This Lent we will post pictures from inside St. Anthony Church, highlighting places that can lead you to prayer and deeper worship.

The 4th Creed Window

Our stained glass windows are one of the most stunning features of our church building. Of course, they are more than simply colorful images or sources of light. They seem to be alive at times, as they glow and fade with the caprice of the sunlight, and this activity is not incidental. 

These windows, at the same time static and active, are invitations to enter more deeply into prayer and worship while considering tenants of our faith – the Apostle's Creed to the east and the Litany of Loretto depicting the Blessed Mother to the west. In fact, they are set low on the walls so that as we process into church, and then toward the altar to receive Communion, we become part of the narratives they illustrate. As we leave, we carry with us the messages they offer. 

This week's place for prayer is the 4th window on the east side of the church, depicting the last part of the Apostles' Creed. 

What do you really see? 

Spend some time with this window next time you are in church, as it has a particular connection to Lent and Easter. When you're settled in a place to look carefully, first take time to notice the time of day – what is the light doing within the window? The images themselves do not change, but the light through them does. What does this ethereal motion, within permanence of the solid materials of leading and glass, help you recollect?

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The forgiveness of sins

What images do you see in this window? Start at the top, can you find the tablets - what might they depict? And the whip in front of them? Then move to the image of Jesus. The color red in stained glass is often the color of sacrifice but also justice. And the rays of light emanating from Jesus are the same as those emanating from the tablets above. How might these images help you draw the connection between Israel's exodus and Christ's Passion? 

Notice the color the sinner is wearing and his posture before Jesus. Notice their feet, both uncovered. And what is happening to the serpent? 

The Resurrecton of the Body and Life Everlasting. Amen.

Look closely at the next three panels in the window, just like you did for the first one. What colors do you see? What images and shapes? How are the people and objects arranged? What might the symbols mean? 

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high. (Luke 1:76-78)

Consider the trajectory of this window - from the forgiveness of sins to life everlasting– the words we recite each time we say the creed, maybe without thinking about it. But this is the reality of our salvation. Jesus is our gate to heaven, to life everlasting with the Father. 

Consider this trajectory again, and picture the window overlaid on the journey through Lent, Holy Week and Easter. What connections might you make to Jesus's journey? To your own? 

Pray

O my God, relying on thy infinite power, goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon for my sins, the help of thy grace, and life everlasting through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen. 

Act of Hope, excerpted from the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2005 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana.