May / June 2009   
President's Message  

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Dear Rosary Makers,

What light through yonder window breaks?

No, we are not about to venture into the world of Shakespeare and Romeo & Juliet, rather into the world of windows and glass, not to mention Mary and the Rosary.

The compilation of these words began while approaching St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church a few months ago. A church whose stained glass windows depict the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries and whose eaves echo the Rosary throughout its many years. The thought that took hold as one drew near was that the Rosary, in contemplating its mysteries, is essentially mental stained glass. Perhaps our Aves may one day fittingly resemble the beauty of rose windows of stained glass lore.

In his book, New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton pens a chapter titled The Woman Clothed with the Sun. He writes as follows: “Mary, who was empty of all egotism, free from all sin, was as pure as the glass of a very clean window that has no other function than to admit the light of the sun. If we rejoice in that light, we implicitly praise the cleanness of the window. And of course it might be argued that in such a case we might well forget the window altogether. This is true. And yet the Son of God, in emptying Himself of His majestic power, having become a child, abandoning Himself in complete dependence to the loving care of a human Mother, in a certain sense draws our attention once again to her. The Light has wished to remind us of the window, because He is grateful to her and because He has an infinitely tender and personal love for her. If He asks us to share this love, it is certainly a great grace and a privelege, and one of the most important aspects of this privelege is that it enables us to some extent to appreciate the mystery of God’s great love and respect for His creatures.”

Father Kevin J. Scanlon, C.M. writes the following in Why We Pray the Rosary found in The Magnificat Rosary Companion: “In each mystery we gaze, as through a window, to contemplate with Mary the life and mysteries of her Son. As at all her great shrines, Mary is never concerned to draw her children to herself but to her Son. We recite the Hail Marys and gaze on Jesus who allows us to be with him at each moment from the Annunciation to the crowning of his mother as Queen. The rosary, like the cycle of the liturgical year, follows Jesus from the events of his young life – the Joyful mysteries; through his Passion and death – the Sorrowful mysteries; culminating in his glorious resurrection, Pentecost, and the final glorification of Mary – “a woman clothed in the sun” ( Rv 12:1).

The Holy Rosary in Stained Glass – DVD from EWTN presents the Rosary with windows from various parishes in the Dioceses of Providence, RI and Falls River, MA. As learned in conversation with Archbishop Joseph Kurtz during a visit to OLRM, the clerestory or clearstory windows of St. John Neumann Catholic Church depict the twenty mysteries of the Rosary in stained glass in his former Diocese of Knoxville. These windows are styled after those of St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church mentioned in the opening paragraph. The rosary represents a clear story, whether in stained glass, through a window or through our daily contemplation.

Once again we are reminded of these words of Bishop Fulton Sheen in his commentary Roses and Prayers: “That is what we do when we say the Rosary – we are saying to God, the Trinity, to the Incarnate Savior, to the Blessed Mother: ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’”. What Light through yonder Rosary breaks? Shakespeare should tell such a love story.

Michael A Ford
President