Restoration and Expansion of Sacred Stained Glass In Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth ( Poor Man's Scripture )

As the Anchoress recently talked about Beauty in out Churches and our Worship really should not optional. See her post Why Not Beautiful Churches? UPDATED.


So on that note it's so great to see the move in the Catholic Church to recover and even expand sacred beauty. A critical part of worship. We some very inspiring news out of the Diocese of Fort Worth ( again one of those Dioceses to watch) on this front from two sources One dealing with restoring and keeping this heritage and  another expanding it.
From the North Texas Catholic newspaper a wonderful article St. Mary of the Assumption's newly renovated windows offer more than beauty

....When Fr. Bristow, a history buff and art connoisseur, arrived at St. Mary’s 11 years ago, he saw the cathedral-style stained-glass in the nave, or area extending from the narthex to the altar, cracked and even curving to the outside. So he rallied his parishioners to save the windows that have been a fixture at the parish since 1931.


“It was as if several of them could fall in at any time, and that was the actual warning when the assessment was done,”...

And as you shall read with the aid of an a half million dollars it was done. There is a wonderful photo gallery of the windows at the article.

However this is not the only restoration going on in the Diocese. In fact much more than restoration but addition of sacred Stained Glass is happening in other Church.

Bishop  Vann  of Fort Worth , at  his very nice blog, goes into these activities and the importance of it at his post The Life of Christ in Glass .


He talk about the importance of Stained galls and touches on the story above as well as mentioning some of the historic restoration that has happened elsewhere. Then he says:

...There also have been some recent beautiful additions to stained glass art in our Diocese, which I would certainly recommend to anyone who is in the area to see: 1) The new Holy Redeemer Church in Aledo, Texas [I have already written about this, but want to site it here again]; 2) our most recent beautiful addition to this tradition at St. Joseph Church in Nocona, Texas. [If the name of Nocona is familiar, think of Nocona boots and gloves!] This Church had never had stained glass before, and thanks to leadership of Fr. Richard Collins, St. Joseph's pastor, and the generosity of many of the families, the church now has stunning stained glass windows of various scenes in the life of Christ. This is especially important in a community that is largely evangelical so that the centrality of Christ is not only communicated to the parishioners, but to the entire community as well. Msgr. Steve Berg, Vicar General, and I were present this past Sunday, July 30, for a blessing and dedication of these windows.

 And at his post he has some wonderful pics of those.