A Pilgrimage to Dona Lucilia's Home
Here we are in this beautiful and blessed moment of Monsignor’s book where Sra. Dona Lucilia wants to share with us how she decorated her home. She wants to give us a warm invitation to spend some beautiful moments here and be immersed in everything she desires to teach us with her wisdom given by the Holy Spirit and by Our Lady.
So in this article I want to share the presentation of the Dona Lucilia’s home. She offers us very good advice so that we can decorate our homes in a similar manner, so that we may also experience that sauve decoration so full of charming details and so full of that Celestial Presence.
She invites us to feel ourselves living in the era in which she lived; to feel that cordiality;
to feel the sweetness that she radiates when she looks at us with that Maternal look, that same look that Our Lady gives us.
We are living in a era that has revolted against the Belle Epoque era that Dona Lucilia knew and that was so full of beautiful nuances that helped to shape her decorating style.
Let us be guided by Our Lord, Our Lady, Dona Lucilia and Dr. Plinio as we pilgrimage back in time to visit. We can imagine changing the way we dress, and take how Dona Lucilia dressed as our example, in a very beautiful, noble and elegant manner.
So what I desire in this introduction is for us to sense that time period and allow the Holy Spirit to show us how we can better decorate our homes.
Let us go back then as if we were in a car, imagining that we are now in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and had just arrived at the blessed home of Dr. Plinio and Dona Lucilia. We enter and walk through the rooms: the foyer, the bedrooms, the living rooms, dining room and the large office/library where so much reading was done.
These rooms, as you can see in the photos are very well decorated. It is perfectly ordered reflecting everything about Dona Lucilia. As you examine the details, I would suggest that anyone could have similar decoration in their homes, like for example that detail of the vases on the tables, the bright wooden chairs, that tables where the ornaments are so full of life… The rooms have a living romanticism that characterizes Dona Lucilia. Her Catholic femininity is embodied in all it’s pleasing tones. It would be wonderful to have decoration similar to this in our homes.
I suggest we be very suave like this when decorating. Make it simple because remember that from simplicity arises grandness.
In the dining room, we see that very fine tabletop with everything well placed.
When they have guests in their home they present the best tableware they have to decorate the table. They dress the table with a nice and very elegant tablecloth and present all the crystal glasses so that the guests feel special and welcomed.
Everything in the home is well ordered including the porcelains so well placed on the furniture. Also note the importance given to the placing of the picture of the Last Supper in the dining room.
Dona Lucilia’s room has a beautiful dressing table, where in the reflection of the mirror you can see the beautiful Sacred Heart of Jesus. It also has an image of the Immaculate Conception next to her bed where she would spend hours and hours praying.
It truly is a grace for all of us as we ponder and are amazed by the fresh and appealing decoration of her home where everything reflects a devotion to Mary Most Holy and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Thank you for sharing this moment together and may Dona Lucilia help us all!
Submitted by: Tatiana Cesáreo (Columbia)
