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Sursum Corda: Lift up Your Hearts
Sursum Corda: Lift up Your Hearts
Andrew Goltz, O.S.B.
When the north window of our church was made, the language of the Church was Latin—hence the title of this presentation: Sursum Corda or “Lift up Your Hearts,” from the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. It is intended to be descriptive of the whole theme of the window —the theme of worship: the who, the why, the how, and the what of worship. There are lots of misconceptions about the window. We’re going to tear them apart and look at the plan as Bronisław, a.k.a. Bruno, Bąk intended it to be known.
The middle section of the window is built around the theme of worship; the rest of the background refers to the different seasons of the liturgical year, reading from left to right. The most unique hexagon is the center, the circular window. Bruno Bąk thought of it as a modern rendition of the medieval symbol of the Eye of God—the all-seeing Eye of God, the all-knowing, the eternal, the Creator. The white area around it, he said, was heaven; and the floating shapes are the inhabitants of heaven, the angels and saints surrounding the throne of God. This section of the window is quiet, serene, peaceful. (When Mr. Bąk himself explained the details of the window, he would interrupt his dialogue by saying the angels were always going, “Ahhh!”—a sudden intake of breath, as if startled or surprised. And he would do the same at this point!)
The red part is creation, specifically the creation of humankind. The rays coming out from the center are divine grace, the power of God, the sustaining grace of God. (Mr. Bąk repeatedly said, “The divine grace of God comes into human hearts, and they are enkindled with the fire of divine love; they return their worship to the throne.”)
For Christians, the New Testament rests upon the Old Testament—and that’s what the green on each side represents. This is the Old Testament: the foundation of our faith. The tree of life, also known as a tree of good fruit, is represented in the green column on the left. (There are even a few little red fruits on it.) The symbolism comes from the Book of Genesis. On the left is the tree of knowledge of good and evil (which we got tangled up with); and on the right is another symbolic tree from the Old Testament, the Tree of Jesse—the genealogy of Christ descending from the patriarchs, prophets, kings, the house of David.
On this foundation of the Old Testament, we come to the New Testament. We enter the Church through the waters of baptism. We become members of the Mystical Body, the people of God; and the focus of our worship of God is the Mass. The liturgical year is presented: from the left, Advent; then Christmas, and so on.
Advent
The color is much more yellow than many realize—it’s actually a bright golden column. Bruno Bąk talked about this heaviness in downward pressing lines. Advent is a time of waiting. The promise is made; the Messiah will come. It’s a time of Isaiah—all the readings of Advent are filled with hope, anticipation. “Incompleteness” was one of the terms Mr. Bąk often used for this part of the window.
Christmas
But Christmas comes! The Christmas panel depicts the Incarnation, which Mr. Bąk said, “bursts upon creation like exploding stars.” So he made a panel full of exploding stars! They go all the way to the ceiling of the church. Christmas is a joyous time, a festive time.
Lent
Next we come to Lent —the purple column. It’s not intended to be tied to the liturgical colors because there are no liturgical colors in this window. Advent is not gold. But the purple column is the time of Lent. Christ’s mission on earth didn’t end all that well; people didn’t receive our Lord very well. He was hung on a tree and crucified. So the season of Lent ends with crucifixion. Mr. Bąk used to talk about this column as heavy, dark purple, draped cloth, hanging from the tree. Jesus was crucified.
Easter
After the crucifixion comes the Resurrection. This is Easter time, shown as a coiling line. This reminds us that Christ was in the tomb and arose from the tomb—there is a spiraling line that goes up to heaven in the Ascension. It is not Pentecost per se; it is the Easter season from the Resurrection to the Ascension. This column presents bursts of glory (the little circular things), Bronisław Bąk’s bursts of glory!
Pentecost
Ascension is followed by Pentecost—the gold column on the far right of the window. We see the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the era in which we live, the current time, a time of the Church on earth.
One of my favorite views of the window—although I’m pretty intimately connected with each and every piece of it!—is when I’m walking from the choir stalls, down the east side of the church. From this vantage point, I can say that, yes, my heart is filled with the Holy Spirit. And yes, I can join the angels. I can “lift up my heart” to God in worship and praise. Hallelujah!
Q & A
Where does the glass come from?
Most of the blues come from France. Most of the other colors come from Germany. The purples are from England, and there is a small amount of American glass. In the area depicting water, there is some knobby glass—that is American glass. It’s not blown glass; it’s rolled glass.
Were monks involved in designing the window?
No. This was Bruno Bąk’s idea, Bąk’s design and his interpretation.
Outline the planning of the window.
We worked on the window for about two years. [We had originally hired a union glass cutter.] We were not a union shop, but he thought we ought to follow union rules. We didn’t, and so he quit. Then the abbot told me that I was going to become the glass cutter because I had cut glass for a picture frame or two! So, I walked into the glass studio one day, picked up the glass cutter (held it wrong—like a pencil) and was immediately told: No, that’s wrong. This is how you hold a glass cutter, so that you can follow the curve. So I became a glass cutter!
We made our cartoons and patterns and had a special scissors to cut the cardboard for making the patterns. In the master drawing, all the windows were numbered—across the room and in the alphabet going down (such as A-2, M-5, etc.). We made the windows and the patterns for each hexagon and stacked them in the barn. I’ve forgotten the exact number [486] of windows.
We used the connecting link between the two wings of Tommy Hall to display the cartoons of the full-sized hexagons. The side pieces were placed on the gym floor. Bruno Bąk, observing from scaffolding in the gym, directed the guys: Go to this hexagon and draw a sweeping arc there. No, that’s too curved, flatten that out—and so on!
From the paper cartoons came patterns, and a special scissors was used to take out the thickness of the leading that had to go between the pieces of glass. (The glass cutter takes the cardboard, puts it on the piece of glass, cuts it out and snaps it out.)
The enameled glass went into the glass kiln, where it was fired—each window got its own treatment. After it came out of the kiln and cooled, it went to the leading table. That was Mr. Dick Haeg’s job. Then the glass had to be puttied. We made our own putty. Brother Placid Stuckenschnieder helped with the putty and with the reinforcing rods in each hexagon.
Is there anything you want to tweak?
Yes, I want to remove the balcony!
Bronisław M. Bąk
A native of Poland, Bronisław Marian Bąk (1922–1981) was 17 and a member of an irregular unit of the Polish army when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Following his capture, he was a prisoner-of-war laborer for three years before being incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp in 1943. After the war, he chose to live in Germany rather than in Soviet-dominated Poland. In Germany Mr. Bąk studied art and particularly the art of stained glass at the Mannheim Freie Akademie. After emigrating to the United States, he joined the faculty of the Saint John’s University art department in 1958 and shortly thereafter was commissioned to design the north window of the church.
Sursum Corda
The middle section of the window is built around the theme of worship; the rest of the background refers to the different seasons of the liturgical year, reading from left to right. There are no liturgical colors, but the window is organized against a background of blue French glass. On one side is the column of Advent, and on the other side, Pentecost—the gold colors balancing each other. Christmas balances Easter with their bursts of glory and exploding stars. Lent is the purple column. Green is a complement of red; green (each side of the red) balances the red center: Sursum Corda: “Lift up Your Hearts.” The window includes 486 hexagons.
The text of this article is excerpted from a transcription by Father John Meoska of the audiovisual presentation, “Sursum Corda: The Breuer Stained-Glass Window for Saint John’s Abbey Church,” by Brother Andrew Goltz, 30 September 2014.
