Our Parish Mission begins tonight! We’ll gather here at 7pm tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday for our Mission, entitled The Light of Christ Our King: Praying with Our Stained-Glass Windows, preached by Fr. Kevin Grove, CSC.
I know that our beautiful windows have been a real blessing to so many of us at Christ the King since they were installed 12 years ago. Those of us who were here at that time know how drastically different the church looked without them; indeed, now it’s hard to even imagine the church without the windows! But our windows are more than just beautiful; just as stained-glass has so often done in our tradition, these windows are designed to teach us and help us pray. The hope for this Parish Mission is that it helps unlock the deeper meaning behind these windows so that they bless our parish and parishioners even more deeply.
When it comes to our windows, there’s nobody better to talk about them than Fr. Kevin. He currently teaches Theology at Notre Dame, but as many of you remember, he served here at Christ the King in 2010-2011. Not only is he a gifted preacher, but he was also instrumental in working with Fr. Neil Wack, who was pastor at the time. Fr. Kevin helped to source these windows from Ss. Cyril & Methodius Parish in Coaldale, PA. He also led the design of the side panels that surround each Mystery of the Rosary. Our windows are a different shape than those at Ss. Cyril & Methodius, so additional panels had to be designed to fill in the empty space. Fr. Kevin designed these side panels so that they explained each mystery more fully and help us enter into each mystery more deeply.
Fr. Kevin will discuss the South Windows (the Joyful Mysteries) on Sunday; the two larger windows (the Last Supper and the Resurrection) on Monday; and the North Windows (the Glorious Mysteries) on Tuesday. (There will also be several priests available for confessions at the end of our Tuesday evening program.)
I hope you’re all able to join us for these incredible evenings (or to watch them on our YouTube Channel, if you’re not able to attend in person.) I have a feeling that, as much as we love the stained-glass windows already, after this Parish Mission we’ll never look at them the same again!