The season of Advent is an especially appropriate time to ask for the intercession of Saint John the Baptist. In Advent, we take John’s message as the Forerunner of the Messiah to heart. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” As Mark’s Gospel tells us, John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Thus, in this image of the Baptist, we see his staff with a baptismal shell at the top, and we see the Baptist clothed in a garment made of camel’s hair. This reminds us of the fundamentals of the Christian life, particularly, the need for repentance from sin. John’s right hand has thumb, index, and middle finger extended, while ring and little finger are bent backwards. This is the archetypical Latin gesture of benediction.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

The Catechism of the Catholic Church cites Saint Joan of Arc four times, which is remarkable because she did not know how to read or write. But Jesus said (see Luke 10:21) that God’s mysteries are revealed to those who have a child’s heart, even while they remain hidden to the learned and the wise. Joan’s life story is difficult to capture in a short passage. So let us learn from her because she thought with the mind of the Church.

CCC 222-223: “Believing in God, the only One, and loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life. It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty… Therefore, (as Saint Joan of Arc said,) we must serve God first.”

CCC 435: “The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. … Many Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word on their lips: JESUS.”

CCC 795: “Christ and his Church thus together make up the "whole Christ" (Christus totus). The Church is one with Christ. The saints are acutely aware of this unity … A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the faith of the holy doctors and the good sense of the believer: About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter.”

CCC 2005: “Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved… A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: ‘Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.’”

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

The Holy Spirit windows at Saint Philip’s have nine tongues of fire emanating from the Dove, which represents the Holy Spirit. Generally, we see seven flames to represent the seven Gifts of the Spirit, or we see twelve flames to represent the tongues of fire which came upon Our Lady and the Eleven at Pentecost. Perhaps these nine flames correspond to Saint Paul’s list of nine Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:19-23)

In some manuscripts of Galatians there are only nine Fruits. But according to the Vulgate translation of Galatians and Catholic tradition there are twelve Fruits. Saint Thomas Aquinas affirms that twelve is the most appropriate number based on this vision from Revelation 22:2: “The number of the twelve Fruits enumerated by the Apostle is suitable, and that there may be a reference to them in the twelve fruits of which it is written ‘On both sides of the river was the tree bearing twelve fruits.’” The Catechism follows this tradition in paragraph 1832: “The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: ‘charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.’”

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

The words of Saint Faustina from her prayer before the Blessed Sacrament help us to consider the angelic presence at every tabernacle in the world: “O Jesus, Divine Prisoner of Love, when I consider Your love and how You emptied Yourself for me, my senses deaden. You hide Your inconceivable majesty and lower Yourself to miserable me. O king of Glory, though You hide Your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving You honor without cease, and all the heavenly Powers praising You without cease, and without cease they are saying: Holy, Holy, Holy.… O Prisoner of Love, I love up my poor heart in this tabernacle that it may adore You without ceasing night and day.” Our adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a continuation of the thanks and praise we give to God at Mass: “With Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus…”

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

A scholar of the law tested Jesus by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

Thus, the Ten Commandments are customarily depicted as three and seven, because in fulfilling the first three commandments, we love God, and in fulfilling the last seven, we love our neighbor. This window also shows the famous Burning Bush, where God revealed His Name to Moses. Besides the obvious connection that both of these images come from the Book of Exodus and the life of Moses, we also do well to remind ourselves that to be on fire for God necessarily requires careful observation of His commandments. Grave sin extinguishes divine charity in the soul. Courageous observation of His Commandments, especially in the midst of widespread depravity, merits an increase of charity and sanctifying grace.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

In 1946, Mother Cabrini became the first American citizen to be canonized. Our window shows Mother Cabrini with a book and a quill, indicating her outstanding commitment to education. Mother Cabrini arrived in the United States from Italy in 1889. She became an American citizen in 1909. She originally wanted to follow in the footsteps of her patron saint, Fr. Francis Xavier, and go to the East to spread the Gospel. Instead, Pope Leo XIII told her, “Not to the East, but to the West.” By the time she died in 1938, over five thousand children were receiving care and education in her charitable institutions every year. Mother Cabrini is the patron saint against malaria and the patron saint of immigrants and orphans.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

In his great Eucharistic hymn, Adoro Te Devote, Saint Thomas Aquinas addresses Christ as Pie Pellicane, (Good Pelican): “Lord Jesus, Good Pelican, clean me, the unclean, with Your Blood, One drop of which can heal the entire world of all its sins.” A century later, Dante referred to Christ in the Paradiso of the Divine Comedy as “our Pelican.” Even Shakespeare, (who may have secretly been a Catholic) puts on the lips of Laertes in Hamlet, “To his good friend thus wide, I’ll open my arms and, like the kind, life-rendering pelican, repast them with my blood.”

All of this refers to the ancient legend of the pelican: that when its chicks were hungry and no other suitable food could be found, the pelican would peck at itself so as to feed its chicks with its own flesh and blood. The Eucharistic imagery is obvious. Because no other food will suffice to satisfy the greatest hunger of the children of God, Jesus Christ offers them His very own Flesh and Blood. “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:55)

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Matthew 19:13-15)

This window is in one of the classrooms of Saint Philip Church for self evident reasons. But perhaps this window also predicted that the children of our era would be hindered from coming to Jesus by everything else they are doing, especially the religion of organized youth sports, as symbolized by the small boy with the baseball bat. Or, perhaps the window simply portrays that Christ welcomes kids in all of their innocence, and that we should imitate their simple trust, adoration, and love for Christ. We should come to Him without reservation, no matter what we carry with us, even offering Him our healthy recreation so as to grow in His grace.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

Jesus points us to His Sacred Heart to indicate His infinite love for humanity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes His most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and His Heart which, out of love for men, He allowed to be pierced by our sins.” Saint John Paul II notes, “In the Sacred Heart every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden. In that Divine Heart beats God’s infinite love for everyone, for each one of us individually.” St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, “If I cannot see the brilliance of Your Face or hear Your sweet voice, O my God, I can live by Your grace, I can rest on Your Sacred Heart!” We can pray the following short prayer, which was once very popular and would have been learned by even little children in Latin class or catechism class: Cor Jesu flagrans amore nostri, inflamma cor nostrum amore tui … Heart of Jesus, flaming with love for us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

Saint Isaac Jogues was a missionary priest to the Native Americans. On August 1, 1642, Jogues, some fellow Jesuits, and Christian members of the Huron tribe were attacked by 70 Mohawks of the Iroquois tribe. The Mohawks beat Fr. Jogues unconscious, and when he woke, they chewed off the two forefingers on each of his hands. This was particularly torturous for a priest, because the index fingers and thumbs of a priest are known as the canonical digits, those fingers which touch the Blessed Sacrament. Without those fingers, Fr. Jogues could not say the Mass. Hence, he is represented in this window of Saint Mary church (across from the tabernacle) without his forefingers. Eventually, he escaped back to Europe and Pope Urban VIII granted him the dispensation to say Mass with his damaged hands. Jogues went back to “New France” in the spring of 1646 to continue his missionary work. He was tomahawked to death on October 18 by some Mohawks in the present-day village of Auriesville, New York.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

Many parishioners of our parish who are accustomed to attending Mass at Saint James or Saint Mary may assume that Saint Philip Church is named for Philip the Apostle, or maybe Philip Neri. But the church’s patron is Saint Philip Benizi, a priest of the Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servites) who lived from August 15, 1233 to August 22, 1285. The image at the entrance of the church shows two things. First, Philip’s serious demeanor indicates his life’s mission as “Apostle of Mary’s Sorrows.” The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is September 15, a week after we celebrate Our Lady’s Nativity. Philip is depicted in the habit of the Servite order, which Servites refer to as “garment of Mary’s widowhood.” Saint Philip therefore reminds us that for whatever sorrows we experience in this life, Our Lady is always there to assist us with her understanding and compassion. Second, notice that Philip’s hair is cut such that the top of his head is bald. This is the traditional tonsure, the sign of entry into the clerical state for men (literally) set apart for the service of God.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio

The statue of Saint James the Greater in Saint James Church has two distinguishing features to teach us about James, the brother of John and son of Zebedee. First, we notice his red outer garment, which indicates his martyrdom. James was the first Apostle to be martyred, as Saint Luke reports in the Acts of the Apostles 12:1-2, “King Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword.” Second, James is adorned with the symbols of a pilgrim: he carries a pilgrim’s staff, he has a traveler’s hat over his back, and he has a scallop shell on his shoulder. James is depicted with these items because his tomb at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain is the customary final destination of walking pilgrims who make a camino across Europe. The shell is the traditional symbol that pilgrims wear to symbolize the completion of their camino. The shell is also a trail marker along the various routes to Compostela. The lines on the shell, converging at one point, represent the many paths pilgrims take to reach the cathedral. The symbol of the scallop shell also adorns the auxiliary lectern in Saint James Church.

- Fr. Derek Mobilio