Stained glass windows were first used by medieval church builders to honour the great and to teach the stories of the faith. In uncovering the messages in the windows of the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel, Panes of Glory affirms the continuing power of stained glass to inform and inspire our faith and to lead us to prayer. In the chapel proper, nine small windows and fourteen three-storey, Neo-Gothic windows each with four panels depict events and people important to the Christian faith. In the sacristy, four Victorian-style windows are rich in liturgical symbols. The subjects reflect the seminary’s mission to develop “priests and lay persons who are self-giving and life-giving.”

The biblical windows set high around the sanctuary highlight central New Testament mysteries. The Paschal Mystery window, which shows the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, is “the centrepiece of both our chapel and our Christian faith.” This window teaches us that “our technological world, helpful as it is, has given us the illusion that we can almost instantly control everything ... The Crucifixion is countercultural to this thinking. It is not control but surrender to God that marks the high point of our human dignity. God is God and we are not.”

The great doctors of the church (teachers) and missionary preachers depicted in the nave windows witness “that accepting God’s call can fulfill us totally.” Here, St. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican preacher, theologian and hymn writer, holds his masterpiece, the book Summa Totius Theologiae Tri-Partitu (Summary of the Whole of Theology in Three Parts). As Aquinas demonstrated “good theology is mystical, reasonable, and transformative. It embraces all truth wherever it may be found with a final purpose, simply to ‘know’ God. It should result in all of us pointing to God.”