Cloister of the Heart : Art Novena for Lady of Lourdes

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Art Novena for Lady of Lourdes

Art Novena

Nine Days of Sharing Art from the Heart

That which reminds you of the Sacred in the Ordinary

and opening ourselves to the healing possibilities,

both spiritually and physically,

that comes through love and acceptance

and opening of the heart

The infinite goodness has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it - Dante

I visited Lourdes last year as a pilgrim. There, in front of the cave, I experienced something very special. I felt a special vibration, a kind of spiritual presence there. And then in front of the image of the Virgin Mary, I prayed, I expressed my admiration for this holy place that has long been a source of inspiration and strength, that has provided spiritual solace, comfort and healing to millions of people. And I prayed that this might continue for a long time to come - the Dalai Lama

images

collage

poetry

stories

art works

photographs

anything

that awakens your heart

and reminds you of the Sacred in everyday living

that speaks of the love of Our Lady

Friday 3 February till 10 February

holy day of Our Lady of Lourdes

beyond religion

a tribute

to inspiration

a shining light

Please join me in this Novena. Every day from 3 February to 10 February I will provide a link here for you to join up with me and others in this sharing of the heart. Please share your art, or story, or words, or a prayer, or maybe a sacred circle in tribute of the gifts of Our Lady of Lourdes to the world.

blessings

Hettienne

6 comments:

Annie JeffriesJanuary 31, 2012 at 7:41 PM
Oh Hettienne, I'm excited. And, I have a few days to do some planning. I will happily join you here.
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Queenie BelieveJanuary 31, 2012 at 10:48 PM
I look forward to this celebration and opportunity to learn.
Have a great day.
Always, Queenie
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Miss RobynJanuary 31, 2012 at 10:54 PM
I am so looking forward to this! all of this seems to be happening at the exact perfect time for my soul! I will be able to recall miracles that have happened to me.. and I wish to create a shadow box as well.. perfect! xo
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Miss RobynJanuary 31, 2012 at 11:01 PM
PS - I linked to this on my sidebar.. using the last image.. hope that is ok?
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My life as a Pilgrim to sacred places

Pilgrimage and sacred ritual is my foremost spiritual practise. Raised Dutch Reformed Protestant, the rich lustre of sacred and holy places offered a well of inspiration for my parched soul. My travels have taken me to many different religions, cultures and traditions. You will see on the internet that I have written on many aspects of the spiritual journey. Until I came into contact with the mystical side of Christianity. My first ritual I attended was the festival of Archangel Michael in Mont Sant'Angelo in Italy, then visiting Padre Pio. Then followed walking the pilgrimage of Bridgid, the sacred well and labyrinth in Kildare, Ireland. And that is when my art appeared in the form of paintings. Ritual grounded in the knowing of the unconscious, awakens us from the dream of habitual seeing and thinking. The conscious mind lacks the ability or maybe the neural pathway to communicate the new-found wisdom intellectually, and thus the expression through art steps in. Well, that is only my experience and understanding, of course. But I had not been an artist till I participated in sacred ritual.

My stay at Lourdes and participating in the rituals daily, turned me into a full time artist.

When one participates in a ritual (probably any ritual, but when you regard it as sacred, you add a certain 'light' to it) you are transported into a different time and space : colors are different; the light is different; everything has meaning and the ordinary become extra-ordinary. My art novena for Lourdes in particular, highlights my statement that our lives are the altar to the Divine and I strive to capture that numinosity of the sacred ritual in my photographs and altars. I only started creating sacred altars on my return from Lourdes. These small shadowboxes are vignettes, a moment in time in the life of ordinary human beings, lifted out of the mundane into the numinous, merely by seeing life as sacred.

Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

“It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style. They affect us just as vulgarity affects us. They give us an impression of sheer brute force, and we revolt against that. Sometimes, however, a tragedy that possesses artistic elements of beauty crosses our lives. If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are no longer the actors, but the spectators of the play. Or rather we are both. We watch ourselves, and the mere wonder of the spectacle enthralls us.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

"In an old song the Mother sings: 'My sleeping is my dreaming, my dreaming is my thinking, my thinking is my wisdom.' She is the bed we are born in, in which we sleep and dream, where we are healed, love and die. In her wisdom we remember day's broken images and carry them down into dreams where their motions roll into shadows and root, growing into stories." ~Meinrad Craighead

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. ~Rumi

I am the mother of fair love and of respect and of knowledge and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue - Ecclesiasticus 24:24.

OPEN FLOWER

Near your breastbone there is an
Open Flower.
Drink the honey that is all around that flower.
Waves are coming in:
There is so much magnificence near the ocean!
Listen: Sound of big seashells!
Sound of bells!
Kabir says: Friend, listen this is what I have to say:
The guest I love is inside me!
~Kabir

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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Art Novena for Lady of Lourdes

6 comments:

Namaste

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