Mary’s Heart

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If
you
pick up
a bible or a
prayer book in my
mother’s house and
thumb through it,
you might find a
few devotional
“holy cards”
tucked
between
the pages
.

This will be
a quick and fun
little adventure through
a selection of holy cards
with a common theme
:

Sacred
Hearts

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The cards
I’m showing
here are all of
a particular style
that uses a border
that looks like
paper lace
.
These
were called
dévotes dentelles
in France
.

Here’s one called
The Sacred Heart of Jesus
:

The
symbol
for the sacred
heart of Jesus includes
some combination of
flames, a cross, and
a crown of thorns
.

Here’s a similar card
for Jesus’ mother Mary.
The symbol for her heart
also has flames, with flowers
like roses or lilies instead
of a cross

.
Her heart
is usually pierced,
sometimes by thorns
but more commonly
by daggers or
swords
.

Mary’s pierced heart
represents the pain and
sorrow of watching her
son be tortured and
executed
.

In
this card,
the heart is
removed from
the body
.

…on its way
to becoming
a stand-alone
symbol for
Mary
???

Here
we see
the two
symbols
side by side
.
The Heart of Jesus
with its flames, cross
and thorns
,
The Heart of Mary
with its flames,
flowers and
dagger
:

Notice the similarity
between this card and
the previous one
.
Where the image
in the former was severe,
indicating pain and suffering,
this one uses the same two
symbols, but set in a scene
with a bountiful harvest of
fruit, and the dove
of peace
:

Look at
the card above
one more time
.
Notice the intricate
patterns in the borders
.
I’m impressed
by the texture
around that
dove
!!!

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These
cards don’t
have captions
to help us,
but
we have
already learned
enough about the
symbols to know who
this is referring to
(right?)
.

This
is also
the first time
we have seen
seven daggers
instead of
one
:

This is a devotional reminder of
The Seven Sorrows of Mary;
seven times Mary suffered
according to scripture

The first sorrow
was a prophecy from
Simeon in the gospel
according to Luke
:

Then Simeon
blessed them and
said to Mary,
his mother
:
“This
child is
destined to
cause the falling and
rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will
be spoken against, so
that the thoughts of
many hearts will
be revealed
.
And
a sword
will pierce
your own soul
too.

Luke 2:34-35

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The
artwork
on this card is
more abstract,
resulting in a
a balanced
design:

Even
more abstract,
this one seems to be
combining the symbol
for Mary with scripture
about Living Water
.

This
image
could be easily
misinterpreted, in my
opinion, but I want to
show it as a warning
about using
symbols
.

Whoever finds Jesus
will have life
.
(not Mary)

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On the
card below,
“The Treasures of
the Sacred Heart of Mary”
appears in three languages,
but I’m not seeing or
understanding what
the treasures are
.

Again
we see
the daggers
representing the
seven sorrows
.

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Here are
Mary’s sorrows
in chronological order:

The
prophecy
of Simeon

Fleeing
to Egypt to
escape Herod

Losing Jesus
in Jerusalem
for several days

Seeing the multitude
wailing and lamenting

Jesus’ crucifixion

Jesus’ dead body
removed from
the cross

Jesus’
burial

Some
church traditions
claim that each of these
events pierced Mary’s heart.

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I chose the next one
because it is peaceful
.
no violence
no dagger
no thorns
no blood

This one
embellishes the
card with gilded lace,
and the image is more ethereal
than the literal drops of blood
that we have seen previously
:

The next card is similar
to one we’ve seen before,
but the woodcut style print
has been replaced by a
color lithography
process
:

Here is the
corresponding
colored card for the
Sacred Heart of Jesus
:

This one
has a different
theme than any that
we have seen before,
but now that we are
more familiar with
the Sacred Heart
symbolism,
we can
probably
assume that
these hearts have
a different meaning
:

Jesus
Mary and
Joseph, with
a border unike
any we have seen
so far
…

Amazing
Lace

Remember,
these are
made of
PAPER
!!!

Finally,
I couldn’t resist
including a nod
to the artists
!!!

The artist says,
“I want to retrace
the virtues of Mary”

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ok,
one more
.
This has the
most impressive paper
artwork that I have seen
:

Most of
these images
came from the
“Holy Card Heaven”
and “Nest of the Doves”
blogs by Fr. François Fénelon.

A
quote from
Fr. François Fénelon
:

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

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thanks for visiting
come back soon

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