The Artwork in St. Gabriel Catholic Church
The Crucifix as the Tree of Life,(Sanctuary) The work of Plano artist John Collier connects the image of the Tree in the Middle of the Garden of Eden with the Cross upon which Christ was crucified. Adam and Eve, the first humans, ate of the fruit of the tree in the garden in disobedience to God and brought sin into the world. On Calvary, Christ, the new Adam, hung upon a tree in obedience to the Father and brought eternal life. Whoever eats of the fruit of this tree (the Bread of Life) will live forever (Cf: John 6: 51).
Gabriel the Archangel and the Annunciation(Narthex) Artist: John Collier
The painting incorporates traditional elements of the Annunciation scene: lilies, the symbol of Mary’s purity; the intact glass pane next to the door, a symbol of her perpetual virginity. The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove rests on a nearby house, not presuming Mary’s response but awaiting it. Mary herself is a young girl dressed in blue and white. She reads from the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 7 verse 14, where the prophet proclaims the sign that God will give: “The virgin shall be with child and bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel.” The coming of Christ fulfills this prophecy (Matthew 1:18-24). The painting’s contemporary setting is a reminder that the mystery of Christ becoming flesh continues in the church of today. We are now the recipients of Gabriel’s message, called to embody Christ’s love, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
St. Joseph and the Child Jesus(Sanctuary far left) Artist: John Collier
Jesus was known as the son of a carpenter. God, his true Father, was a carpenter of sorts, too. He made the universe as a home for men and women to live in and that is the work of carpenters. The spiral galaxy on the back wall recalls God’s creation of the universe. The child Jesus holds a plumb bob, a carpenter’s tool spoken of in Amos (7:7). Jesus is the Plumb Line. He is a fixed point against which all else will be measured. The numbers “1:3" on the plumb reference John 1:3: “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” The blueprint on the table is an allusion to Mary, the image of the Church, and a model for us to imitate.
A Woman Clothed with the Sun(Sanctuary far right) Artist: John Collier
The woman is about to give birth to a son and is threatened with evil, symbolized by the serpent in the lower corner. She is Mary, Mother of God, but also a symbol of all God’s holy people in the Old and New Testaments. The veiled presence of the sun is indicated by the circular sun bow and centers on her womb. The evangelist John, whose vision this is, sits in the lower right hand corner recording the vision for us. It is preserved in the book of Revelation, chapter 12.
Pieta(Chapel) Artist: John Collier
Mary holds the dead body of her son and grieves. Joseph of Arimathea pulls on his shroud. He must get the Lord into the grave before the Sabbath day; the sun is setting and the Sabbath is about to start. “If a person dies, can he live again?” is the question we all ask. Mary asks this question, too. We know that we, like Mary, will see our children again because of the resurrection of herson Jesus.
Six Days of Creation(Sanctuary Stained Glass front sides)Designed by Jane Landry; Fabrication by Foster Glass
- Day One:“Let there be light” (Gen 1:3).
- Day Two: “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other” (Gen 1:6).
- Day Three:“Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear....Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it” (Gen 1:9,11).
- Day Four: “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the day and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth” (Gen 1:14,15).
- Day Five: “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky...Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth” (Gen 1:20,22).
- Day Six: “Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: Cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds....Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground” (Gen 1:24, 26).
“God looked at everything that he had made, and he found it very good. Since on the seventh day God was finished with work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken” (Gen 1:31, 2:2).
Rose Window (Chapel Stained Glass)Designed by Lyle NovinskiFabrication by Foster Glass
The design for the stained glass window in the daily Chapel was intended to reference the oldest of our Christian symbols, the Cross. Hence the mullions in the round window form a cross. The interior design is intended to reference a crucified figure; the slightly wavy lines of the central panel are the sagging body lines of the figure. There are five blazes of red, intended to reference the five wounds of Christ, and the head wounds of the Crown of Thorns. The interior pink color suggests the flesh color. It reminds us of the redemptive suffering of Jesus.
Stations of the Cross(Sanctuary) Designed by Wiktor Szostalo,"Millenium Edition in traditional 'Lost Wax' Foundry Cast Bronze The Stations of the Cross signify a series of images or tableaux representing certain scenes of Christ's Passion, each corresponding to an incident, or a form of devotion, connected with each depiction.