By JORDAN MCMORROUGH
LEXINGTON — A stained-glass window depicting the holy family — Joseph and Mary holding the Christ child — was installed in December above the main entrance at Corpus Christi Church. It was dedicated during the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve by Father Jerome Schwab, pastor.
The window was constructed by Willet Studios of Stained Glass in Philadelphia. The glass, about an inch thick, is hammered into desired patterns. The blows of the hammer result in faceting that produces brilliant hues of red, green, blue, yellow and purple. Light is drawn to the center of the glass.
The image of the Virgin Mary and child Jesus is one of the earliest known icons in the church, known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The image is a copy of an ancient, early-church painting.
In the stained-glass window of the holy family, frightened by the vision of two angels showing him the instruments of his Passion, the Christ child has run to his mother, almost losing in his haste one of his sandals. Mary holds him in her arms.
The new window sits below a larger window, installed when the church was finished in 1995. Made of the same glass material, it is an interpretation of the Old Testament Trinity as Abraham and Sarah are visited by three angels.
The three are seated at a table after Sarah has prepared the food. The Trinity’s symbolism is carried out by a triangle and a triquetra at the top.
The holy family window was donated by Charles and Christa Heacock, while the Trinity window was donated by Barbara and Berry Lux.
In addition to the donations by the Lux and Heacock families, parishioner Jack Homan spent more than a year building all of the furniture in the church, except the pews, out of Honduran mahogany.
Out of initial plans drawn on napkins over dinner, pieces now include chairs, kneelers, tables, stations of the cross, baptismal font, lectern and octagonal candles. Homan labored in a converted garage/workshop, working seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
Other recent improvements at Corpus Christi include brass and wrought-iron altar railings donated by John and Marie Moccaldi and Blessed Virgin and Sacred Heart of Jesus statues from Demetz Studios in Italy donated by John and Helen Rodrigues.