Day 9. a special day

Thursday 11th February 1858: Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette at a small grotto in Lourdes.

Tuesday 11th February 1975: I gave birth to my first born. A son. Caine Jeremy. weighing in at a whopping 5lbs 4oz. I am so proud of this boy who has become a man. a gentle loving soul.

Happy Birthday, Caine

this is the last of the Art Novena for Mary of Lourdes..it has been fun sharing art through stories and created pieces!

Day 8. a new tattoo

Art by Sylvia Ji.
seen today at a friends house
[while I was having a new tatto inked onto my arm]

Day 7. with Mary in Australia

I often wonder why we here in Australia haven't had visitations, like those in Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and others..
oh there have been rumours of visitations but nothing like these places of pilgrimage.

But
I often wonder also if Mary is in our land...
while travelling to Uluru and Kata Tjuta a few years ago
I was touched by Spirit
was this Mary - the Divine Feminine, as Mother Earth?

The Divine Feminine, present in this ancient and sacred land of ours?

could this be Australias' equivalent to Holy & Healing water?

and was this:

a depiction of Mother Mary as seen by the indigenous people of our land?

Join in our Art Novena with Our Lady of Lourdes.. Day 6

Day 6. Spirit Doll

the creative urge continues to flow from me.
many ideas flitter around my head.. but i cannot quite grasp what I want or need to create. ..
however, spirit dolls fall from my hands with no angst at all..
Mary called me to create this Spirit of Her..


this post is dedicated to my sister in law Tina who has been admitted to palliative care and has only a short time to live. I place her, also, under Our Lady's Mantle

Join us! ART NOVENA for Our Lady of Lourdes.

Day 5 - raising money for Cancer sufferers and survivors.

I have been asked to create an Arty Bra to raise money for Cancer Help here in the Blue Mountains - there are no rules..at first I was stumped as to what theme to work on
one night, I dreamed of what I had to do..

so I gathered.

Bits gathered from my collection of vintage catholic bits and an old bra from a favourite vintage haunt.
what could I do with this?

a Shrine to Mary !!

this is the back.. an old postcard layered upon a vintage piece of lace and in my gatherings, I found a small piece of tape with the words 'Made with Love'
- and it was.



yes.
there is always HOPE

a crown adorns the Queen of Heaven and Earth. the Queen of my soul.

my entry:

Our Lady of the Vintage Brassiere..
entries will be shown in local cafes and galleries until the end of May, where they will be auctioned off at a very swish affair at a local grand old hotel

Join Us! Art Novena ~ Our Lady of Lourdes

Day 4. Soul Songs

"where there is great love there are always miracles... The miracles of the church seem to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears hear what there is about us always"
[Willa Carter (quoted in The Ave Maria)]

last week, I made this card
and just last night, after i had sat with Mary for sometime,
did I realize that Mary can be found in the wise women who surround me..
their wisdom is Her wisdom.
and they share it with me daily.

JOIN IN: SOUL SONGS

day 3. a gift for Mary

Sunday. what can I post I wonder?
looking out my window - our neighbours laden hydrangea bush

I want to go and pick one to put at Mary's feet in the little shrine in my front yard..to honour Her, to show how much I love Her.

and hope that when tourists walk past on their way to Katoomba Falls
they will see Her and be touched...

join us
ART NOVENA - MARY OF LOURDES

this post is dedicated to Rebecca: I place her under Mother Mary's mantle x

POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE

[click on the above to read my message x

Day 2. little miracles

and we continue the Art Novena... MARY OF LOURDES
please join in!

after meeting Mary in the Fatima movie - I started going to Mass and eventually converted to Catholicism a year later.. and met some lovely women my age.. some of us started to hold a weekly prayer group..

praying the Rosary.

we continued on for a year or two and Bernadette, one of the group developed breast cancer..
we started to pray for her and quite often, Julie [a friend] and I would go walking in the bush, along a track to a grotto, where once stood a statue of Mary, where the Nuns use to go and pray.. around the grotto was a pool of water, being filled constantly by a little creek falling over rocks.. we would sit on the rock edge and pray the rosary..

I remember once, sitting there and it started to rain... and then suddenly the sun came out but not an ordinary sun.. this one was brilliant and seemed to come close then go away.. doing this little dance for a few minutes.. [I read later that this is sometimes a sign that Mary is with you]

another time, i was sitting praying the rosary and had my eyes closed.. [remember, I am in the middle of the australian bush, surrounded by native eucalypts, wattles and other native plants]... I opened my eyes and across the pool of water was a rose.. and as I gazed, a white bird alighted on the rose.. sat for a moment and flew off.. my friend and I just looked at each other in awe.. did that really happen?

just before Bernadette died.. Julie and I had just finished saying a rosary for her at the grotto and were walking back up the bush track and all of a sudden, we were both enveloped in the most powerful perfume of hundreds of roses.. it was so strong.. we kept smelling the air... in rapture..

all of these little miracles.. from Mother Mary... I still wonder often if they really did happen...

I dedicate this post to my own faith and trust - that it will grow stronger each and every day.. as I journey this Art Novena with Mary of Lourdes

Day 1. how i met Mary.

a nine day Art Novena with Our Lady from Lourdes.. .MARY OF LOURDES

.....I will begin with where my journey started with Mary. Where I first 'met' her..
She wasn't in my life at all really, as a child. Except when our school bus would stop at the local convent school to pick up the Catholic children.. I would see a statue of her looking over the playground.. but to my anglican little self, she was not of my life. ..

fast forward to about 20 years or so ago.. one wet Good Friday.. Joe & I were sitting watching a movie - back then, religious movies were often shown at Easter time.. this movie was a story of 3 children..

who had visitations from Mother Mary. I watched. speechless. totally absorbed with the story as it unfolded. at times, close to tears..when the movie finished I turned to Joe and said 'Does this thing really happen?'...

Our Lady of Fatima had touched my heart... I was in love...

todays post is dedicated to my friend Maureen.. who is dying from lung cancer.
I place her under the mantle of Our Lady of Lourdes