tongue, a French dialect

spoken in that part of France.

The image is baked onto a porcelain cabochon

set in brass filled rhinestones

and the beads match the colours on the

image perfectly.

The beads and chain and tiny rhinestone cross

are all vintage pieces.

You can read about my pilgrimages on

Cloister of the Heart

and see my other pieces of sacred art that

are for sale at 

Her Grace Devata on Etsy.com

blessings

Hettienne

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

The House of Mary

The House of Mary

a very special rosary necklace

with hand soldered shrine

a small miraculous medal

a key set with a crown and rhinestones

a big key

a hand cast sacred heart

and a hand holding the knocker

of the door

to the House of Mary

Vintage rosary beads

antique beads

rhinestone flower connector

and a very small Our Lady rosary connector

Immaculada Conceptio

I am the Immaculate Conception

all patina'd and distressed

for that wonderful shabby vintage look

blessings

Queen Genevieve

Like souls that balance joy and pain,

With tears and smiles from heaven again

The maiden Spring upon the plain

Came in a sunlit fall of rain.

     In crystal vapor everywhere

Blue isles of heaven laugh'd between,

And far, in forest-deeps unseen,

The topmost elm-tree gather'd green

     From draughts of balmy air.

Sometimes the linnet piped his song;

Sometimes the throstle whistled strong;

Sometimes the sparhawk, wheel'd along,

Hush'd all the groves from fear of wrong;

     By grassy capes with fuller sound

In curves the yellowing river ran,

And drooping chestnut-buds began

To spread into the perfect fan,

     Above the teeming ground.

Then, in the boyhood of the year,

Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

Rode thro' the coverts of the deer,

With blissful treble ringing clear.

     She seem'd a part of joyous Spring;

A gown of grass-green silk she wore,

Buckled with golden clasps before;

A light-green tuft of plumes she bore

     Closed in a golden ring.

Now on some twisted ivy-net,

Now by some tinkling rivulet,

In mosses mixt with violet

Her cream-white mule his pastern set;

     And fleeter now she skimm'd the plains

Than she whose elfin prancer springs

By night to eery warblings,

When all the glimmering moorland rings

     With jingling bridle-reins.

As she fled fast thro' sun and shade,

The happy winds upon her play'd,

Blowing the ringlet from the braid.

She look'd so lovely, as she sway'd

     The rein with dainty finger-tips,

A man had given all other bliss,

And all his worldly worth for this,

To waste his whole heart in one kiss

     Upon her perfect lips.

                                         Sir Launcelot and Queen Geneviere by Lord Tennyson

Mary Most Holy

Holy, holy, holy

the great Mother of God,

Mary most holy

To me, the Blessed Mother is not limited to any religion, any dogma or any culture. 

The Soul has its own religion and that is where you will find Her and Her many faces.

She is present for all 

Her Grace enfolds everyone

You only have to become aware of Her.

Wherever I travel in the world, I visit Her sacred shrines.

 I have visited Kwan Yin in Ayutthaya in Thailand;

Kali Ma in Her many temples in India;

I have attended the Navaratri and Durga Puja, the nine nights of the Goddess in Varanasi;

the holy well and holy fire of Brigit in Kildare;

the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury 

all of these have been numinous experiences

that touched me deeply

but 

none

touched 

me so profoundly

as

Our Lady of Lourdes.

(If you would like to read more, go to

http://www.path-of-divine-love.com/2012/02/day-five-of-art-novena-for-our-lady-of.html)

This is my latest offering in my Etsy shop.

Mary Most Holy wearable shrine and altar.

A beautiful cathedral window arch, soldered with

lead free silver solder

with a piece of a prayer card from Lourdes

set between two pieces of glass.

On the back I added a prayer cut from a Mary prayer book

I attached the pendant to a piece of hand dyed pure silk ribbon,

ready to wear or to attach to your rosary or chain.

All my pendants are anointed with sacred oil containing

53 relics, and this one comes packed with dried rose petals

steeped in St Therese of Lisieux holy oil.

St Therese d'Lisieux

'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.  I placed a sterling silver cross

in the shrine and fixed tiny swarovski crystals and other

glass crystals onto the cross and over some of the roses.

The miraculous medal that I placed in the shrine, I brought

back from the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal in Paris, France

and it is also cast in silver.

I had the most beautiful experience in this chapel and I wrote about it

here :  http://www.path-of-divine-love.com/search?q=miraculous+medal

On the back of the shrine I placed a French

Holy Card with a prayer to the Sacre Coeur le Marie,

the Sacred Heart of Mary.

The shrine comes ready to hang with a piece of French

silk ribbon that I brought back from my pilgramage

to the sites of Marie Madeleine (Mary Magdalene)

Trust and trust alone should lead us to love” 

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

2

“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 bottel of the rose petals that was steeped

in the third relic oil of St Theresa and then dried,

as well as a bottle of blessed pink salt crushed together with

some of the holy oil and rose petals - all crushed together.

Here is an image of some of the rose petals and the

blessed pink salt - still to be crushed together.

“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

This shrine is ideal for hanging in a window, letting the

light of the sun and moon flow through these images.

If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals,or the storm bruised its stem, if it knew that such were not the case.” 

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