For Our Families

May our families grow strong in the love and grace of God.

For Those Who Like Contemporary Music...

While this blog has seemed to indicate otherwise, I actually enjoy a number of contemporary praise and worship songs.  I am now putting a page of Contemporary Music on here for those who wish to visit that as well.  

However we do so, we shall praise our God!

St. Augustine, Ora Pro Nobis

St. Monica, Ora Pro Nobis

'The Marriage of St. Monica' by Antonio Vivarini

God's Dwelling Among Men

"I saw new heavens and a new earth.  The former heavens and the former earth

had passed away, and the sea was no longer.  I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city,

 coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne cry out:  'this is God's dwelling among men.'"  

Revelation 21:1-3

Lord, to You I Give My All

No Longer I

St. Rose of Lima

'The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.'  

St. Rose of Lima

Coronation of the Virgin Mary

Coronation of the Virgin, by Fra Angelico

St. Bernard, Ora Pro Nobis

Painting: Wilhelm Bernatzik, Vision of St. Bernard

The Language of Something Higher

Marksy photo.  Click here for full attribution.

Years ago, as an Art student, I learned that churches have a language all their own.  They are not just pretty for pretty's sake.  The best of them teach with every column and icon and golden shimmer.  They are meant to point us beyond our everyday world, to remind us that we were made for something higher than what we see in day to day life. 

I need the language of  'something higher.'  Like someone living outside her homeland, I miss my native tongue.  It is a language of words, yes - but also of the visual.  It is a language of painting,  iconography, music, photography, architecture... which is why, in this little spot on the Internet, there will usually be more pictures than words.

This particular post needs words, however, as I point out the fact that I've now put the 'pages' along the top, just under the Header.  Clicking on any of these will open them for viewing.  I am also placing duplicates of some on the sidebar, with click-on pictures.  Double coverage makes sense to me in this case, because the pages are where we'll find prayers and music and prayer-links.

Thank you for joining in prayer here.  You are prayed for every day. 

Lord, I Welcome You

Comments may be left by clicking this line.  This leads to a 'comments' blog, but a link there will bring you back here. 

Feast of the Assumption

This Site....

This site, as we can tell by now, is not a traditional 'blog.'  It is simply an offering of helps to prayer.

This site is not a substitute for our own local churches and chapels, where we go (if physically possible) to participate in Mass and Adoration.

This site is a little hidden-away corner where we can come whenever we wish.  Regular posts are incidental to the purpose of this place on the Internet, for the main offerings here are on the separate pages.  A click on any topic above, just under the Header, will open up that page for viewing.  A few of these have links.  Some have prayers and artwork.  Several offer music.

Posts will usually have (only) artwork appropriate for the day.  In the meantime, I shall continue to work on the pages.  I pray they will be blessings for us all.

Everyone visiting here is in my daily prayers.  God be praised!

A Vision from Afar

A little while ago, someone suggested a link (for here) to a live webcam broadcast of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.  I was astonished that such a thing exists!

I had just been thinking that a "chapel" is no such thing without the Blessed Sacrament.  So I put a link on here to the webcam feed, and that can be found on a page on the sidebar to our right.

And then I realized.  I was doing this in the wee hours of the morning on the feast of St. Clare of Assisi.  

St. Clare is the patroness of television. 

St. Clare was named as such by St. Pius XII in 1958, after he realized that television is Greek for "vision from afar."  It seems that one Christmas Eve, St. Clare was too sick to leave her bed to attend Mass.  She prayed, "See, Lord, I am left here alone."  Just then, God granted Clare a miraculous vision in which she was able to see Mass from afar, as it were happening right in her own bedroom.

I will now go spend some time praying as I look at the webcam "vision from afar."  And as I do so, I shall trust in the intercession of St. Clare.  

May God be glorified in this little corner of the Internet. 

Welcome to the Prie Dieu

Live + Jesus!

There will not be much writing here.  This is a place where we can come apart from the world and spend a few minutes with Our Lord, whenever we care to do so.

We will have icons and paintings and stained glass, such as might be seen in a sanctuary.  We will share music that hopefully will inspire us to turn our hearts to God.

I am continuing to add 'pages' at this point - these can be found under the Header at the very top of this page.  I hope to gradually add links to these as time goes on.  By clicking on these, we can pray the Liturgy of the Hours, or with Mass readings of the day, and with various other prayers and music.

May this space glorify our Holy God.  



This is an extension of the Cloistered Heart blog, to which you can return by clicking here.