La Toussaint Et Le Jour Des Fidèles Défunts - All Saints Day And All Souls Day

Lent 2025 personal devotion

For Lent this year, I'll read 12 pages a day for 40 days of this wonderful translation.

Really Gorgeous Playing Card Decks from Bicycle Cards! An appreciation

Since I've been reading normal playing cards in my folk practice, I didn't want to limit myself to any ordinary deck I'd find in Dollarama or in a cupboard. Like Tarot cards, I want my deck to be gorgeous and evocative! So, here are my favourites, and you all might love looking at these!

Aviary (I own this one and use it for my practice)

Marquis

Jubilee

The Sea King (I lost my ace of spades in this one)

Odyssey

Stargazer New Moon

Stargazer

Stargazer Sunspot

Stargazer Observatory

Voyager

Honorable mention: A Ducale Game. I have no idea how to play it, but the cards evoke really old art styles! Not from Bicycle.

JEANMAIRE ÉDOUARD - Le Soleil

honestly.. dream witch's cabin right there. "La maison acadienne" in the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.

In 2019, my mom had suffered a slipped disc in her spine, and she went through immense pain and fear as they were processing her through emergency. I was so scared she was going to remain paralyzed or hurt more, it ate at me for months. I visited her every day after work in the hospital. Of course she has nerves of steel, so she worked hard to recover and now she can walk just fine. Back when she was in hospital, she shared a room with an old woman who was also ailing. We got to know her and we learned she loved to quilt. When my mom got sent home, we received a package. In it was a handmade prayer quilt, with almost 50 strands hanging from its squares for every single person who wished her well. It was from that sweet lady's church quilting group. I was speechless at this amazing, powerful and thoughtful act. I painted her a dove and olives folkart box for her as a big thank you. I think of that great moment of humanity to this day.

i don’t think humans are inherently bad i just don’t. once i posted about how i can’t ever get poached eggs right and someone took time out of their day to send me tips on how to make them. they used their finite time on this planet to teach me how to poach an egg with no motivation other than helping a stranger have a better breakfast and if that isn’t proof humanity is worth saving i don’t know what is

Quinzou 2024

Joyeuse Quinzou aux Acadiens! Happy National Acadian Day! Unfortunately it's a work day for me today, but I had some time to pray to Mary (it's her Assumption day), and read from my great grandma's biography which features my great-aunt's poetry about her life on the Magdalen islands. A lovely little set up with St. Anne (whom my family prayed to on fishing expeditions), and photos of my great grandma and her father. If anyone is in Halifax, festivities for Quinzou are happening at the waterfront on August 16th from noon till 10pm…sigh.. another work day.

Moonshadow and Altar Time

this cat is clingy and adores spending time at the altar with me

The home country has some good Easter candle lore! In the maritimes, fishermen would keep fragments of the easter candle on their boats! Guess I’ll do a post soon!

The protective magic of Easter candles. [French Folks Traditions.]

The fragments of Easter candles and other wax seals distributed by the priest constitute powerful protective amulets, whose power seems superior to that of Candlemas candles. In the Vosges, they attract money, and a person who suddenly makes a fortune is said to have "robbed a church on Easter Day." Elsewhere, on Easter Monday, a fragment of a candle is hung behind the front door of the house for protection; this Easter wax is also used to ward off lightning. In the Alps, a few drops of wax are dripped into water, which take on the appearance of flowers, then thrown into the fireplace during a storm.

The Easter candle also has a particularly effective effect against witches. It is slipped into the sockets of cows' horns so that they cannot be milked from a distance ; or into a child's shoe or cradle to protect them from evil spells. It also happens that several buttons of Easter candle wax are glued onto or into the butt of a rifle, so as to be effective against werewolves.

[Excerpt from M.C. Delmas, in the Dictionary of Mysterious France.]

Holy Saturday’s vigil was lovely, even as I was visiting my in-laws and I didn’t have my altar cabinet or a church nearby who offered the service.

My paschal candle was prepared with my pocket knife with the Cross, Alpha and Omega and the year’s numbers, blessed with holy water and the ashes from the cut up bits of palm frond. I read from the Old Testament and the Gospel of Luke 24:1-12 (since in 2025, we are in Year C of the Lectionnary), read out the Litany of Saints, and played the Excelsis Deo with the ringing bells at around midnight. It was a simple and moving rite, and one that I love to take, since it has a section in the scripts used to undertake a renewal of baptism and vows.

My mom went to a church in St. Ambroise, in Saguenay for her vigil. She brought back a vigil candle, and Lillie was intrigued!

A Happy Easter to all the faithful, and I hope your day is filled with joy and love among your families and friends!

Folk Altar Stained Glass Painted Windows

I finished my stained glass painted windows today, and I'm so proud of them! The window's scene selections were to highlight important parts of my path as a catholic folk practitioner in my Quebec and Acadian culture. The scene on the right is a painting originally by Clarence Gagnon (Harvesting, c.1928-33) portraying some farmers in the fields of Charlevoix. The center window showcases the Star of the Sea, patron saint of the Acadians, keeping a ship safe in an ocean storm. (My own design). And the last window shows a scene from the folk tale "la chasse-galerie" from Honoré Beaugrand, when a group of woodsmen make a deal with the Devil to fly in an airborne magic canoe to visit their families on New Year's Eve. My practice entails researching my family's agricultural lifestyles and crafts, their religious life, and their folk tales.

My next project will be to paint the medallions on the doors of the altar cabinet.