Additions to Our Parish Church

Our Lady and the Christ Child

If you enter Our Lady of Sorrows Church through the elevator entrance, you will notice something new as you walk up the stairs. It is a painting of Our Lady and Christ Child. It had been displayed in the sacristy but it has now been moved to its new, more prominent location in order that many more parishioners might admire it.

The painting is the work of the noted artist, Louis Glanzman (1922-2013), one of America's most prolific illustrators and portrait painters. A native of Virginia, he resided in Medford Lakes, NJ. His works are part of national and private collections around the world. He has provided illustrations for children's books, National Geographic, Time, Life, Reader's Digest, Colliers, Boys' Life, and New Yorker. His paintings hang in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian, Ford Theater in Washington, D.C., the New York City Museum, Civil War Museum at Fredericksburg, and Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

Some wonder about the inclusion of peacock feathers in our painting. The peacock is a symbol of immortality because the ancients believed that the peacock had flesh that did not decay after death. As such, early Christian paintings and mosaics use peacock imagery, and peacock feathers can be used during the Easter season as church decoration. This symbol of immortality is also directly linked to Christ. The peacock naturally replaces his feathers annually; as such, the peacock is also a symbol of renewal. Both Origen and St. Augustine refer to peacocks as a symbol of the resurrection. The peacock often appears among the animals in the stable in Christ's nativity.

The painting is the generous gift of Fr. Joseph Tedesco, the last pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish.

The Holy Face of Jesus

Our sacristy is now home to a reproduction of the Holy Face of Jesus (Volto Santo), a greatly venerated image of our Lord from Capodimonte (Naple), Italy. It is the gift of Mons. Alfonso D'Errico, Pastor of the Basilica of S. Tammaro, Grumo Nevano, (Naples) Italy.