Photo credited to miltonmic

Stained Glass of ‘The Eucharist’

This stained glass can be found at the Sacred Heart Monastery in Kensington, Sydney, New South Wales.

The ancient IHS symbol permeates Christian art all over the world. Dating all the way back to the third century, Christians shortened the name of Jesus by only writing the first three letters of his name in Greek, ΙΗΣ (from his full name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ). The Greek letter Σ (sigma) is written in the Latin alphabet as an “S,” resulting in the monogram being commonly represented as ΙΗS.

In the early centuries of the Church, it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians. Then, in the 15^th century, Saint Bernadine of Siena went on a preaching campaign to promote reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus and encouraged Christians to put his on the doorways of their homes. A century later, in 1541, St. Ignatius adopted the monogram to represent his newly founded order, the Society of Jesus.

Photo credited to Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Stained Glass of ‘The Holy Family in Nazareth’

This stained glass can be found at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Minnesota

Little is known about Jesus’s youth except that he was separated from his parents when he was 12. After finding him at the temple, Luke’s gospel mentions he went back to Nazareth with his parents and obeyed them.

God’s love is mediated to us through the love of our families, in the messiness and ordinariness of family life.

Stained Glass of ‘St. Joseph with Young Jesus’

This stained glass can be found at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church, Trails Parkway, Garland, Texas.

The Church has not prescribed a definitive age to Joseph. His age at the time of his marriage to the Virgin Mary is unknown. Some traditions suggest that he was a young man because, as Mother Angelica says, “Old men don’t walk to Egypt,” while others suggest he was older as he died before Jesus’s public ministry. He is often shown with a boy or a baby Jesus, carrying carpentry tools as a symbol of his trade or carrying lilies, which signify his purity.

Joseph was commanded by the angel to personally name the child. This is deeply significant. It means that Joseph, in naming the child, acknowledges him as his own son and thus became the legal father of the child according to Semitic law. As a result of this legal adoption, Joseph’s ancestry as a descendent of David also transfers to his legal son and heir the promises made to David, Joseph’s ancestor.

Stained Glass of ‘The Last Supper’

This stained glass can be found at the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome Italy.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to eat His Body and drink His Blood. To be admitted to the Supper of the Lord, we repent, confess our sins and receive absolution before presenting ourselves for Holy Communion. Many Catholic churches also have a Eucharistic Adoration room for the faithful to pray, worship and be with Jesus.

Stained Glass of ‘Throne Bernini Holy Spirit Dove’

This stained glass can be found at Saint Peter’s Basilica Vatican Rome, Italy.

Jesus told his Apostles many things about the Holy Spirit; one such telling was: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.” (Jn 14:16-17) This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, like tongues of fire, baptizing the believers into Christ and giving them the power to be His witnesses. The Holy Spirit’s presence with the Apostles, disciples, and the entire Church throughout the centuries has always meant to be a comfort, a consolation, a leader, and a guide to us.

Stained Glass of ‘Our Lady of the Annunciation’

This stained glass can be found at St Catharine’s Convent of Mercy in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

Angels, by their nature, are above humans, yet the angel Gabriel shows great respect to Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” Jesus did not have to take on our nature to save us, neither did He have to cooperate with a humble Jewish woman in Nazareth. He chose both. Mary is the willing instrument of God. Without her approval to bear Jesus in her womb, there is no telling what the state of our salvation would be. God willed to entrust His plan of salvation into the hands of a woman. This is also our role whenever we are open to God’s will. God does not need us, but He lets us work with Him. With the Annunciation, we see the great things that God can bring when we cooperate with Him.

Stained Glass of ‘St Margaret Mary Alacoque’

This stained glass can be found at St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was afflicted with rheumatic fever, becoming confined to her bed at an early age. When she was 15 years old, she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was miraculously healed. From the age of 20 onwards, she received numerous visions and revelations from Jesus Christ and was taught about the observance of the Nine First Fridays, Holy Hour, and that the Feast of the Sacred Heart was to be started in the Church. Saint Margaret Mary’s visions were declared to be genuine by Claude La Colombiere, the confessor of the Visitation convent at the time, and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was formally recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765, seventy-five years after her the death.

Photo credited to Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Stained Glass of ‘Precious Blood of Jesus’

This stained glass can be found at St Kilian’s church in Heilbronn.

Devotion to the Precious Blood is not a spiritual option. It is a spiritual obligation. While the feast of the Precious Blood of Our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, the devotion to the Precious Blood goes back to the very foundations of Christianity. In about A.D. 96, Pope St. Clement I called upon the faithful, saying, “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world.”

In their writings, the early Fathers tell us that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ and that the sacraments were brought forth through his blood.

Stained Glass of ‘The Immaculate Heart of Mary’

This stained glass can be found in the Blessed Sacrament chapel at Mount Angel Abbey.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to recall the emotions of joy and sadness that Mary experienced in her own life. When you look at the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, you see a burning heart surrounded by a crown of thorns and pierced with a sword. The Immaculate Heart of Mary shows us that despite the sufferings of Jesus (crown of thorns), he loves all of us, regardless of our sins, and spilled his blood (the sword) in the hope that we would join him in heaven. It is for this reason that despite the trials and sufferings of Jesus, Mary’s heart still burns with love and devotion.

Photo credited to Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Stained Glass of ‘Seven Sorrows of Our Lady’

This stained glass can be found at St Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The heart of Mary is pierced by seven swords. The Sorrows of the Blessed Mother, portrayed in the picture above, are: the prophesy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the losing of the Child Jesus, the meeting on the way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the deposition, and the burial of Jesus. May Our Blessed Mother pray for us, and especially for all mothers suffering the loss of their children.

Stained Glass of ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’

This stained glass can be found at the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Llandudno, UK.

In 1858, the Immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to 13-year-old Bernadette Soubirous near Lourdes in France, in the cavern called “de Massabielle.” Describing her vision, Bernadette said, “She has the appearance of a young girl of sixteen or seventeen. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon that flows down all around it. A yoke closes it in graceful pleats at the base of the neck. The sleeves are long and tight-fitting. She wears upon her head a veil which is also white. This veil gives just a glimpse of her hair and then falls down at the back below her waist. Her feet are bare but covered by the last folds of her robe except at the point where a yellow rose shines upon each of them. She holds on her right arm a rosary of white beads with a chain of gold shining like the two roses on her feet.”

Stained Glass of ‘Infant Jesus with Rosary’

This stained glass can be found at the Sacre-Coeur Parish Church of Lourdes, France.

“Perhaps too, there are some who fear that the Rosary is somehow un-ecumenical because of its distinctly Marian character. Yet the Rosary clearly belongs to the kind of veneration of the Mother of God described by the Council: a devotion directed to the Christological center of the Christian faith, in such a way that ‘when the Mother is honored, the Son … is duly known, loved and glorified.’ If properly revitalized, the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance to ecumenism!” – Pope John Paul II.

Stained Glass of ‘The Final Judgment’

This stained glass can be found at the Sacred Heart church in Moulins, France.

CCC 1030
All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. “The way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us forever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion. At the moment of judgement, we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.” (Spe Salvi, 47)

Those of us who desire God are granted this final grace, not because we deserve it, but because God is so loving and merciful that He is willing to give us one last chance for purification even after death. “He is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9)

Photo credited to Simon Knott

Stained Glass of ‘Madonna & Child’

This stained glass can be found at St Mary the Virgin, Edwardstone, Suffolk.

The Madonna and the Child artwork “Invites us to reflect on the nature of Christ’s love for us all. Christ, being God Himself as part of the Holy Spirit, is pure. The image of baby Jesus seen in “Madonna and the Child” invokes the purity of a child’s love:” selfless, innocent and bearing no prejudice.