Our Lady of the Lake window reflects hope

The Child Jesus, safely ensconced in the hands of his radiant mother, reaches out to a young man who has just drowned off the Mandeville shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
    

Above a lakeside horizon of moss-draped cypress trees and billowing clouds, two trumpet-playing angels herald the young man’s imminent passage from death to eternal life.
    

“This is a statement of faith and an artistic billboard in glass. It makes a statement to the community and to the world,” said Father Mark Lomax, Our Lady of Lake’s pastor, of the arched window that takes up the entire facade of his parish’s adoration chapel and is aptly named “Our Lady of the Lake.”
    

Fashioned out of nearly 4,000 individual pieces of stained and painted glass, the riveting, jewel-toned wonder will be dedicated and blessed after Our Lady of the Lake’s 4 p.m. vigil Mass on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. 
 

Salvation story told in glass
    

At first blush, the lakeside scene of the Madonna and Child helping someone in distress might seem to be a northshore-specific allegory for salvation through Christ; however, the window’s design is more personal. It comes straight from the pages of Mandeville history, depicting an actual event already chronicled in an oil painting that has hung inside Our Lady of the Lake Church for more than a century.
    

In the summer of 1904, Alex Alaux, a professional artist from Belgium, was vacationing in Mandeville with his family when his 18-year-old son Louis drowned in Lake Pontchartrain.
    

To work through his grief, Alaux created a somber painting of the tragedy that incorporated a major tenet of his son’s Catholic faith: Death doesn’t have the last word.
    

To artistically express this belief in eternal life, Alaux depicted his deceased son in the lake, but holding fast to a rocky outcropping provided by Mary and Jesus.
    

“(The dead young man) clings to the ‘rock of faith,’ and on the rock of faith stands his salvation – the church, symbolized by the Blessed Mother,” Father Lomax explained. “It is the duty of the church (Mary) to present Jesus Christ to the world. The young man is not really dead because he has accepted the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ.”
    

Knowing that he wanted to use the historical painting of Louis Alaux’s death as the inspiration for the new window in Our Lady of the Lake’s adoration chapel, Father Lomax worked with Pam Morgan, an artist at Attenhofer’s Stained Glass in Metairie, to design a more joyful take on the tragedy. Jubilant angels were added to the stained-glass interpretation, and white lilies, symbolic of resurrection, were used to frame the window’s perimeter.
    

In yet another artistic “tweak,” the scene portrayed in the stained-glass window looks northward to the cypress-decked Mandeville shore, rather than southward to the open water – the more ominous perspective Alex Alaux chose for his 1904 painting.
    

“The stained-glass artist has taken the tragedy of this boy’s death and the faith that (Alex Alaux) expresses in his artistry, and makes it even more joyful,” Father Lomax said.
 

Repurposing glass
    

The floor-to-ceiling window rises nearly 11 feet and is about seven feet wide. Half of the glass used in the piece is known as “antique glass” – stained glass that was salvaged from disused or damaged windows and purchased by the pound from Europe. Each shard was hand-cut and set in lead by the talented artisans at Attenhofer’s, with many of the glass pieces also painted and fired as many as five times to achieve the desired effect.
    

“They went shopping around to get it just right and they hit a home run,” marveled Father Lomax, noting that some countries are known for their expertise in producing particular hues of glass. For example, France is revered for its rich greens and purples, while Germany is acclaimed for its stunning reds and blues, he said.
    

“Americans make the best white opaline glass in the world,” Father Lomax said. “This is one of the things that took us so long – (Attenhofer’s) wanted to find the exact colors they had in mind, and some of that is no longer produced.”
 

An eye-catching addition
    

Although social-distancing guidelines prohibit the reopening of Our Lady of the Lake’s tiny chapel until the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control, Father Lomax said a temporary adoration space will open across the street inside Holy Family Hall following the Aug. 15 window dedication.
    

Meanwhile, locals can catch the best view of the magnificent new window beginning at dusk, when the chapel is lit from within and the artwork transmits a glowing message of hope to those traveling up and down Lafitte Street. The window is already a social media sensation, courtesy of local shutterbugs, Father Lomax said.
    

“The people are delighted with it, and I think they should be, because this is a beautiful statement of faith, a beautiful work of art and (it reflects) the generosity of the many people who came together to make this possible,” Father Lomax said.
    

“It’s a signature piece of art, probably the best piece of art that’s been displayed in Mandeville ever,” he added. “It was an opportunity to do something for the good of the community in general, but especially for the spiritual welfare of our parishioners.”
    

Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].