Devotion to Mary

At the very first Thirst Conference held in the Bismarck Civic Center in October 2013, one of the vendors held a particular interest for long-time parishioner Karen Kostelecky of St. Mary’s Parish in South Heart in the southwestern part of the diocese.
 
Al Palmer, owner of Gaytee Palmer Stained Glass Company of Minneapolis, was there with information on windows. Having stained glass windows is something Karen and her family had often dreamed of and longed for in their church.
           
The original St. Mary’s Church was built in 1911. It was the typical little prairie church of that time period with a bell tower steeple and a number of tall, narrow arched stained glass windows running the length of the building. After the congregation grew to over 100 families, a larger church was needed. In the spring of 1961, the old church was moved from the west to the east side of the road. It remained in use as the new church was being built. The present-day church was finished and dedicated in October of 1961.
           
The new church was constructed of Hebron brick walls that formed the front and back walls of the building, while a combination of clear and colored glass blocks formed the side walls. The three walls of the main body of the church were capped off with golden yellow glass panes on the inside and protective sheets of Plexiglas on the outside. Over the decades, the once clear Plexiglas has weathered to be a cloudy amber color. What may have at one time been nice, vibrant windows that shed rays of golden light into the church have since become faded, dull, and very outdated. It seemed like a perfect place to have some beautiful stained glass windows incorporated back into St. Mary’s Church.
           
Mild inquiries over the years found that there were no companies in the area that worked on or created stained glass windows for churches. But as Jesus teaches, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Mt 7:7-8) God opened the door that day in October when Karen met Al Palmer.
           
“I remember walking through the vendors at the Thirst Conference that year and, spotting a stained-glass window display, stopping in my tracks,” Karen said. “After looking at those ugly gold windows for years, here was finally an opportunity to pursue getting rid of them and replacing them with some stained glass.” Karen and Al exchanged information in hopes of working together to add some beauty to St. Mary’s Church.
 
“I had to make a trip to Williston in November,” Al Palmer recalls, “and on my way through I stopped at Belfield and talked to Fr. Bill [Ruelle, pastor of St. Mary’s]. I had told him of a woman stopping at my booth who was very interested in having some stained-glass windows in her church.”
 
After getting the approval from Bishop Kagan to proceed with the project, Al Palmer came to South Heart in early February 2014 to meet with Fr. Bill, Karen, and her daughter Kim, on ideas for window designs. Being as it is St. Mary’s Church, it was agreed by all that the four center windows on the façade should be of Mary. That left 20 other windows to think about. After throwing a few ideas around, Fr. Bill made a suggestion.
 
“The first time we talked about what should be in the windows I just happened to notice that we had 20 remaining windows that went around the church and I thought ‘Hey, 20 mysteries of the Rosary!’ I like to think there was some divine inspiration there.” And, as the First Joyful Mystery and the Fifth Glorious Mystery focus on Mary, all six of the windows on that façade would then be of Mary. It was perfect.
 
To give the project a good start, Karen decided to purchase the four center windows that depicted the Blessed Mother. Now came the task of choosing what images of Mary would be used. Many options were tossed around, but the images that were chosen were: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (patroness of St. Mary’s Church), Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Grace, and Our Lady of the Prairie.
“Our Lady of the Prairie actually came from an image a friend of mine was looking for,” Kim said. “She was searching for an image of Mary holding some wheat. I thought that would make a great window for our church, paying tribute to all the farmers in our parish.” Al took the ideas back to his design team and they drew sketches for the four windows. The sketch of Our Lady of the Prairie had a little country church in the background. Kim remembers, “I saw the church in the sketch and knew immediately we had to have it changed to be the original St. Mary’s Church.”
 
After the sketches were modified and approved, the process of making the windows began. “Al was so great to work with,” Karen said. “He would contact me every so often to give me an update. He even sent some photos of the windows being built. When he called to say they were coming out to install them, I was so excited. I had to take time off of work to drive out and watch!”
           
Since those initial four windows were installed in July 2014, ten other generous individuals or families have come forward to purchase windows. “I didn’t really know how fast it would go,” Fr. Bill said, “but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made in four years.”
 
Sketches of all the windows are displayed in the entrance of the church, so when someone is interested in purchasing a window, they can choose whichever one they want. “Each window is unique and holds special meaning to different people,” Fr. Bill points out. “My favorite window is Our Lady of the Prairie because of the pheasants pictured in it. Pheasant hunting is my favorite thing to do around here and looking at that window always makes me think about all the good times I’ve had getting to know people as we spend time hunting together.”
 
—Submitted information