All it takes is entering a church to see that our religion has expressed itself through art for centuries: paintings, frescoes, and statues furnish and decorate the walls of every church and help us enter into dialogue with God.
People are often seen stopping to pray at the foot of a statue of Jesus, Mary, or one of the saints: when faced with a statue representing the person to whom we are addressing our prayer, the dialogue seems more vivid, more direct; for those who are not very accustomed to praying, having a statue in front of them can be helpful, while obviously knowing that our dialogue with heaven is an entirely interior dialogue: it is souls that speak to one another and come into contact.
A little history
The question of depicting God was controversial in the early Church: some believed that every image of God was contrary to divine laws and a form of idolatry. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, however, explains that “Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, which proscribes idols. Indeed, ‘the honor rendered to an image belongs to whoever is represented’, and ‘whoever venerates the image venerates the reality of the one depicted in it’. The honor paid to sacred images is ‘respectful veneration’, not the worship due to God alone” (CCC, no. 2132).
The statue is a means of honoring God
Christians therefore pray at the foot of a statue to honor God, the Virgin Mary, or the saints: they do not address the statue itself, but the person that statue represents and whom they are certain will hear them. This means that the faith of someone who prays before a statue is not tied to the statue: if the statue were destroyed, their faith would remain intact.
In this sense, statues can be seen as a reminder that reminds us of and points us toward heaven, making it closer to us, more “within reach”. Statues are objects that help us discover a great truth of love: the heaven we sometimes believe to be distant is actually leaning over us; all the people who dwell there cannot wait to accompany us on our journey.
Discover our statues
On our website, you can take an imaginary stroll through our statue gallery: there are statues made of Carrara marble powder and resin, hand-painted and produced in Italy by specialist companies, as well as large wooden statues, made and hand-painted by a workshop of specialist artisans that has been operating for more than 140 years, hand-carving wooden sculptures that are true works of art.
They are all beautiful, but there is one we are particularly fond of: the wooden statue of Blessed Carlo Acutis. This statue’s added value lies in the fact that it was created under the supervision of Blessed Carlo’s mother, Mrs. Antonia Salzano, using photos and videos of the Blessed to make it as lifelike and accurate as possible.
Choose your own personal reminder of heaven! There’s only the embarrassment of riches!
Shalom also offers another valuable service: if you would like to have a statue made that is not featured in our catalogue, contact us and we will commission it for you on request from our artisan collaborators.
