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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

City: Ypsilanti

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Date of Window: 1933

Subject/Title of Window: Cleanses Temple First Time/Teaches Nicodemus/Woman at Well/Call of Peter, James, and John

Brief Description of Subject: Each of the 10 aisle windows contain four roundels that picture events in the life of Christ for a total of 40 scenes. These scenes are arranged somewhat in a chronological order starting with the Annunciation (nearest the sanctuary on the epistle side) and ending with Christ the King (nearest to the sanctuary on the gospel side).

The roundels in this window from top to bottom:
Cleanses Temple First Time (John 2:13 - 16). "And the pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made, as it were, a little scourge of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my father a house of traffic." (Douay Rheims)
Teaches Nicodemus (John 3:1 - 21). Nicodemus was a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling counsel and believed that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God. At night, so he would not be seen, Nicodemus came to Jesus to seek understanding of what Jesus meant by "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." The most memorable passage is verse 16, "God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting," (Douay - Rheims).
Woman at the Well (John 4:1 - 44). This event is also known as "The Samaritan Woman." Samaritans to Judeans would be considered heretics --- they use the Pentateuch and believe in the coming of a Messiah but their worship practices are quite different. Jesus was passing through Samaria and he stopped at a well. When a Samaritan woman came to get water, Jesus asked her for a drink. She was indignant that a Jew would ask her for a drink of water. This leads to a conversation about "living water" as opposed to "well water," and Jesus telling her everything she ever did. She comes to believe that he is the Messiah and returns to her village and convinces the townspeople to come and see this man for themselves. When they come and heard for themselves, they believed he was the Savior of the world.
Call of Peter, James, and John (Luke 5:1 - 11). Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee, when people crowded around him. He asked Simon (Peter) to put his boat out a bit so that he might teach the crowd from the boat. When he was finished, he told Peter to go out to deeper water and put the nets down. Peter protested that they had fished all night and caught nothing, but did as he was told. When they let their nets down and their nets were filled with fish, Simon (Peter) was "wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the drought of the fishes which they had taken. And so were also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men," (Verses 9 -10 Douay - Rheims).


Inscriptions: In Memory of John & Catherine Cosgrove


Condition of Window: Good

Height: 12'

Width: 46"

Type of Glass and Technique: Antique or Cathedral Glass, Lead Came, Vitreous Paint

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