March 19, 2024

Unique stained-glass windows at local church enhance worship experience

REGIONAL
By David Martin

(iObserve photo/courtesy of Amy Connelly)

TURNERS FALLS – The stained-glass windows that decorate the interior of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Turners Falls have a long and rich history.

They were ordered 85 years ago when some of the best stained-glass window materials were coming out of Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the windows were shipped from. They arrived in 1938, just before Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, so the parish was very lucky to receive them at that time. Since the parish was then known as St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, the windows all depicted different aspects in the life of the Blessed Mother.

Father Stanley J. Aksamit, has been the pastor at the Turners Falls parish for more than 30 years. He said he is grateful to be in the presence of such great art at his parish; he noted the windows change character as the time of day changes. He remembers one time at Easter when all the lilies and flowers were arranged and the light was coming in at an angle from a window above the altar to put a spotlight on the Easter display.

“There are many ways in which we can approach God, and Jesus said; ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ I think one of the most important aspects of these windows is that it is through beauty… it helps people to pray and feel they are in the presence of God,” said Father Aksamit.

Father Aksamit said he was told that the color red was the most expensive color to incorporate into the glass because it has actually been mixed with gold. He said he has been in the cathedral in Prague and the windows there are exactly the same type of glass.

(iObserve photo/courtesy of Amy Connelly)

There are several windows that include scenes from Holy Week and Easter. In the first one in the sequence that includes the Blessed Mother, Jesus is carrying his cross with Mary on her knees reaching out to him, supported by St. John. In the next one, Jesus has been taken off the cross and there is a hole in his side from being lanced by a sword. This harks back to when Simeon told Christ as an infant he would be lanced in the heart. Both his mother and Mary Magdalene are also mourning for Jesus in the scene.

In the next window, three crosses are in the distant sunset as Mary and John console each other. Jesus had said from the cross: “Woman behold your son, son behold your mother.” It is Easter morning in the next window and an angel has appeared at the tomb to give Mary the mother and Mary Magdalene a message that Jesus has risen. The resurrected Jesus in the next window has come to comfort and assure his mother of his being risen from the dead.

“I was just reading an article in which the stress was that one of the great insights of the second Vatican Council was on the Pascal Mystery. The dying and the rising of Jesus are really at the heart of our faith and if Jesus had not risen from the dead, we probably would never have heard from him. So that is really a central focus of who we are and we realize that Easter is central,” said Father Aksamit.

Paul Mariani, a former English professor at Boston College and the University of Massachusetts, wrote a detailed document about the church windows, using a drone to photograph each individual window for study. Mariani, a longtime parishioner at Our Lady of Peace, also included verses from famous authors of the past in his document to enhance his description of the many aspects in the life of the Blessed Mother that take place in the stained-glass windows. There also are three windows above the altar depicting Jesus during the agony in the garden and being crucified, and in the resurrection window. So Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are all represented in the stained glass and surround churchgoers as they come forward to receive the Eucharist.

“They are facing that final sacrifice that we celebrate in every single Mass millions of times over, the crucified Jesus. You have two angels bowing before Jesus and then you have the Father above Jesus and then the Holy Spirit, so it is three in one: the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit,” said Mariani

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.