Stained Glass Windows
“For me, a stained glass window is a transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world.”
For centuries, stained glass windows have been synonymous with sacred places. They are ornate creations of color and light. Stained glass windows are created by craftsmen for cathedrals and chapels to transform sunlight into a “divine light,” inspiring reverence and worship, contemplation and compassion.
Stained glass provided the masses access to the stories of Scripture. Before literacy was common, stained glass windows communicated stories of the life of Jesus and the saints through illuminated images. They were theology made visible. Their light invited parishioners to gaze upward, reflect inward, and move outward to the world around them.
The beauty of stained glass provides a communal experience. The illuminated images quietly communicate to both young and old. The stories may be more familiar to some, but the experience of a sanctuary filled with beams of color is shared by all who enter. There is inherent equity to their beauty.
There is a timeless brilliance to this ancient form of visual media. Each window was created not only for the immediacy of a moment, but as a patient gift to future generations. These brilliant works of art that required dedication of years to create have consistently communicated their stories over the centuries. This multi-generational dimension of stained glass windows is a reminder of those who have gone before us and who will come after us.
Stained glass windows offer their enduring message in an age of disposable media. While stained glass windows have been replaced by projectors and screens in many places of worship, there is an undeniable difference in the experience of gazing on intricate colors of glass than flickering pixels on a screen. Although stained glass windows are fixed and unchanging, the morning light through them softens the colors and extends calmness and quiet, while afternoon golden sun ignites an array of color beams in brilliance and praise. There is something mystical to stained glass in the permanence of their form and the never-again nature to the light that passes through them.
In Denver, there are awe inspiring examples of stained glass in several cathedrals, including Saint John’s, Trinity United, and Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. But equally inspiring are countless churches across the city with windows artfully crafted with images of color and light. A sanctuary filled with ornate stained glass windows or a small chapel with a single illuminated image both provide an opportunity to gaze upward, inward, and outward.
Stained glass windows are a juxtaposition of quiet stillness and brilliance of light. They communicate through illuminated color from one generation to the next, this is a sacred place.
