A Tour of the Church
St. Mary of Redford Church is Mary's home on the West side of Detroit. A cursory glance around the church will tell you that. Everywhere you look, symbols and images of Mary appear. We hold her as our queen and trust her to lead us to Jesus, our King.
Before beginning the tour, let us begin with a prayer to Our Lady of Redford, whose home you are about to explore.
Let us Pray,
Remember, Our Lady of Redford, that before you reigned in heaven, you were a peasant girl on earth. To this day you are known to leave your heavenly palace and walk among the poor and broken here below. Therefore, we ask you to come and be with us. Come and care for your poor children. O Gracious Mother, carry our needs back with you to the throne of your Son, Jesus. We know that He will not refuse you, His Mother, and our Queen. Our Lady of Redford, we confidently entrust our cause to your intercession. Amen.
The Rosary Windows
Immediately on entering the nave, you'll five large stained glass windows to the right. At first you might pick up that they depict scenes from the life of Our Lord. If you pay attention to the order of the windows, you'll begin to notice a pattern. Each window has three panes. The bottom panes are all from the early part of the life of Christ, the middle are all from His passion, and the top are all from His resurrection on. These windows depict the mysteries of the rosary.
Tradition holds that the rosary was given by Our Lady to St. Dominic and since then it has been a powerful and very popular prayer among Christians worldwide. The rosary consists of sets of ten Hail Mary's that are prayed while reflecting on some mystery of the life of Christ. Through this prayer, Mary takes us by the hand and introduces us to her Son. We get to see the life of Christ through her eyes and with her guidance.
The windows in this church allow you to pray the rosary in much the way you might pray the stations of the cross. As you pray over the mysteries, you can reflect over their depiction in the stained glass.
Mary Star of the Sea
To the left, as you enter the nave, you will see four round windows depicting different titles of Our Lady. In order, they are Mary Star of the Sea, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Our Lady of Loreto.
The Altar
Our altar is one of the most beautiful pieces of art in the church. Originally it was located where our high altar now stands and in the early 2000's was brought to its current location. On the front center of the altar, you can see the depiction of a lamb laying on top of a book with seven seals. This recalls St. John's vision of Jesus as the lamb of God, who alone is worthy to open the book of the seven seals.
Why this image of Jesus as a lamb? In the book of Exodus, God commanded the Israelite’s to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and paint its blood on their doorposts. When the angel of death went through Egypt striking down all the first born sons, he would see the blood on their doors and pass over them. So too, Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for sin on the cross. He was unblemished by sin, the perfect offering. When judgment comes, all those marked by His blood will be passed over and saved.
Prefiguring the Sacrifice of Christ
Ascending the altar steps and approaching the high altar, you begin to see clear four windows surrounding the altar that depict scenes of sacrifice in the Old Testament. When the priest offers Mass at the high altar, he can see all these images and it reminds him that he is offering the unbloody sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
The first window depicts the first sacrifice ever made: that of Cain and Abel. The next window depicts Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. This scene is a special prefigurement of Jesus' sacrifice. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only, just as He would one day sacrifice His only Son, Jesus. Isaac is made to carry the wood for the sacrifice, just as Jesus would have to carry the wood of the cross for His sacrifice years later.
On the right side, the window to the left depicts the sacrifice of Melchizedek. Jesus is our high priest, but was not a Levitical priest. By contrast, Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, in fulfillment of the psalm ("You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.) In the book of Genesis, Melchizedek was king of Salem. He famously offered a sacrifice of bread and wine to Abraham's God. When Jesus offered His sacrifice at the Last Supper, He also offered a sacrifice of bread and wine which would become His body and blood. We offer that same sacrifice at every Mass.
The last window depicts the Passover sacrifice of the unblemished lamb. The connection between the lamb whose blood warded off the angel of death of Jesus the lamb of God whose blood saves us has already been discussed above.
Our Lady of Sorrows Altar
To the left of the main altar is the Mary altar. The four panels of the altar depict Mary's presentation in the temple, the annunciation, the nativity and her assumption into heaven. The statues at the bottom depict the prophets who spoke of Our Lady: St. John the Baptist, Isaiah, Malachi and Micah. At the top are St. Ann, St. Joachim, St. Elizabeth, and Zechariah.
The Seven Sorrows of Mary
Flanking the Mary altar on either side are six stained glass windows depicting the seven sorrows of Mary. On the right side, they are the prophecy of Simeon ("Your heart shall be pierced as with a sword"), the flight from Herod's persecution into Egypt, and the loss of the child Jesus in the Temple. On the left is Mary's meeting Jesus on the road to Calvary, Jesus being taken down from the cross (depicted in the Pieta) and Jesus' burial. The seventh sorrow is Jesus' crucifixion which is depicted in the statue of the Mary altar, showing Mary in the pose of the stabat mater, standing by Jesus at the foot of the cross.
Why the focus on the sorrowful mysteries? One reason is that they show us Mary's great faith and great love. In Mary's annunciation, she said "Fiat," "Let it be done to me as you have said." She said yes to God's call without any reservations or conditions. That alone shows her deep trust in God and her deep love of God. We only realize how deep that faith and love go when we see what it cost. Simeon tells Mary when Jesus is just an infant that her heart "will be pierced as with a sword." She get some taste of this when she has to flee with the child and Joseph into Egypt to save Jesus' life. But it costs her most when Jesus leaves for His ministry to ultimately go to Calvary. She loves Him more than anyone ever could and it breaks her heart in unspeakable ways to know that that is where He is going. But she allows it, because of her deep faith, her total yes to God, and her deep love for God and for souls no matter the cost. Such deep love and faith are worthy of our admiration and imitation.
Our Lady of Redford
The statue in the central apse of the church is popularly known as Our Lady of Redford. Notice that she is depicted as both mother and queen. She is holding the Christ child, our king, in her arms. It is because she is the mother of our king, that she is queen.
What is important for this parish is that Mary is our queen. Our parish is dedicated to her, which means we have a special line to the king through His mother. When our parishioners and neighbors need prayers, they are under Mary's care in a special way. In the heavenly court, she has the ear of Jesus in a way that no other saint does, and so we feel very blessed to be able to claim her as our patron.
Assumption of Mary into Heaven
The windows surrounding Our Lady of Redford depict her early life on the right side (the presentation in the Temple, Mary being taught to read by St. Ann and St. Joachim, and the immaculate conception) and her later life on the left (the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption, and the Coronation.)
The window depicting the assumption is particularly striking. Some depictions simply show Mary being carried body and soul into heaven, but this window shows Jesus coming out to meet her. Imagine what went through the hearts of Jesus and Mary when He ascended into heaven. It's not that He was leaving her completely: He would still come to her in the flesh every time St. John offered Mass for her. Nevertheless, He would come in a poor, humble disguise, in the appearance of bread. For the rest of her life, Mary longed for the day when she would again see her son face to face and Jesus longed for the day when He would be fully reunited with His mother in heaven. And so we can only imagine the tearful embrace as the mother and son who loved each other so much are finally reunited at her Assumption.
St. Joseph Altar
The vast majority of art in the church is dedicated to Mary, but St. Joseph does have an altar to the right of the main altar. The altar has two panels depicting the flight into Egypt and the death of Joseph. The life of Joseph cannot be separated from the life of Mary. His vocation was to be her husband, and the foster father and guardian of Jesus, her son. For many of the big events, Joseph was in the background. He was not at the annunciation, but it was his job to protect Mary from attack in the wake of it. He was not there for Jesus' public ministry: his role was in Jesus' childhood when Jesus was still relatively unknown.
But Joseph's life was a very blessed one. It wasn't lived in the limelight, but it was a life lived with Jesus and Mary. This was finally rewarded when Joseph became the first man to die with Jesus and Mary at his side. This is the hope of every Catholic, to die and be guided to heaven by Jesus and Mary themselves. For this reason St. Joseph is patron of the dying.
St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church
The six windows on either side of the Joseph altar depict on the left the betrothal of Mary and Joseph, the nativity, and the finding in the temple and on the right childhood of Jesus, the death of Joseph, and Joseph patron of the universal Church.
The Sacred Heart Chapel
The Sacred Heart Chapel was donated by Msgr. Cook (who built the church) in honor of his parents. The central statue shows Jesus pointing to His heart, on fire with love for us. His hands are wounded, showing that He loved us enough to sacrifice Himself for us. The panels surrounding the statue all depict healing miracles. The sunburst at the top with the IHS is a symbol for the Holy Name of Jesus (IHS being the first three letters of Jesus' name in Greek.) On the right of the chapel is a former confessional which has been converted into a reliquary. The relics we currently have at St. Mary of Redford include St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Francis Xavier, Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the True Cross, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Bl. Marie Catherine of St. Augustin, St. Therese of Liseiuex, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Pope John Paul II. At the back of the chapel is a depiction of Jesus the good shepherd, His heart on fire with love, carrying one of His lost sheep.
Jesus Reveals His Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
In the 17th century, Jesus appeared St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (depicted at left) and revealed His heart to her. According to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus' heart was a furnace of love. It was on fire, blazing light. The love of His heart was so intense that it burned itself up and would even choose to suffer and sacrifice itself for love of us. Because Jesus loves us so much, what saddens Him most is not that we crucify Him with our sins, but that we do not receive or return His love. He has given all for us, even waiting for hours on end for us in the tabernacle, and there are many souls who do not receive His love or reciprocate it. Hence the call to make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to love Him for all those who do not love Him, to return His love and love Him as He has loved us.
Stations of the Cross
According to tradition, the stations of the cross were started by Mary, who used to retrace the footsteps of Jesus on His way to Calvary every day. By meditating on the way of the cross, we enter into the sufferings of Jesus and see in a clearer way how much He loves even while we crucified Him with our sins.
"Crucify him!" Who? And for whom? Jesus, most innocent, for me, a sinner. Oh, what a cruel sentence, a sentence of death without mercy. My most amiable Jesus, you wish to die for me. And I, with my sins, am that witness who accuses you, that judge who condemns you. How ungrateful I have been! You have given me life, and I deliver you to death. I repent of my sins. I despise them. I detest them. And since you have not punished me by making me die on the cross, grant me at least the courage to accompany you in sorrow to Calvary. - St. Leonard of Port Maurice, meditation on the First Station
Mary Our Queen
In the Litany of Loreto (the litany in honor of Mary), there is a series of prayers that invoke Mary as queen. In this great rose window she is shown as
Queen of conceived without original sin
Queen of Virgins (depicted with Cecilia and Catherine of Alexandria)
Queen of Prophets (depicted with Isaiah and an unknown prophet)
Queen of Confessors (depicted with St. Gregory the Great and St. Ambrose)
Queen of Angels (depicted with the Archangels Gabriel and Michael)
Queen of martyrs (depicted with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence)
Queen of Apostles (depicted with St. Peter and St. Paul)
Queen of Patriarchs (depicted with Moses and Noah)
Queen of All Saints (depicted with St. Louis, St. Clare, St. Francis, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary)
Blessed Virgin Mary Crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth
The Clerestory Windows
If you look towards the ceiling, you will find a series of windows with various symbols. Some of these are symbols of Mary, others of Jesus, and others of other religious themes. The symbols depicted are
the woman clothed with the sun
cedar tree
a western-style church
a ciborium
the branch of Jesse
the Fleur-de-Lis
Lily of the Valley
a Baptistery
the fount of living water
the mystical rose
a crown
an eastern church
the Ark of the Covenant
the Immaculate Heart of Mary
the papal throne
the olive branch
The Barque of Peter
The ceiling of the church is in the form of an upside ship. This represents St. Peter's barque (or boat) which symbolizes the Church. When Peter drew in thousands of fish into his boat, Jesus told him to follow him and become a fisher of men. Just as Peter brought fish into his boat, so too would he spend his life bringing souls into the Church. The image of a ship as a symbol of the Church is also prefigured by Noah's ark. When God judged the world, only those in Noah's ark were saved. So too, when the final judgment comes, it is those who have taken refuge in the Church who will be saved.
For a full meditation on the Church as the barque of Peter, click here
The Baptistry
In the back left of the church is our baptistery. The two stained glass windows depict the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan and the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, depicting His victory over sin and death. The ceiling is painted with various symbols. The font itself originally had a pipe that drained the holy water and chrism used in baptism directly into the ground. The door beyond the baptismal font leads to a bridal room where brides to be could get ready before their wedding.
The Sister’s Chapel is the former convent chapel. The chapel had its own sacristy (which is now the music library) and was set up so that the sisters could enter the chapel from the convent (through the double doors in the back) and the priest could come in to say Mass from the church without ever having to pass through the convent. There is also a small confessional where a priest could hear the sisters' confessions.
The two most notable architectural features of the chapel are the stained glass window of the immaculate heart of Mary and the stenciling work on the ceiling. The Immaculate Heart of Mary is always depicted with a wreathe of flowers (symbolizing her, unstained heart), on fire with love, and pierced with a sword in accord with the prophecy of Simeon.
The Sister’s Chapel is currently under construction - and we pray for it to be transformed into an Adoration Chapel. (If you’d like to support this project, please click on the ‘donate’ button on the home page and note ‘‘adoration chapel’ in the comments section.)