letterhead
HomeAbout CMSFormationStudent LifeNews & EventsSupport CMS

Chapel Windows

Mystical Body Window

The artist described this work as “a wall penetrated by points and pieces of shimmering color.”* Through the relationship of the individual pieces of glass, she wanted to depict the relationship between the members of the Mystical Body and God’s intervention in history.

 

THE LEFT PANEL


Abstract suggestions of the creation of the visible, material world (see Gen 1:1-35). In the upper left is a body suggestive of the sun: “light and power filter down from it, and particles and atoms and then molecules are formed.” In the lower half of this window “continuing through the other panels also, in a horizontal direction, there is a ‘growth stream’ of light blues and blue-greens. ... cell-like symbols are forming and collecting (in red and rose colored tones). ... This is an abstracted symbol of the phyla of life on earth; branching out in various directions, but continuing onward.”*

THE CENTRAL PANEL


This great star is the symbol of the Incarnation. It is the center of history; around which is focused and streams life: “thus is symbolized the Mystical Body, the members of His Church, forming around Him as nucleus.”*

THE RIGHT PANEL


The members of the Mystical Body gather around the Cross, which “reminds us of the Atonement by which the faithful have that remission from sins which can enable them to be members of this Mystical Body.” The upward sweep of this stream of life suggests the mystery of the Body caught up in the divine action of the Holy Spirit. In the lower part of this window (not shown) those who are not members of the Body “disintegrate”*, lose their unity and fall away. “Light and power stream down on the [right] side of the window-group, from Him Who is the source of all true and lasting power.”*

*Highlighted text is from notes written by the artist.

The Great Commission Window