Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

Click any image to enlarge.

MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Mary's of Redford Church

City: Redford

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window: Holy Mother of God

Brief Description of Subject: The clerestory windows are designed to let light into the Church and all have the same design --- a wide border of stylized lilies and three medallions. The center medallion will contain a symbol for an avocation found in the Litany of Loreto. The avocation in this window is "Holy Mother of God, Pray for us."

Pictured in the center medallion are branches of a cedar tree with the inscription "Cedrus Exaltata." The inscription is found in Sirach 24:17 "Quasi cedrus exaltata sum in Libano" --- Exalted like a cedar in Lebanon. In Ezekiel 31:5 the Cedar of Lebanon's "height was exalted above all the trees of the field." The Blessed Virgin Mary is exalted like a cedar in Lebanon because of her spiritual stature as the Holy Mother of God.

Words of Franz Xavier Dornn from his 1750 book "The Illustrated Litany of Loreto," as translated by Thomas Canon Pope:

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
Peperit Filium suum unigentium --- Luc. ii. 7
She brought forth her first-born Son.

Mary can truly say of herself: "Qui creavit me, requievit in tabernaculo meo --- He that created me rested in my tabernacle." These words are significant of nothing else than Mother of God, as, indeed, was Mary. This truly is a title very admirable. For as God the Father produced His Son from eternity without a mother, so Mary in time conceived the Son of God without a father. Moreover, as God, by the mere word "fiat --- be it made," created the world, so on the word "fiat --- be it done," having been pronounced by the Virgin Mary, the Divine Word was made flesh, which is an event that must elicit our astonishment, and is entirely above our comprehension.

Inscriptions: Cedrus Exaltata
Translation from Latin: Exalted Cedar


Height: ~64"

Width: 36"

The MSGC is a constantly evolving database. Not all the data that has been collected by volunteers has been sorted and entered. Not every building has been completely documented.

All images in the Index are either born-digital photographs of windows or buildings or are scans of slides, prints, or other published sources. These images have been provided by volunteers and the quality of the material varies widely.

If you have any questions, additions or corrections, or think you can provide better images and are willing to share them, please contact donald20@msu.edu