Notre Dame de Lourdes, Skowhegan
The Story of Our Windows
CHRISTUS REX
Dedicated to “Christ the King”, this beautiful window reminds us of our Christian faith – that we are all one in Christ – one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord and Savior of the world – one who has been initiated into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the rite of Christian Baptism – one who lives in accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The window also calls to mind the great Feast of Christ the King established by Pope Pius XI in 1925. It is celebrated on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, that is, the Sunday before Advent. Its object is to reassert the authority of Our Lord to rule over our hearts and wills, as well as over whole nations; and of His Church to teach all peoples and bring mankind to salvation in the Kingdom of Christ. Christ is King by reason of His Sonship of God; and right, as all peoples’ Redeemer.
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO
This exquisite window reminds us of the Nativity. There are only three birthdays celebrated in the Church. They are the births of Our Lord (Dec. 25), the birthday of Our Lady (Sept. 25), and that of St. John the Baptist (June 24). The Feast of the Nativity, Christmas Day, Dec. 25 is the celebration of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a cave in Bethlehem. The exact day of the birth of Christ is unknown. In the earliest days of the Church, the birth of Christ was commemorated with the Epiphany. The Latin Church began to observe the feast on Dec. 25, about the year 300. The feast is a Holy Day of Obligation. Priests are allowed to celebrate three Masses on this day.
JESUS NAZARENUS REX JUDAEORUM
This window reminds us that Jesus was a native of Nazareth and was called a Nazarene. It depicts the Crucifixion, the infliction of the death penalty by means of nailing or binding the victim to or impaling him on a cross. It was a mode of capital punishment employed in the Roman Empire, and of course, the method by which our Dear Lord Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross at Calvary.
Think of the seven utterances of Christ as He hung on the cross. They are recorded in the Gospels and are a frequent subject of Lenten preaching. They are:
1. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
2. “Amen, amen, I say to you, this day you shall be with me in Paradise.”
3. “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.”
4. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
5. “I thirst.”
6. “It is finished.”
7. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA
This glorious window depicts the great Feast of Easter, the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is the most important liturgical feast in the Calendar year. Easter commemorates Christ’s triumph over death and proof of His divinity, as St. Paul said in his Epistles.
VENI, SANCTI SPIRITUS
The Third Glorious Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary is represented in this artistic presentation of the “Descent of the Holy Spirit.” The descent of the Holy Spirit under the form of tongues of fire, in the fulfilment of Christ’s promise, is a major Christian feast celebrated fifty days after Easter and is called Pentecost. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles is called to mind in this window as the beginning of the mission and the birthday of the Church to reach out and offer salvation to all mankind. It is one of the truly great feasts of the year, honoring the third Person of the Trinity, and thanking Him for His grace, which remits sin, makes afficacious the sacraments, bestows supernatural life upon all the children of God who answer the promptings of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
SAINT BERNADETTE
This window in honor of Saint Bernadette - the 14-year old girl from Lourdes who was granted 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858, at the nearby grotto of Massabielle. This church is named for Our Lady’s visitations to Lourdes- NOTRE DAME DE LOURDES (Our Lady of Lourdes). While a crowd of people watched, Bernadette, at the bidding of the vision, dug into the floor of the cave with her fingers, whereupon a trickle of water started, grew to a torrent and now pours out 27 thousand gallons a day. As many as 3 million pilgrims visit Lourdes every year, some of them from this parish; Bernadette entered the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she died in 1879. She was canonized in 1933. The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is on February 11. It is also the Feast Day of this Parish.
SAINT PIUS X
This window in honor of Pius X, Pope and Saint (1835-1914), who initiated far-reaching changes affecting the liturgy, Eucharistic worship, religious instruction and canon law. St. Pius X did more than any other single pope to promote early First Communion and the practice of Frequent Communion, started the research behind a revised breviary, and appointed a group to investigate possible revisions in the Holy Mass. St. Pius X was canonized on May 29, 1954.
SEBASTIAN RASLE, S.J. NARANTSOUAC 1693-1724
Recalling local history, this window is in memory of one of the earliest missionaries to this area, Father Sebastian Rasle, who, about 1695, came down from Quebec to take charge of the mission to the Norridgewock Indians.
In his years of ministry he came to know well the channels and trials across what is now Skowhegan. Twice each summer he went to the coast with his flock, carrying with him all things needed for the creation of a temporary chapel and the celebration of the Holy Mass, for which he used, as he wrote in a letter, bayberries melted down and molded into candles. On August 23 of 1724, Father Rasle was slain at the door of his church during the attack of Narantsouac (Norridgewock). When the troops started the next morning on their return journey they left the village in flames and heaped with its dead; and it is said that a bundle of Indian scalps, together with that of Father Rasle, were carried back to Boston.
GABRIEL DRUILLETTES, S.J. KENNEBEC 1646-1654
Again, recalling more local history of the early missionaries to this area, this window is also dedicated to the memory of one of the very earliest, Father Gabriel Druillettes, who in 1646 came from Sillery, a Jesuit mission to the Indians, situated a few miles from Quebec, in response to the invitation of the Abnaki Indians of Kennebec, who had learned of his religion from visitors of their own race from Sillery. He established a mission in the village of Narantsouac, the home of the Norridgewock Indians, at a spot that has generally been called Old Point and that is now in the town of Madison.
This was the most important Abnaki village on the Kennebec, but there were settlements and places of encampment farther down the river. A few miles from Cushnoc, now Augusta, there was an Abnaki burying ground and encampment, and some solemn assemblies were held there by the Indians twice a year. His last known visit to the Abnakis of Maine was in 1656 when he is said to have stayed several months at Narantsouac. Father Druillettes travelled the Kennebec as far as the sea visiting Indian settlements on the coast and on the lower river.
PERE CAPUCINS PANTAGOET 1635- 1654
This window recalls the missionary’s life in Maine during the colonial period as one which was never dull. One never knew whether approaching sail was bringing friend or foe, frequently, it was the latter. Part of Maine, exactly what part was never decided, came under the region known as Acadia, and from 1604, when the first French colony was established, until the final victory, in favour of England in 1763, Acadia was exchanged nine times between the English and the French.
After several hostilities, the treaty of St. Germain (March 29, 1632), restored Acadia to France; Cardinal Richelieu, as Prime Minister, organized both the colonial and missionary policies of New France. To the Capuchins and to the Jesuits was given the task of converting the Indians. Acadia, including Maine as far as the Kennebec, was assigned to the Capuchins. The Capuchins established a mission at Castine (Pentagoet) in 1635, and of their seven permanent missions this was their only one in Maine. The chapel which was built at Pentagoet was the third on New England soil.
PIERRE BIARD, S.J. MOUNT DESERT 1613
Maine is the only New England state with a Catholic history rooted deep in the colonial period; this window, therefore, recalls more of Maine’s rich history in Catholocism. Late in the month of May, 1613, the first French Jesuit mission in North America was hastily founded on Mount Desert. This was not the intended site of the mission and its origins and end were unhappy, but on this beautiful island off the coast of Maine the Catholic faith in New England was cradled.
The history of the planting of the Christian faith in the hearts of the Maine Indians is colourful, violent, and remarkable; it was on Mt. Desert that two Jesuits, Peter Baird and Enemond Masse, came to work among the Indians; their arrival there was quite by accident; a heavy fog engulfed them, the ship strayed and finally had to heave to until the fog lifted. They found themselves off an Island which they named St. Sauveur, but which is known to generations of Americans as Mount Desert, the site of Acadia National Park.
L’ASSOMPTION
This window commemorates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The doctrine which states that the Mother of Christ was “assumed” – taken up – into heaven bodily, by the power of God. It has always been believed in the Church, but it was defined as a dogma by Pope Pius in the year 1950. It has been celebrated as a feast for fifteen hundred years, and is kept on August 15 as a holy day of obligation. Appropriately this window is directly across from the window of Christ the King.