While I was not part of the planning committee or involved in the conversations regarding the building of the Chapel, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, I have no doubt that windows, stained or not, occupied many hours of discussion and impassioned debate. Now, of course, my not being apart of these conversations did not preclude me from having an opinion on the matter. I was naturally an advocate for having stained glass.
I cannot express how thrilled I am that I was not able to voice that opinion and that the chapel has been built without any stained glass windows. A statement I never thought I'd make about a church.
Walking across campus one can clearly see through the trees a beacon of light that is the chapel. This is only made possible because of the massive windows. While sitting inside the Chapel, you are immediately exposed to the natural beauty that the campus has to offer. In the fall you can watch as the beautiful foliage begins to change colors. As the leaves fall the vibrant colors provide the perfect backdrop for contemplative reflection. Even in the winter months as the trees stand bare, reaching for the sky, swaying in the wind, they have a simple and subtle beauty that is most profound. A beauty that is only enhanced as the setting sun shines behind them.
Sitting in mass in this holy space, during the most sacred moments of the liturgy one is able to sit and marvel at the world around them as it carries on. Likewise, the world around, as it passes by, is able to stop and glimpse what is taking place. So much so that one altar server is able to recount an instance during the Eucharistic prayer that a passerby stopped and waited, watching through the window pausing, for the briefest of moments, in wonder and awe, at the source and summit of the faith before continuing on to their destination.
These windows, these simple, these nonstained windows, provide those willing to stop and look a profound glimpse into the beauty of the natural world, as well as, the beauty of the mass.
Peace and Blessings Always
~M
