All posts tagged: Candlemas

A Candlemas Gift from Hearthstone Fables

Kristin Haakenson is the artist behind Hearthstone Fables. I truly gasped when I opened Kristin’s email with these Candlemas images. What a gift! When I think of Hearthstone Fables, I think of St. Francis of Assisi. In his Canticle of the Sun, he saw all creation as family —  “Brother Sun,” Sister Moon,” Brother Wind…” The legends say that he preached sermons to birds and befriended wolves. In this way, Kristin’s art at Hearthstone Fables seems very Franciscan to me. And, with these beautiful Candlemas gifts, I think we can look to “Sister Swan” and “Brother Fox” as we carry the light in our homes. In her lovely website, Kristin says: “In the magical world of Hearthstone Fables, I’ve sought to express my passion for faith, nature, & mythic storytelling through art.  I aim to create simple, quiet narratives that convey a sense of wonderment at the sacred world, with the various flora and fauna of nature weaving enchanting stories together. I’ve always been enamored with mythic storytelling, both through written narrative and the visual arts.  Humanity so often expresses a sense of displacement…a nagging feeling …

A Candlemas Celebration

“As we see in the gospel today, the Word, which spoke the world into existence, comes to the Temple. And how is he brought? Carried on a throne of gold? With all the nations gathered around to honor him? No, but in the throne of the Virgin’s arms. . . And what glory did await at the temple? Did Caesar himself stand up for the True King as he entered? Did the powerful people of all the nations come to honor him, and declare him the True Lord of Lords? No, he is greeted by a man who is only said to be a righteous and devout man. And by a woman, who is said to be a prophet, and who seems to have been a widow who spent her time in prayer in the temple.” “There were no kings and queens of the world greeting the Christ as he came to the Temple. What we see here, is a secret: that the kings and queens are the poor of heart. They are those awaiting salvation. …

Candlemas Printables

We are excited today to bring you some Candlemas printables to aid your celebration of this Festival of Light.  Folk artist Heather Sleightholm of Audrey Eclectic kindly agreed to create a special piece of art just for us!  Her lovely drawing of the presentation of Christ in the temple, the ultimate Light coming into the world, is available to you as a coloring page, or a sticker to decorate your family’s vigil candle for the year. At our parish, Christ the King, we will be creating vigil candles for each family during Sunday School on January 31, and then our priest will do the Blessing of the Candles during our service.  My family is excited to have this special candle in our home this year to remind us that we can bring all our cares to Christ. There are two different artwork designs, a black and white design by Heather that can be colored and a full color piece by me.  They are formatted two to a page to fit onto a standard vigil candle, …