|
Stained Glasses of the Cathedral
“Upon This Rock You Will Build My Church” (Matthew 8:16-18)
This phrase from Matthew’s Gospel was the Inspiration behind the Renovation of The Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica. A lot has happened since we reopened the doors of the Cathedral-Basilica back in April 20, 1998. However, our work is far from over. We are constantly reviving, restoring, and improving our place of worship.
One of our Projects, which was completed in 2001, was the installation of the stained glass windows. These wonderful works of art were designed by Mr. Chito Santos and pieced together by VirtreArtists Glass Company. Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores named this very church Dulce Nombre de Maria, the sweet name of Mary. For this reason, the stained glass windows will speak to us of the various biblical references made of Mary, and the different titles given to her throughout history.
Featured here are the different stained glass panels, the story behind the glass and the families who, through their generosity, made it possible for all of us to appreciate our historical and biblical roots.
Guided by our Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, inspired by the dreams and dedication of Fr. James L.G. Benavente, and the support of countless others we will build a Community of Faith - A Church!
Taken from the 1998 dedication booklet
The Story of Our Lady of Czestochowa
The Black Madonna is a painting of the Madonna and Christ Child which legend states was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. St. Luke is believed to have used a tabletop from a table built by the carpenter Jesus. It was while Luke was painting Mary that she told him about the events in the life of Jesus that he eventually incorporated in his gospel. The painting shows up again in 326 AD when St. Helen located it in Jerusalem while on a pilgrimage there. She gave the painting to her son, Constantine, who had a shrine built in Constantinople to house it.
In a critical battle with the Saracens, the portrait was displayed from the walls of the city and the Saracens were subsequently routed. The portrait was credited with saving the city. The painting was eventually owned by Charlemagne who subsequently presented it to Prince Leo of Ruthenia (northwest Hungary). It remained at the royal palace in Ruthenia until an invasion occurred in the eleventh century. The king prayed to Our Lady to aid his small army and as a result of his prayers a darkness descended on the enemy troops who, in their confusion, began attacking one another. Ruthenia was saved as a result of this intervention.
 In 1382, picture was brought to Jasna Gora in response to a request made in a dream of Prince Ladislaus of Opola. This legendary history becomes better documented with the painting's ownership by Prince Ladislaus. In 1382 invading Tartars attacked the Prince's fortress at Belz. In this attack one of the Tartar arrows hit the painting and lodged in the throat of the Madonna. The Prince, fearing that he and the famous painting might fall to the Tartars, fled in the night finally stopping in the town of Czestochowa, where the painting was installed in a small church. The Prince subsequently had a Pauline monastery and church built to ensure the painting's safety. In 1430, the Hussites overran the monastery and attempted to take the portrait. One of the looters twice struck the painting with his sword but before he could strike another blow he fell to the floor writhing in agony and died. Both the sword cuts and the arrow wound are still visible in the painting.
Later, in 1655, Poland was almost entirely overrun by the forces of Sweden's King Charles X. Only the area around the monastery remained unconquered. Somehow, the monks of the monastery successfully defended the portrait against a forty day siege and eventually all of Poland was able to drive out the invaders. After this remarkable turn of events, the Lady of Czestochowa became the symbol of Polish national unity and was crowned Queen of Poland. The King of Poland placed the country under the protection of the Blessed Mother. A more recent legend surrounding the painting involves the threat of a Russian invasion.
In 1920, the Russian army was seen massing on the banks of the Vistula river, threatening Warsaw, when an image of the Virgin was seen in the clouds over the city. The Russian troops withdrew on seeing the image. There have been reports for centuries of miraculous events such as spontaneous healings occurring to those who made a pilgrimage to the portrait. It is known as the 'Black Madonna" because of the soot residue that discolors the painting. The soot is the result of centuries of votive lights and candles burning in front of the painting. With the decline of communism in Poland, pilgrimages to the Black Madonna have increased dramatically.
The Story of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
In the year 1241, the Baron de Grey of England was returning from the Crusades in Palestine: he brought back with him a group of religious from the holy mountain of Carmel. Upon arrival, the baron generously presented the monks with a manor house in the town of Ayesford. Ten years later, in that very place, there occurred the now famous apparition of Our Lady to Saint Simon Stock, the Prior General of the Carmelite Order. St. Simon had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In the apparition, Mary gave him a gift from heaven: the scapular to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. As the Holy Virgin handed St. Simon the Scapular, She spoke these words: “Receive this Scapular as a sign of my sodality, and of the privilege which I have obtained for you and for all who shall be devoutly vested with the scapular. They will escape the eternal flames of hell. It is a sign of salvation, a preservative against dangers, and the pledge of a special peace  and protection till the end of time.” The Blessed Virgin Mary promised St. Simon Stock that those who wear the scapular faithfully, live good lives, and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as their spiritual mother, will be delivered from the pains of purgatory on the first Saturday after their death, which is known as the Sabbatine Privilege.
This stain-glass window of Our Lady of Mount Carmel serves as a living reminder to us of her presence in the Marianas. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patroness for the village of Agat in which the church was dedicated in her name on September 1937. The Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Malojloj serves as a living reminder of the promises made by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Simon Stock.
On November 8, 1984, the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa was created. Two months later, on January 13, 1985, Monsignor Thomas Camacho was ordained and installed as its first Bishop. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church became its cathedral and patroness of the diocese.
The Story of Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament
The phrase "Communion of Saints", which we profess in the Creed, is our participation in the life of the Holy Trinity with all those who believe in Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ holds all who believe in Him, in His love. We are one with Christ and, therefore, one with our brothers and sisters in Christ in this world, in Purgatory, and in Heaven.
At Mass the "Communion of Saints" is realized and fulfilled in this world. At every Mass the Kingdom of God is revealed. In the words of the Roman Canon we pray, "Bid your angel to take this sacrifice to your altar on high, that we, receiving from this altar may receive the body and blood of your Son..." Space and time are overcome and we are present before the "Lamb that was once slain and lives forever".
 Next to Holy Communion with our Lord at Mass we are in communion with His Mother and ours, the Blessed Virgin Mary. At Calvary's cross our Lord gave us to Mary to be Her children and gave Mary to us to be our Mother. At Calvary's cross our Blessed Mother offered Her pain and suffering with His for our salvation. The sword that pierced His Sacred Heart pierced Her Immaculate Heart as well. In Her Assumption, Body and Soul into heaven, Our Lady continues to stand next to the "Lamb that was slain and lives forever" to offer Her suffering and sorrows with Her Son for us. As she shared Christ's pain and suffering, she shares ours, if we give them to Him through Her.
At every Mass our Mother and Queen is present united to Her Son and united to us, Her children. The intimacy of our union with Him through Her is understood when we contemplate that His Body and Blood come from Her and Her spouse, the Holy Spirit. When next at Mass pray to the Holy Spirit to open your eyes of faith to the Kingdom of God revealed in our communion with the Saints.
Then we can begin to understand our Blessed Mother's title: Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The Story of Our Lady of Lourdes
This stained glass window commemorates one of the most famous apparitions of our Lady that have been approved by the Church as authentic.
On February 11, 1858, a fourteen year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a strange vision while gathering firewood with a sister and a friend at Massabielle. It was in a rocky area at the foot of the Pyrenees, south of France, where her hometown of Lourdes was located. In the course of about eighteen apparitions, the Lady gave Bernadette two public messages; the first was an urgent call to PENANCE, and the second was to ask the ecclesiastical authorities to build a chapel at the site of her appearance. The skeptical parish priest, Abbe Permaile, finally believed Bernadette when after asking about her identity many times, the Lady finally told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” a name that meant nothing to the village girl. A spring of water was also uncovered which proved miraculous after which an incredible resurgence of faith became evident in the community.
 In 1862, after exhaustive investigations, the Bishop of Tarbes declared the apparition authentic and soon a huge church, now a sprawling basilica that draws millions of pilgrims annually, was dedicated on the apparition site.
Bernadette became a nun, a Sister of Charity and died in 1877 after a relatively short life marked with more than her fair share of challenges brought on by this singular experience. In 1926, she was declared a SAINT. The devotion to our Lady of Lourdes on Guam is evident not only with the parish of Yigo having her as the titular patroness, but also with the “grottoes” replicated in many private homes and gardens. This stained-glass window attempts to capture the drama of that first apparition.
Artistic license was taken though in depicting the Lady’s Rosary Beads as brown instead of white and the roses on her feet as red instead of golden. The grotto or cave is simply represented by the rocky ledge with the lady standing close to the miraculous brook flowing between the lady and Bernadette. The halo of stars around the lady’s head, which was not part of the apparition, is simply the artist’s way of designating Mary throughout the window scheme - based on Saint John’s vision as recounted in the Book of Revelations. Similarly, the “ribbon” of clouds/mist can be seen in all the windows as a “mystical cord” that binds or unifies the scenes and themes depicted in the different window.
The Story of Our Lady of Fatima
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared six times to three shepherd children ("the Three Seers") near the town of Fatima, Portugal between May 13th and October 13th 1917. Appearing to the children, the Blessed Virgin told them that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century. Coming at a time when civilization was torn asunder by war and bloody violence, she promised that Heaven would grant peace to the entire world if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed.
The Catholic Church has officially endorsed the Fatima Message "as worthy of belief" since 1930. Five successive popes have publicly indicated their approval and belief in the validity and critical importance of the Fatima apparitions. Several popes have visited Fatima on solemn pilgrimage and Pope John Paul II has gone at least once in every decade of his pontificate. His Holiness has publicly credited Our Lady of Fatima for saving his life during an assassination attempt in 1981 (which, parenthetically, took place on the 64th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition).
The following year, while in Fatima to give thanks for Her intervention, the Pope stated that "the message of Fatima is more relevant and more urgent" today than even when Our Lady first appeared. The heart of Our Lady's Message to the world is contained in what has come to be called the "Secret" which She confided to the three child seers in July 1917. The Secret actually consists of three parts, the first two of which have been publicly revealed. The first part of the Secret was a horrifying vision of hell "where the souls of poor sinners go" and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The second part of the Secret specifically prophesized the outbreak of World War II and contained the Mother of God's solemn request for the Consecration of Russia as a condition of world peace. It also predicted the inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following Russia's consecration and the conversion "of that poor nation" to the Catholic Faith.
The last part of the Secret (often called the "Third Secret") has not yet been made public, but was written down by Lucy Dos Santos, the last living Fatima seer, in 1944 and has been in the possession of the Holy See since 1957. Most informed sources speculate that this portion of the Secret concerns chaos in the Catholic Church, predicting widespread apostasy and a loss of faith beginning in the sixth decade of the 20th century.
In the years since the Queen of Heaven's appearances at Fatima, innumerable books, pamphlets, recordings, films and video programs have been produced as part of a growing worldwide movement of faith and devotion. Many theologians believe that Our Lady's Message is uniquely designed for the difficult and trying times in which we live today and suggest that it is Heaven's intervention to save the world from war, hunger and need, the Catholic Church from apostasy and chaos and the souls of countless millions from eternal damnation. While stern in its warning of the terrible punishments for sin and disobedience, Fatima remains fundamentally a life-affirming and faith-building message of hope and peace for all Catholics and others of good will everywhere.
This information was taken from http://www.fatima.org
The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 9th, 1531, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Juan Diego, a recent convert to the Catholic faith, was walking to attend the early morning Mass in Mexico City. Passing by Tepeyac Hill he heard the beautiful singing of birds, seemingly from heaven. Looking to see where the celestial music was coming from, he suddenly heard a young woman's voice affectionately calling his name, "Juanito." Reaching the top of the hill, he saw a radiant woman clothed in splendid light - the Ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God. She told Juan that she desired him to be her special messenger to the Bishop of Mexico City. Juan was to tell the bishop that Our Lady wanted a church to be built where she could manifest her Son and hear the petitions of her spiritual children. After being put off by the bishop's servants, Juan was finally granted an audience with Franciscan Bishop Fray Juan Zumarraga. The bishop didn't initially believe Juan Diego and asked him to return another day. Secretly, the bishop had been invoking the intercession of the Mother of God for help.
The Spaniards had recently conquered the native Aztec people and were treating them harshly. Very few were willing to abandon their pagan gods and embrace the religion of their new dictators. All of this weighed heavy on the heart of Bishop Zumarraga, whom history now knows as the "Protector of the Native People." He wondered if Juan Diego's story was the answer to his prayers.
Dejected, Juan returned to Tepeyac and asked Our Lady to use someone else more worthy than himself. She assured him that he was personally chosen to be her ambassador. The next day he returned to plead with the bishop. Though impressed by Juan's persistence, he was still unsure. He sent Juan to tell the Lady he needed a sign in order to know if it was truly her. Upon hearing the bishop's request, Our Lady told Juan to return the next day and she would give him the sign he needed. Returning home, Juan found his uncle ill and close to death. Instead of returning the next day, Juan stayed home and took care of his ailing uncle.
Early on December 12th, Juan rushed to Mexico City in order to get a priest to administer the last rites to his dying uncle. On his way he went around the back of Tepeyac Hill in order to avoid Our Lady whom he knew would surely understand. But Our Lady meet him anyway telling him not to worry, his uncle was already healed. He was to learn later that at that moment Our Lady had appeared to his uncle, who was restored to health. She urged Juan to go to the top of the hill were he would find flowers miraculously growing. Juan was astonished to see so many vibrant flowers during the frosty time of the year. He cut them and gathered them in his tilma (cloak). Our Lady arranged the flowers with her own hands, rolled up the tilma and ordered Juan not to unfurl his tilma until he was in the presence of the bishop. After being harassed by the bishop's servants, Juan was finally brought in to see him. After recounting every detail of his conversation with Our Lady, he let down his tilma and the flowers fell to the floor. Juan was surprised when everyone in the room also fell to the floor on their knees. The image of Our Lady had miraculously appeared on Juan's tilma! Repenting for his unbelief with abundant tears, Bishop Juan Zumarraga promised to build the shrine that Our Lady had requested.
This stain-glass window of Our Lady of Guadalupe, serves as living reminder of the relationship that Guam shared with Mexico during the period in history when the Spanish galleons sailed through Guam and the Philippines.
Our Lady of Mercy
“A reflection by: Sr. Marian Therese Arroyo, RSM”.
A rendering of Mary as Our Lady of Mercy is that of her son Jesus carrying the world in his small hand as he sits on his mother’s lap. Here Mary, Queen of heaven and earth, brings Christ to the world as she herself understood her vocation as mother and the bearer of the Incarnate Word, the “Word made flesh.” We could assume Jesus, the God-Man, was once a child who learned “the basics of life” from his Jewish mother as every child learned within the cultural setting of the time. Mary and Joseph were his models; their role was to teach him and certainly to learn from him. 
Most specifically, Mary showed him how to be hospitable and compassionate, to be thoughtful and respectful, to be kind and merciful. Mary was indeed “in synch” with all that was good, with all that came from the Father and brought to life the Lord’s desire for justice and peace. When we reflect on and practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, we see how the following statement is a significant one in the life of Mary and her son Jesus: “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.” The Corporal Works of Mercy: Feed the hungry. Cloth the naked. Care for the sick. Visit the imprisoned. Bury the dead. The Spiritual Works of Mercy Comfort the sorrowful. Offer counsel. Admonish the sinner.
On November 5, 1946, the first Sisters of Mercy came to Guam to establish a community of women religious whose charism of gift to the Church is to serve the poor, sick and ignorant. Today, the Sisters of Mercy throughout the world continue to be animated by their foundress Catherine McAuley of Dublin, Ireland, and by the Gospels of Jesus Christ. Catherine’s compassionate love for the poor and unfortunate is rooted in the ordinary example of Mary who modeled the mercy of God in extra-ordinary ways. May the rendering of Our Lady of Mercy inspire us to reach out to those in need and to bring to life the boundless love and compassionate mercy of God in our midst. (2001)
Our Lady of the Rosary
By John O’Connell
According to tradition, Our Lady gave the Most Holy Rosary to St. Dominic (1170-121) to combat the errors of the Albigensians in southern France. Albigensianism, a form of the Manichaean heresy, asserted that a good Deity created the spiritual world and an evil Deity created the material world. Albigenians opposed marriage and favored suicide. The heresy proved especially difficult to extirpate until St. Dominic’s holy preaching and promotion of the Rosary prevailed. The Dominicans have down through the centuries been great promoters of Our Lady’s Rosary.
In 1571 a huge Moslem fleet menaced Christendom. Don Juan of Austria led an outnumbered Christian fleet to fight the Moslem navy. Pope St. Pius V, a Dominican, entrusted the Christian fleet to Our Lady. In October of 1571, Don Juan and the Christian fleet won a decisive battle in the Bay of Lepanto as they destroyed almost the entire fleet of their enemies. Pope St. Pius established October 7 as a feast day of Our Lady of Victory in honor of the Blessed Virgin’s assistance in securing the victory and the safety of Christendom.
Two years later Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast day to Our Lady of the Rosary because it was through the praying of the Rosary that the battle had been won. And October became the month of the Most Holy Rosary in the Church’s calendar. Pope Leo XIII added the invocation “Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us” to the Litany of Loreto. Numerous popes and saints have acclaimed the efficacy of the Rosary. It is indeed a most powerful spiritual weapon. Pope John XXIII called the Rosary “the Psalter of the poor.” Theologians have called the Rosary “the school of contemplation” because it introduces the faithful to meditative prayer. The Rosary combines the recitation of the most profound of vocal prayers—the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Apostles’ Creed with meditation upon fifteen mysteries from the lives of Jesus and Mary. A rosary itself is a sacramental that has a Crucifix attached to it. By now the Rosary has become a sign of devotion to the Blessed Mother and symbol of Catholicism. Our Lady in her apparitions (those approved by the Church) has over and over again urged Christians to pray the Rosary.
At Fatima, the Holy Virgin chose to identify herself to the children as the Lady of the Rosary. Today the Church finds herself engaged in many, many battles—with the fiercest ones taking place within her fold. Now is the time that Christians need recourse to Our Lady of the Rosary. Now is the time for the devout recitation of the Rosary to win spiritual victories for the Church and souls.
|
