St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
6020 W. Ardmore Avenue
Chicago, IL 60646
773-763-8228

Epistle Side Windows

About Our Stained Glass Windows

Sanctuary Windows on the Right or East Side

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The Sanctuary windows on the Left or East Side are symbolic of the Blessed Sacrament

  1. The top window shows a Pelican feeding its young with its own blood. Christ is the Divine Pelican Who gave His Blood to win Divine Life for us, and Who in Holy Communion feeds us with His Sacred Body and Blood.
  1. The second window from the top pictures two clusters of Grapes and stalks of Wheat. The bread and wine which Christ changes into His Sacred Body and Blood come from grapes and wheat. Consequently they have been regarded as fitting symbols of the Holy Eucharist.
  1. The Basket of Bread and the Fish also refer to the Eucharistic Christ. The figure of a fish was used from the earliest times to represent our Lord. For the letters in the Greek word for Fish stood for “Jesus, Son of God, Saviour.” The five loaves in the basket refer to the multiplication of the loaves which foreshadowed the promise of the Blessed Sacrement.
  1. The golden Monstrance on the fourth window is the sacred vessel used at Benediction for the Veneration of our Eucharistic Saviour. The letters at the left and right on the Monstrance are the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet – the Alpha and Omega. They remind us that Christ is God, the Beginning and End of all things.
  1. Christ is “the Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world.” He is the Lamb that was slain for our salvation. In this fifth window Christ the Lamb of God is shown with His Head upon a cross. His precious Blood flows from His Side into a chalice in the window below. The chalice represents the Mass, and His pierced Side the wound from which flows the Blood of salvation.
  1. Holy Communion is the source of our growth in Divine Life and union with Christ. And so the Eucharist is considered a fountain of life to which we must go to quench our spiritual thirst. The birds drinking at the fountain represent the Christian drinking Divine Life from the fount of the Most Holy Eucharist.