Cloister of the Heart : Holy Day of Our Lady of Lourdes

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Holy Day of Our Lady of Lourdes

Today is Day Nine in this Art Novena of Our lady of Lourdes.

I pick the flowers from my garden and make a garland

to adorn Her image

I twist ivy and roses for Her crown

I pick the first crop of gooseberries

and symbolically offer the fruits of my harvest to Her

as I sprinkle the ground around Her with

holy water from many Holy Wells

and I plant Her blessing seeds to sanctify the ground

(You can read more about Mary's Blessings seeds

here)

I reflect on the past eight days of this novena.

While I stayed in Lourdes, the one image that still lives vividly in me,

is that of the thousands of sick visiting the shrine AND

the thousands of volunteer helpers, carers, companions and nurses.

Such giving and such receiving. Compassion and extension to those who cannot walk, for those who cannot hide their vulnerability. Being a part of that procession and witnessing such love openly being given and shared, touched me deeply.

So often we shut others out because we look different, act differently, believe differently. So often we shut others out because we close our hearts for fear of revealing our vulnerability.

A humble heart is a heart that is strong in its vulnerability. An open heart is a door through which love flows in and out.

And such is Her infinite Love, in whatever form is true for you;

in that which has meaning for you;

In these nine days many new voices and hearts have entered my circle, taken my hand and walked through the garden of Mary with me. Thank you for your sharing. May we continue to meet and share the Love!

May you bathe in the river of blessings that flow from Lourdes

Ave Maria.

I invite you to participate in today's

Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes

through image,

story,

art,

poetry,

song

your love for Her, Mother Mary.

1 comment:

Annie JeffriesFebruary 12, 2012 at 2:37 AM
And so it ends, Hettienne. I have enjoyed this time here (posting 7 out of 9 days). Not too shabby. It was a wonderful way to reintroduce and resurrect my old blog and make the transition back to where it all began. Just as that blog (Scenes . . .) is my writing source, Holy Mother is my source, my anchor to everything else. Through Her I reach her blessed son.
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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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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Holy Day of Our Lady of Lourdes

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Namaste

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