Once in a while, a book comes around that makes a statement. Coming right in the midst of a time when churches everywhere grapple with how to transmit the Gospel during a pandemic, Living Stones is the narration of a journey of faith. Written by Fr Martin Cilia MSSP, this gift book soars with the beauty it depicts: the beauty of buildings transformed by people into sacred places along the years. It thus becomes the narration of the faith trek of a Christian community.
When the Missionary Society of St Paul reimagined the century-year-old oratory in Birkirkara from a youth centre and place for the catechism of children to a liturgical catechetical centre, the pastoral model had to change. This meant that people coming to this place were invited to embark on a journey of faith, expressed through liturgy, the Word of God, and small group communities.
The transformation of the church buildings came about six years down the line: this was not a mere redecoration or a restoration but a different conceptualisation of liturgical and sacred space. The buildings became a welling from the lived experience, the pilgrimage of the community. The stones became a testament to the witness of faith of previous generations but also a living embodiment of the life of the community in the present tense.
Living Stones is not a documentary book about a museum, however beautiful: throughout, it is pregnant with the story of people. Starting from Fr Cilia himself, the brains behind the whole process, to artists like Nathanael Theuma, who wrote the icons on the church walls, to the many unnamed professionals, and most of all, lay volunteers who gave time, ideas and energy to this ongoing project, Living Stones is imbued with the energy that comes from the lived experience of many people who come together, inspired by the same Gospel news.
The front cover of the book captures a moment during the consecration of the new altar of the MSSP oratory church by Archbishop Charles Scicluna.The book tries to capture all this through the narration and the photos that document this journey of faith. Subtitled, ‘an epiphany of communion’, the book brings out the intricate relationship between a sacred space, its hues and smells, its lights and colours, its textures and flowers, with the people who use it as a place to connect with God.
The book itself has become yet another marker on the journey: a journal of sorts of the way a community is born and grows. The manifestations of colour, worship, silence, prayer and symbols leap out from the pages which show the history of the oratory and its gradual transformation.
Essentially, this is a book about liturgy. The ongoing discussion on liturgy in the wake of Vatican II led both to beautiful liturgical renovations and experiences and to unmitigated disasters. In response to this tension, the experience of liturgy at the oratory is presented as one of the main elements of building community, a bridge of sorts.
The shared songs, especially the singing of the psalms, the focus on beauty and attention to the symbolic, all point to a liturgy that is embodied, a true reflection of the people’s journey, a challenge to rise higher than the mundane, while remaining deeply grounded in it.
Living Stones is imbued with the energy that comes from the lived experience of many people
We often complain about liturgies that are aloof, anachronistic and totally disconnected from our daily lives. Liturgy always attempts to bridge between the transcendental and the incarnational, between spirit and flesh, holy and profane. The experience of the oratory transmitted through this book highlights one possible way how this divide can be integrated without pandering to cheap expressions of faith or recreating the walls of distance between what is spiritual and human.
Fr Martin Cilia MSSP, director of the oratory, who authored the book, celebrating the Eucharist in the church together with co-celebrants and members of the lay community.The originality of using icons, more often associated with the Eastern Christian churches, offers a fresh yet ancient look on how liturgy can be meaningful: the carrier of the community’s narrative. By putting it all down on the flat pages of a printed book, the author risked minimalising the real experience, yet, Living Stones rises to the occasion by becoming a thing of beauty in itself, a book to cherish and keep.
Divided in five main sections, Living Stones narrates the story of the oratory since it opened its doors in 1910, charting different phases in the story. The Missionary Society followed the Frères and the Salesians in taking care of the place since 1927.
The first chapter explores the architectural and structural reconceptualisation of the main church at the oratory, with specific explanations of the main features, like the baptistery, the ambo, the altar and the apse.
Chapter two is dedicated to the church icons, with detailed explanations of the process of how they were written. The overarching themes surrounding the whole church are developed in this chapter. Each icon is explored in detail, as the whole life of Christ is manifested in the sequence, from the Annunciation to Easter.
Members of the lay community viewing the church for the first time after it was transformed.The final chapters bring to life these changes within the context of the community’s liturgical journey: the stones and architecture become truly alive: baptismal fonts with babies coming out from immersion; candles lit in the silent dark of vigils; smoke rising from the incense of worship; flowers bringing fresh beauty to old symbols; people kissing the cross; people bowing; people singing; people coming together.
A detail of the central icon depicting Christ Pantocrator, written by Nathaniel Theuma, which hangs in the apse above the tabernacle.You encounter a face you know in one of the photos, an expression of a child in another, or a detail in a gesture that leaps out, like the hand of Archbishop Charles Scicluna consecrating the altar with an abundance of oil depicted in the front cover: this book in itself truly becomes a celebration of how liturgy becomes alive, engaging all the senses, the whole body of the people making the journey of faith together in the context of the liturgical year.
Living Stones was not written with grand theological debates in mind. It is more of a diary of a people coming together. It is not prescriptive. Rather, it wells with the colour of experience.
It is yet another contribution to the many faces of the Church which journeys with people. It is replete with hope, with colour, with enthusiasm at the very grassroots.
This is a document about people who, to this day, make a conscious decision to take their faith seriously and make of it, through liturgy, sharing and communion, not only a journey but a celebration.
This coffee table book by Fr Martin Cilia MSSP is on sale from the MSSP Oratory, St Julian’s Street, Birkirkara, at the price of €50. To reserve a copy, e-mail oratorju@mssp.org.mt or call 2144 1917 or 9927 7648. For more information, visit https://oratorjumssp.org/livingstones/ or www.facebook.com/oratorjumssp.
After receiving baptism by being fully immersed in the church’s baptismal font, a baby is presented to the congregation by Fr Bernard Falzon MSSP.Quotes about the book
Fr Louis Mallia MSSP, regional superior
“Over time and space, stones can speak and become living experiences. During the past decade, the MSSP oratory in Birkirkara has been shouting out living stories amid old stones renewed into modern, sacred spaces.
“This new, colourful and well produced book Living Stones is the vivid legacy of Fr Martin Cilia as his prophetic dream becomes a new realm of living faith for many people. The embrace of beauty in the quest for God has become a profound experience of wisdom, which, through catechesis, makes the oratory stones come alive again.
“We feel joy at this expression of our faith and love, the fruit of a humble, communal endeavour, lived like a family.
“We need more of such living stones.”
Richard England, architect
“The edifice as it now stands illustrates that a church is far more than just a material, concrete edifice but an arena which may be termed ‘a sacramental of prayer’.
“The functional requirements and practical necessities have all been catered for; yet, the space extends beyond mere functionality and elevates itself as a locus to rejuvenate soul and spirit.
“Within its walls, sacred time and sacred space are brought together.”
Fr René Camilleri, theologian
“The oratory experience on the periphery of Birkirkara, epitomised in this magnificent book Living Stones, stands for the refounding of the Church community in time and space. Living Stones narrates how the Church is not the given we belong to but a reality in the making and regenerated through the lived experience of people on a journey of faith.
“The primacy of the Word, catechesis and the liturgy are the essentials that constitute the Church and nourish the faith of the pilgrim people of God. This is what Israel discovered returning from exile. This is what the Second Vatican Council re-proposed as constitutive of the Church at a turning point when Christendom was no more.
“These are the primary sources that the oratory experience is returning to and that make of it a living sign of how the Church in our age can be re-founded.”
Fr Ignatius Borg, liturgist
“Living Stones is unique, because it is not only the fruit of study but also the fruit of a real concrete and tangible experience of Jesus Christ. This is clear from the many photographs of the various celebrations during the liturgical year.
“The book is a statement of faith, and a confirmation that liturgy is not ceremonies or empty rites, but a person: Jesus Christ.
“Its contents show what the Second Vatican Council says: ‘Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.’
“The book is a result of a true lived Christian life built on the Word of God, communion, liturgy, service and witness.”