Stained-Glass Revelation: Heaven is Other People

Stained Glass Windows
Jubilee House
Hartford
Nov. 29

When I was kid, I once locked myself in the closet and prayed. I decided that I would stay there, in total darkness and silence, until I heard the voice of God. After a few hours my father found me. I’d fallen asleep before my prayers were answered.

It would be more than 20 years before I heard a voice calling me back to church. An ad on the radio asked for volunteers to teach English at Jubilee House, a nonprofit based in a convent on Clifford Street. I found myself with an abundance of free time and a desire to tutor students again, so I volunteered.

When I entered the building, it looked like any regular multipurpose space. But at the end of the hall to the left was a room with no door that led to the chapel. I stared in awe on my first day, as the room contained some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I had ever seen.

The windows were installed as part of a renovation project back in the early 2000s that was led by Sister Maris Stella Hickey. She had been one of the driving figures in getting the convent back from the city of Hartford and turning it into a community facility and education center. While she passed in 2015, Director of Education Michele Prizio has ensured that her legacy has continued.

“When I came here I was struck by the stained glass, because it’s the only church I’ve been in where the windows are on the ground level and not displayed high above,” she said. Michele has a special eye for art in general, having performed as a classically trained cellist for many years before she “fell into” her work at Jubilee House.

“I volunteered for the House of Bread’s Home program, where we worked with women trying to earn their GEDs. I was hooked from there. When the House of Bread and Jubilee House combined together, I came to work here,” she said.

Michele told me she feels a special connection to the English language program as the daughter of immigrants from Italy who had to learn English to survive.

The connection between stained glass and education goes back thousands of years. Stained glass as an art form reached its heights in the Middle Ages, when beautiful and ornate windows were placed in churches to illustrate stories from the Bible to largely illiterate churchgoers. While the students who attend Jubilee House are working on improving their English, they are far from illiterate.

Take the student I work with, Maria. She came to the United States from El Salvador six years ago. She speaks and reads English far better than I can speak or read Spanish, but she’s not satisfied with her current fluency. Maria works overnight then comes straight to tutoring. “I get to practice English here,” she explained. “I don’t speak it alot at work or at home.” She feels like the program is helping her to make rapid progress. “I want to learn English for me. This is a goal for myself.”

Our first lesson took place in the stained glass room, and brilliantly colored light poured through the intricate images. The room was abuzz with others — tutors and students practicing pronunciation, reciting facts for citizenship tests, sharing stories about families and friends, and laughter. So much laughter. I realized, as I stared at the images surrounding me, that I was finally hearing the voice of God.