Living Stones is an international community of Christian youth who strive to make Jesus Christ – as the Beauty of the Church – known through the beauty of the sacred and religious heritage. The Living Stones communities live with a distinctive style that prioritizes prayer, intense community life, theological and art historical education, simplicity, service, attention to marginalized people and complete surrender.
Living Stones was founded in 2008 with an international camp in Rome, but has since grown to include more than thirty communities from different countries, as far as South America. In addition to the local community meetings and guided visits offered throughout the year, several international formation seminars, service camps, workshops and spiritual retreats are also organized each year.
For the Living Stones, Christian art is a form of prayer. But it is also a story, a story of holiness. To view the work of art is therefore to enter into the artist’s prayer and into the history it tells. It enables a moment of spiritual connection through the ages, in which the visitor to the church becomes a pilgrim and protagonist. When the “dead stones” of the sacred building are given a living voice, today’s visitor can discover the sacred space as a mirror of his or her own experience, inner life, identity and, ultimately, vocation.