According to an ancient Christian tradition, the walls and the roof of the church, apart from protecting it from the elements, are closely and organically linked to the mystery which is being celebrated within them. This notion is alien to the modern world. As a matter of fact, more often than not, first the architect designs an empty ‘shell’, then he makes of it a church. On the contrary, there should be an organic relation between the Christian community – celebrating the mystery of salvation and God’s lordship – and the walls, the building, the space the community gathers in.
On entering a church, the pictures on the walls should make someone perceive that, yes, he is entering an empty space, but also that this empty space is in fact inhabited; he should feel and experience that he is entering a trans-temporal and trans-spatial communion, a communion he is indeed part of thanks to baptism.

The two dimensions of Liturgical Art

Liturgical art is an integral part of the space where the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. It cannot be just interior decoration, as it is a constitutive element of the liturgy. That is why we cannot think of liturgical space but as an organic unity with a multiplicity of different art forms. Each art form should find its proper place in relation to the others, as well as to the liturgy that is celebrated.
The liturgy is an ‘articulation’ of the Church’s inner life and holiness. For this reason the ecclesial building can be designed neither as something static, nor as something simply alive, but rather as something which can receive life and therefore can live.
The art forms employed in church building should express this spiritual dynamism which is at the same time both divine and human, and should focus the Church with all its energies on the life-giving principle of Trinitarian love, as revealed by Christ. Art should focus man’s mind, soul, his feelings, and everything else on Christ, who is the focal point. Someone entering a church, and coming from this world, from hard work, from the labour pains of history, is divided in himself. This man should be helped to become one, once again, by the different art forms which, as a whole, focus his attention on Christ – or, better, testify to His presence. That is why we should be brave enough to stop using art as a decoration or, worse, as a devotional illustration, that is, as something that may fill the empty spaces on the walls of the church. The walls, the celebrants, the congregation, they are all part of one spiritual setting. The liturgical elements, pictures, colours, singing, movements, everything should be done in such a way that the border between the present time and eternity, between the personal and community dimensions, between the subjective and the objective may be constantly crossed.
Given that contemporary culture is by now a culture heavily relying on images, movement and colours, faith should be wisely inculturated by employing art, so that the Church may present herself as ‘beauty’, and be truly fascinating and appealing. Florensky wrote that truth reveals itself as love, and love is fulfilled as beauty. Beauty is then a world filled with love, that is, with communion. What is indeed truly beautiful is the Church, as it is a communion of people, a community.
The past centuries have seen the prevalence of concepts and words, while nowadays we see images as the key elements of the new age, and liturgy is the field par excellence where the most genuine and deepest meanings of images, colours, movements, gestures, matter, light, scents, should be re-discovered.

In the liturgy, the Church celebrates Christ revealing Himself to man as his Lord and Saviour. The liturgy reveals the objective truth of the mystery of Christ, beyond our tastes, feelings, different styles and perceptions. At the same time, each and every Christian faithful is called to establish a thoroughly personal relationship with Christ, to welcome Him, and to entrust himself to Him in a unique way. This is the reason why the liturgy is also affected by the culture of the place and of the time it takes place in, as well as by the personal tastes of the faithful and their own subjective perceptions.
The Christian liturgy is characterized by two inseparable features: objectivity, surpassing time and finding its roots in the memory and wisdom of the Church, that is, in her Holy Tradition; and subjectivity, which is our own feature and is to be found in each and every particular time and place, whenever and wherever the People of God is celebrating the Lord and its salvation.
Somehow these two inseparable dimensions of Christian liturgy constitute liturgical art too. To be true to its name, liturgical art must therefore be characterized by two inseparable features:
– The objectivity of the mystery celebrated, that is, the objectivity of Christ as our Lord and Saviour. When, through the liturgy, salvation is communicated to the celebrating community, it is a salvation objectively belonging to Christ, objectively fulfilled by Christ. Consequently, it is not a reality defined solely by how we plan, feel and perceive it. It is also a reality defined by the living memory of the Church, full of wisdom, defined by her Tradition, that is, by her spiritual wisdom; it is a reality defined by Christ Himself who, along the centuries, lives in His body which is the Church.
– The dimension of worship, where man is the subject who receives, welcomes, acknowledges and accepts God, Christ, salvation; then, he expresses them. This more subjective dimension is affected by the culture, the history and the place the faithful live in, even though no culture whatsoever can identify itself completely with the objectivity of the divine-human mystery we are celebrating.
These two dimensions are in fact included in the theological meaning of the human person. The reality of the human person surpasses the couple ‘objectivity / subjectivity’. In its theological reality, the human person brings to the fore its ‘agapic’ dimension which is, on the one hand, utterly personal, unique; and which is fulfilled, on the other hand, thanks to the free relationships which make love itself objective.
This is indeed the mystery taking place in the liturgy: from the person to community.