Phoenix -- Chaldean Catholic Church to celebrate the unveiling of a new interior mural entitled March of Trinity. The ambitious art project is the work of well-known mural painter Michael Gaudet and his apprentice, Ilara Stefaniuk-Gaudet, who is also his daughter. The mural was unveiled under the auspices of Bishop Donald Bolen, Catholic Bishop of Saskatoon.

The permanent art work, which is nearly 1,000 square feet in area (45 feet high at the apex and about 36 feet across ), covers the entire Ashaped wall behind the altar and is rich with spiritual symbolism. The components evolved from months of collaboration between Gaudet and Fr. Sabah Kamora, the priest of Sacred Heart Parish.

"Fr. Sabah wanted the church's patron saints Peter and Paul on the mural," Gaudet says. "I thought of Peter as the Founder of the Church built on the Rock. That immediately suggested to me a gigantic natural rock grotto with niches. When I described that to Fr. Sabah, he agreed on the spot."

Gaudet built a maquette or small scale model of the rock grotto he envisioned with three openings or niches: a large one in the centre and a smaller one on each side.

To convey the idea of global peace through unity of the Spirit, Kamora suggested a grouping of faces in the niches on either side of the mural.

They would be faces of all ages and races looking toward the centre. Gaudet's wife Sharon came up with the idea of having faces representing the Eastern Hemisphere on one side and Western faces on other.

A statue of Christ of the Sacred Heart normally stands at the foot of a wooden cross that dominates the wall. Gaudet painted a globe at the foot of the cross which appears to be planted in the Holy Land. This is particularly appropriate for the Chaldean Catholic Church which has its roots in nearby Iraq. The statue of Christ points with the right hand to a painted figure of the Virgin Mary and with the left, to the Apostle John.

The cross is crowned by a threedimensional Eastern-styled crown that was designed by Gaudet, fashioned by a parishioner, and embellished by Ilara with gold foil and jewels.

On either side of the large central niche are paintings of patron saints of the Eastern and Western Churches. On one side are St. Augustine, St. Therese and Dominique Savio; on other are St. Ephraim, St. Barbara and St. George.

At Sabah's suggestion, Gaudet sketched a sprawling Tree of Life in the lower part of the mural. Ilara painted it using Gaudet's signature technique of glazes and gold foil. The Tree of Life begins at the centre, holds the saints and the world in its branches, then erupts from cracks in the grotto rocks "to bind the whole design together."

Gaudet says the big story of the mural is the interpretation of the Holy Trinity which appears at the apex of mural in a single design of three triangles within a larger triangle. This, he says, is the geometric explanation of the Trinity. The concept came to him in 1981 when he was working on a large Trinity mural in St. Mary's Basilica in Halifax. In this mural, the right hand of God points to and blesses His Son at the foot of the cross, and His left hand blesses the creation that His hands molded into being.

Gaudet began the mural in November of 2010, utilizing a technique that involves applying multiple glazes. "Glaze holds pigments in suspension," he explains, "and makes it possible to achieve any degree of transparency, yet producing beautiful, rich, deep colours."

Creating the mural was, he says, "a very humbling project. I especially appreciated the close collaboration with Fr. Sabah, identifying all the liturgical elements and portraying them correctly. It was my important responsibility to faithfully represent his vision, and at same time, make a powerful artistic statement.

"This was the most ambitious art project I've ever attempted, and it was an opportunity to flesh out the creative gift God has given me. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to have Ilara involved as my apprentice."

Fr. Sabah Kamora says the mural is very meaningful for Sacred Heart Parish. "It invites us to meditate and deepen our love for God and for the Church. It is also a way of explaining historically to our people the meaning of our faith and our religion, and to discuss the meaning of the Bible and how we relate to the Word of God in Jesus, the Bread of Life."

Kamora hopes to open the church to the public on designated days and provide interpreted viewings of the mural as a fundraising initiative for the parish's on-going activities.