Stained Glass Windows

      A child while visiting a Church asked his mother who were the people painted on the windows.  She explained that those were the Saints.  When he returned home, he told his father what he had seen and his Dad asked: "Who are the Saints?"  The little boy answered: "The Saints are people the light shines through."

      If there is one thing we Catholics do well, it is beautiful Churches.  And part of that is the windows.  I was reminded of that in St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Savannah.  The two windows in the front on the sides are of the Ascension and the Assumption.    The Ascension window shows Jesus, surrounded by the Apostles and Mary, rising towards heaven and in a small window at the top is an image of God, the Father, arms outstretched, and a smile on His face - He is usually portrayed looking stern - welcoming  His Son home.   The Assumption window shows Mary, rising toward heaven, the Apostles standing around her and in the small window  at the top, Jesus, crowned and in rich robes, holding a crown for His mother.  Both images are very moving and they tell their stories well.
     That's what the beautiful windows are about, to tell a story.  A story of the Saints, or the life of Mary and Jesus.  At St. Mary's Cathedral here in Peoria, they tell the story of the spread of Christianity from Jesus telling the Apostles to "go forth and teach all nations" to the first three Peoria Bishops - the windows were put in in the 1930's - giving homage to Mary, the patroness of the Cathedral building, the Peoria Diocese and the American Church.
      In St. Patricks Catholic Church in San Francisco every window shows a different Irish Saint, lifesize and beautiful!   I mentioned in an earlier post how I love the window at St. Josephs on the Southside of the Visitation.  And  there is the amazing rose window at Notre Dame in Paris.  So much blue and in the 13th century, when the window was installed that color blue used real gold to attain that color.                           
      When Judy and I visited Edinburgh in May last year, a Presbyterian friend suggested we visit St. Giles, the first Kirk of that religion.  It was magnificent, but it had been built in the 11th Century as a Roman Catholic Church and taken over when Catholicism was outlawed.

            

                   And I thought the ruins at Holyrood Abbey built in the 10th Century  were equally  as inspiring  because of the window that wasn't there.  I love visiting all Churches and the huge Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco is quiet and peaceful as the light filters through the glass.  The huge window at St. Pauls here in Peoria is awesome.  And the small window in the sanctuary at the Lutheran Church on School Street in Washington of the Agony in the Garden is a favorite.  We Catholics, don't have a lock on beautiful windows.     In the 1960s, so many Churches were built with Picasso style windows.  Ugly and uglier.  Hopefully this trend is ending.  The new windows at United Presbyterian are of a traditional design all done in soft pastels.
                  I know in my heart that the focus in our Church is not the windows or the statues but Jesus in the Tabernacle in the form of bread.  And I love to sit and visit in the quiet but I am inspired by whatever and whomever the light shines through.