The Good Shepherd

Lifelong Dedication to Psalm 23 Inspires

Sacred Art Restoration in New Chapel

BY MARIA PARRY

Society today is starved for authentic beauty and too often blind to the truth of God’s love. Sadly, many people go their whole lives without encountering beautiful art—especially sacred art—that communicates God’s fidelity and love. Christendom’s new Christ the King Chapel, however, is helping to fill that void. So many in the Christendom community generously gave their time, talent, and treasure to fill the chapel with art that moves the heart and glorifies God. One of those generous souls is known to the college only by her pseudonym, Therese.

Through a sponsorship in the new chapel, Therese helped restore and re-dedicate the college’s Good Shepherd stained-glass window, originally made in 1905. To achieve the rich red color in Christ’s robe, artisans added gold chloride to the glass to ensure a vibrant color that would not fade over time like older glass recipes. This process of making red glass was quite involved and relatively rare in older stained-glass works. Because of this, the now-restored window is truly a work of art most fitting to give honor to the Good Shepherd Himself.

For Therese, there could not have been a more perfect window to pick for her chapel sponsorship. She taught religious education for over 30 years at her parish, impacting many young lives and sharing Christ’s love with them. She had every single child she taught memorize Psalm 23, which begins, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

Therese first learned Psalm 23 from nuns at her parish when she was a girl, and it deeply impacted her. As an adult, when her parish needed a sixth grade CCD teacher, she wanted to pass on what she had learned from this beautiful prayer about God’s love and commitment.

“I continue to believe it is important for young people to understand commitment to the Faith and to know God is the Good Shepherd who will lead us to our eternal home in Heaven,” she explains.

Therese began class each year by bringing up Psalm 23. She discussed with students what the word “commitment” meant. Therese then made a commitment of her own: she would not give her students homework. They, in turn, would respect her and each other in the classroom.

“Then we read and discussed Psalm 23,” Therese adds, “and talked about our commitment to have faith and trust in God, and God’s commitment to us to lead us to Heaven—where we will share eternity with God and all of our ancestors who watch over us here on earth. So we agreed, the one homework assignment for the year was to memorize and recite Psalm 23.”

That assignment stuck with Therese’s students.

A few years ago, she ran into one of her old CCD students, now a graduate from Christendom College. He remembered memorizing Psalm 23 in Therese’s class and told her about how the college intended to have a Good Shepherd window in the new chapel.

“When I asked if he remembered Psalm 23, and he recited it perfectly,” Therese says, “I was impressed both with him and the strength of his faith nourished at Christendom.”

That encounter inspired Therese to generously sponsor the restored Good Shepherd window. Whenever students, faculty, or visitors gaze upon the window, Therese hopes it will remind them of one important thing: “God loves us and will lead us to Heaven.”