John was off again earlier this week for another installation, this time only as far as Sacred Heart Cathedral, Kamloops – what we now think of as a short 4 hour drive! He installed two new windows, the first celebrating the life of St Margaret Mary Alacoque and the second, larger one depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These windows complement the previous two that we created in 2014 depicting St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. John Vianney.  Sacred Heart Cathedral has a beautiful collection of windows created in the early 80’s by Ronnie Paige of the G. Maille studio in Canterbury. Ronnie was at one time a colleague of our mentor, Roy Coomber, and both were extremely talented artists. It’s always an honour for us to continue the stained glass in a building which has already been graced by their work; we like to think that they would be pleased with our efforts.

After the windows were installed, the rector of the Cathedral sent us this wonderful testimonial. It actually made me feel quite emotional – thank you Fr. Andrew!

“Thank you for the truly amazing work you did in completing the four stained glass windows at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Each of them, St John Vianney, St Kateri Tekakwitha, St Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are masterpieces. Though we have many high quality windows from England, the ones you crafted are definitely better. The thought, detail and research you placed into each window makes them so unique. To mention one, St Kateri; the glass used for her face was a bubbled glass that in the sun shows a slight disfigurement in her face that was scarred by smallpox, however without the sun her face shows as perfectly smooth which was a miracle that happened on her death. This is the type of thoughtfulness that each window has. They are truly one of a kind masterpieces of inestimable value. You can see the love with which each window was crafted. Thank you for sharing your artistic gift and skill with us. They will bless us and generations to follow.”