Based on an original text by Father Boswell

1000 welcomes to Our Lady of Light. Step right in, and when you have recovered from the flood of light and the riot of colour, let your gaze wander gently to the crown of the church as it hovers over and bonds together the twelve piers rising from the purple floor beneath. Feel within your bones the Holy Spirit hovering above, bonding the twelve apostles together and, through them, pulsing the life of the resurrection into us mortals beneath, standing as we do, on the purple patchwork of life itself.

The clerestory is clear indeed. Light pours onto the mind from the infinity beyond and awakens us to the awareness that there is a reality behind the shadows of this life. The heart throbs and we feel the blood coursing through our arteries. It is our soul's response to the realisation that we are creatures made to adore and to serve. What joy it brings. The glow is the sense of release as we acknowledge who we really are.

And so it is that Our Lady of Light strives to bring alive the words of the 2nd Vatican Council where the hope is expressed of 'the local Church worshipping together as a family in surroundings of such beauty and harmony that both minds and hearts would rise to the presence of Christ in our midst'.

FEATURES

The twelve sided structure promotes a family atmosphere. The altar is visible from every corner, there are no barriers to obstruct the action, and no one is more than five rows back from the sanctuary area. The ambulatory passes behind the pews so as not to distract from whatever may be happening on the altar. The pews of African mahogany are mitred so as to give the all-embracing effect of a family gathering in worship. The lighting is defused and indirect with only a spotlight on the altar; it helps to focus the attention. On either side of the altar, are the Font and the Lectern ... the Font reminding us of our commitment to renounce 'the spirit of evil, the pride of life, and the lure of the flesh'; the Lectern where the Word of God is proclaimed for our instruction and our salvation.

THE FLOOR

This is laid with 'Masterpiece' carpet tiles, and rounds off the symbolism in colour of the Church. Where we all kneel the colour is purple; the purple of suffering. The emblem of the Catholic is the Crucifix. Christ embraced suffering and pointed to it as the way forward: "Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will not yield a harvest,- but if it dies, it will yield a rich harvest".

The Nave and the Sanctuary are in the green of hope. Suffering without hope is despair, leading to death. Christ knew that only too well and, when he rose from the dead, his greeting was spot on: "Be of good cheer; I have conquered Death " - the ultimate despair.

Finally, comes the gold of salvation ... of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel where, as we become alive to the presence of Christ, we can never be lonely, never be bored. In other words, we are saved: "/ stand at the door and knock, if you will open to me, I shall come in and sup with you, "

 THE ACOUSTICS

Adoration comes in more than one form. Besides colour, we may think of sound. In a round church clad with glass the nightmare is: ECHO. It kills speech and song stone dead, and makes a mockery of the praise that is the Word of God. Here, however, there is not the slightest echo. You may clap, shout, bang for all you're worth, no echo will return to you. The secret lies in the belt of acoustic bricks set above the stained glass. It is a German invention consisting of free­standing odd shaped bricks with fibre-glass insets. The sound waves are absorbed and smothered. The result is that the round church acts as a baffle board. It increases the resonance of sound without bouncing it. With normal speech no sound amplifiers are required. Choral Societies, singing thirty strong, have been delighted with their recordings.

THE STAINED GLASS

This is French Antique Glass from the Loire Valley,  one inch thick and bonded with epoxy resin - the resin used in the last war to bond the plywood of the Mosquito Fighter-bomber to make it lighter and faster than any of its rivals. The deep blues and crimsons on either side of the Entrance Bay are known as 'seleniums' - an industrial secret going right back to the Middle Ages, and costing three times the price of ordinary tinted glass. Thirty-two different tints were used and there is altogether more than a thousand square feet of glass in eight bays.

 The stained glass in the crown of the church embodies a wholly different technique. This is Applique work. On a bed of transparent plate glass pieces of tinted glass are laid in a pattern to form a motif - in this case, that of a stylised dove or Paraclete. Above this is a third layer of translucent glass to diffuse the lighting. The effect is dramatic, and was created by a young talent from Haddenham working with the Hardman Stained Glass Studios. The dove symbolises the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of love uniting Father and Son, God to man, and man to man, in the brotherhood of Christ. He radiates from the centre and broods over the worshipping community to drive home the words of Christ: "If you come to offer your gift at the altar and there remember you have aught against your brother, go and be reconciled with him first, and then, come and bring your gift".

THE CEILING

The greater part of the permanent woodwork is cedar - the wood used exclusively in Solomon's Temple. Solomon ordered his Temple workers to build the Holy of Holies in silence so that the very work of the labourers would be a prayer "rising like incense to the altar of God". Gaze up at the radiating fan like ceiling. In the ten working days between Christmas and the Epiphany 1970 this was fixed in position without a word being spoken. Some 600 tongued-and-groved cedar planks, twelve feet long, were used.

THE CALVARY

Among the modern features of the church we would, unquestionably, rank our Calvary. Medieval churches reduced it to a Rood Screen, but here we see it in all its glory. It is made of the local Oxfordshire stone to convey the impression of a natural stony mount as any to be seen in the Holy Land.

At the level of unrestricted vision is an opening with a Round Stone beside it. This represents the Open Tomb. The stone that was rolled to seal the tomb, referred to in the Gospels, was in the shape of an enormous grind-stone. Here its miniature counterpart serves a second purpose, namely, to separate the church from the chapel. The Second Vatican Council states that it is highly desirable to celebrate the Eucharist away from the Blessed Sacrament so as to make more vivid the reality of Christ coming into our midst during the celebration. When the stone is rolled across the opening so as to seal it, the church is cut off from the Blessed Sacrament. Thus the recommendation of the Council is fulfilled. When the stone is rolled back - that is, when no Eucharistic service is on - the Blessed Sacrament remains the focal point of the whole church. On Calvary stand the statues of Our Lady and St. John, between them rises the Cross of Christ. All three were carved in limewood in the Italian Tyrol, famous for its Stuflessor Studio where the choir stalls of Downside Abbey first saw the light of day. The moment commemorated on Calvary is that point in time when Christ on the Cross gave his Mother to all of us, in the person of St. John, to be our heavenly Mother till the end of time.

Churches are built for the celebration of Mass - our Holy Eucharist. Calvary focuses attention on the central mystery of our faith - our redemption. Every time our Mass is celebrated it is not a repeat of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary. Neither is it a memorial. Christ willed that his sacrifice take the place of all sacrifices till the end of time. He raised his sacrifice out of time into the eternal NOW. It is this sacrifice in the eternal NOW that is made present to us in every Mass. This is the Mystery of Faith which we proclaim in every Eucharistic Prayer.

THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHAPEL

This is enclosed by two carved-mahogany rails resting on fine wrought-iron work - a masterpiece in its own right donated by the Nazareth House Convent in Chelsea. The altar is oak and the candlesticks are Florentine, heavily weighted and silvered, with their flutings twisted in imitation of the columns in Solomon's Temple. They are the gift of Northampton Cathedral. The Tabernacle sits ona ledge of Carrara marble and is unusual in having two doors; one facing the church and the other facing the chapel. The one facing the church is covered with a sheet of sterling silver embossed with the symbols of the Eucharist and the monograms of Jesus and Mary. It hails from the church in Felixstowe on the occasion of their centenary celebrations.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

THE FONT

In a modern church we do not expect to find items hallowed with age. Our church, however, is blessed with a few. Take the Font. For 125 years it graced the church of St. Peter's, Marlow, now declared a preserved building. That church was designed by the first Pugin who was responsible for the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster after the disastrous fire of 1835. The interior decoration of St. Peters's was also his work and among the items, was the Font. Tradition has it that he designed the evangelical motifs carved into the lovely Bath-stone of the Font. Five generations of children were christened at it till it became black with grime, grease and age, and was left unwanted. By sheer chance it was seen and rescued, given a soapy bath, and there it stands in all its pristine whiteness, freshness and simple elegance, ready to witness further generations coming to dedicate themselves to the way of life that will mark them out as followers of Christ.

THE ORGAN

Another hallowed object is the organ. That, as well, once stood in the organ loft of St. Peter's, Marlow. It has nine ranks of pipes and the date on it is 1874. When it was dismantled for transport and re­assembly in our church, it was found to possess a "speckled band" of pipes. These give a pitch that pipes of pure tin cannot render, but they were last cast in the days of Queen Anne and so have become a collector's item. The organ is, therefore, a hybrid with pipes from other centuries. On either side the organ is encased in a precious teak screen exquisitely carved by villagers deep in the rain forests of Chang-mai, Thailand.   The village has had a tradition of carving in teak for countless generations. They claim to have been carving in the halcyon days of Angkor Wat, 700 years ago, when it was the flourishing capital of the Khymer Empire.

THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

A third item of hallowed interest would be our Stations of the Cross. These came to us when the great Jesuit church in Willesdon was celebrating its centenary. That church was presented with a new set of Stations so they very kindly donated their 100 year old Stations to us. Naturally, the Stations were not in the best of condition but five inmates of the psychiatric prison at Grendon Underwood with some expertise in restoration volunteered to restore them to their original beauty. This they did with such consummate skill that we can now follow the Stations of the Cross in the silence of the church and know for certain that life is only a pilgrimage, that "here we have no abiding city ".

 THE HOLY SHROUD FACSIMILE

A modern acquisition of fascinating interest is THE FULL SIZE FACSIMILE of the photograph of the Holy Shroud taken by Giuseppe Enric in 1933. That photograph has never been bettered. The Holy Shroud is the sheet of finest quality linen, 14 feet long, on which the lifeless body of Our Lord was laid. The sheet was brought up over the head and down the front - the custom of Jewish burials. What was not the custom was to place in the sheet an unwashed body. Because it was the Eve of the Passover that could not be done. The sheet bears eloquent witness to a bloodstained body covered with the marks of scourging, of shoulder bruises caused by a heavy weight, of a crown of thorns, of crucifixion, and of a wound in the side after death.

THE COLUMBARIUM

In the cabinets behind both sections of the Shroud are wooden cubicles faced with flat aluminium covers, 192 in all. These are meant to hold urns containing the ashes of deceased parishioners. Once a year, on All Souls Day, November 2nd, we remember them. Above the doorway leading into the car park hangs a rare reproduction of a Spanish Madonna and Child. It is to our heavenly Mother that we turn in the hour of death. Amen. 

OUR LADY OF LIGHT

This lovely shrine commemorates 25 years of parish life. The church was dedicated to Our Lady of Light in Solemn Blessing on May 13th, 1971 - the anniversary of the First Apparition of Our Lady to the three little shepherds at the Cova d'lria in Fatima 1917. Because of the miracle of the sun at Fatima on October 13th 1917, Pope Pius XII granted permission for the title of Our Lady of Fatima to be changed to Our Lady of Light if we so wished. And we chose Light. "God" says the Beloved Disciple, "dwells in Light inaccessible". The more we abound with life, the more we experience the pull upwards towards Light. 

To begin to live is to begin to see a light-infused universe leading us away from matter, from energy...taking us beyond the realms of virtue and wisdom and perfection into the splendour of Pure Spirit. Light then fuses with Love. It becomes an all-embracing passion fiercer than the desert sun, more relentless than the cruel sea, more driving than the tempest...it is wholly undiluted, that dazzles, captures and wraps us round, urging us to give and GIVE to complete abandonment. Such is our Mother, Our Lady of Light.

Gaze at the exquisite painting. The eye is caught by the tiny feet of the Child attempting to stand on tip-toe. This immediately creates a sense of expectation: why is the Child so standing. It compels the eye to wander up the straight figure of the Child till it is diverted by the arms and the hands of the Child pointing lovingly to his Mother. The sweep of the Mother's head works the eye round to her shoulders, down her arm and along her hand. She is pointing to her Child. It is only then that the eye comes to rest on the face of the Child and becomes aware of its detailed definition: its earnestness, its exuberance, its vitality...as if drawn from him by the closeness of his Mother. Which makes the eye lift again to the face of the Mother in suffused definition, with the eyelids lowered, the head tilted, the radiance lost in worship. The picture is a treasure of devotion, a mine of spirituality, a pool of unfathomed light., truly ethereal, unassuming, speaking eloquently of our Mother's eternal wisdom as "the handmaid of the Lord".

Most gracious visitor, tarry awhile, the song of angels is around you.

With thanks to the original author, Fr. Boswell