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Window of the Month
Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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Window

Building Name: St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Connick (Charles J.), Ltd.

City: St. Joseph

Window Shape: 4 (rounded or rose window)

Date of Window: 1952

Subject/Title of Window: Christ at the center of History

Brief Description of Subject: This window shines the light of the sun on the congregation during morning service. Christ is seated upon his throne in Glory, holding his orb, symbolizing the world and surmounted by the cross in His left hand. A scepter, to show He is Lord over all is in his right hand. The scepter is topped by a fleur-de-lis which is not only a symbol of the Holy Trinity bur is a stylized Lily, the symbol of purity. The letters XPC at Christ’s feet are the first two and the last letters of the word Christ in Greek. King David, with a harp as a psalmist, is depicted at the lower left. David, Israeli’s king was predicted as the forefather of the Savior of Israel, the children of God. The Prophet Isaiah and the Priest Melchizedek are together at left center. Isaiah holds a pair of tongs grasping a live coal. This is taken from his vision in Isaiah 6:1-8. He sees God seated in all his glory upon his throne in Heaven, and is filled with a deep sense of majesty and holiness of God and his own unworthiness. “Woe is me,” he says. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” An angel takes up a live coal from the altar with tongs and touches Isaiah’s mouth with it, purifying him. God asks whom He shall send to talk to his people and Isaiah is given the courage to say “Here am I. Send me!” Melchizedek, the priest-king of Jerusalem, is shown holding the Christian symbols of priesthood, a chalice and paten. Melchizedek, found in Gen. 14:18-10 and Psalm 110:4, is regarded as a prototype of the priestly nature of our Lord (see Hebrews 5, 6, and 7). In these three Old Testament characters we have the three elements of our Lord’s nature as Prophet, Priest and King. In upper left is a figure of St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus and patron saint of our city. An old legend (not biblical) has it that a group of elderly men were gathered to choose one to care for the young Virgin Mary. As they gathered, Joseph’s staff burst into bloom. This was considered a good omen and he was chosen to be her spouse. Below Mary are two figures. The young man holding the stones and wearing the dalmatic, is the first martyr of the church, the deacon St. Stephen. In a sense he is the first of the “sons” of our Lord to give his life as a witness to Him. Interestingly, St. Paul stood by at St. Stephen’s stoning (Acts 7:58). With St. Stephen is the medieval saint, the Brother St. Francis of Assisi, who is patron saint of all animals because of his love for them. A very modern saint rounds off the window at the lower right. Father James Otis Sargent Huntington was born in 1854, son of an Episcopal bishop and also related to William R. Huntington, one of the great Episcopalian leaders of social work in New York. He entered the priesthood, and felt the deep need for a truly American order of religion. In 1881, he and two other priests took a house in New York and began the life which was to be known as the Order of the Holy Cross. He took his life vows in 1884. Fearing that the demands of the social work in which they were involved might smother their true calling, he moved to Westminster, Maryland, in 1892, to their first real monastery. In 1904, the Order moved to West Park, New York. Their special work, besides praise and prayer, is to provide parochial missions and retreats for which the mother house and a new branch of Santa Barbara, California, are the centers. They also conducted schools in Liberia and one at St. Andrews, Tennessee. Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, was founded by one of the noted priests of the Order, Father Fredrick Herbert Sill. Father Huntington died in 1937 and has been chosen as our example of a modern “son” of our Lord in these United States. He devoted his life to his Lord, and as the founder of this Episcopalian order of monks he aided the spread of the Church’s work here and abroad.

Condition of Window: Good

Height: 4' diameter

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

Christ at the center of History
Christ at the center of History

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