The Logo

A dove supports on one wing a polyhedral globe, and while resting on the water, it safeguards with the other wing three stars that arise from the water.

The Logo for the Year of Consecrated Life expresses through symbols the fundamental values of consecrated life. In it we recognize the “unceasing work of the Holy Spirit, who in every age shows forth the richness of the practice of the evangelical counsels through a multiplicity of charisms. In this way too he makes ever present in the Church and in the world, in time and space, the mystery of Christ” (VC 5).
In the lines that outline the form of the dove one can intuit the word ‘Peace’ in Arabic: this is a reminder that consecrated life is called to be the model for universal reconciliation in Christ.

The symbols of the Logo
The dove on the water

The dove is the classical symbol of the action of the Holy Spirit, who is the source of life and the inspirer of creativity. This is a flash-back to the origin of history: in the beginning the Spirit of God moved on the waters (cfGen 1,2). The dove, gliding above a sea swollen with yet unexpressed life, symbolizes a patient and hope-filled fecundity, while the symbols around it reveal the creative and renewing action of the Spirit. The dove also evokes the consecration of the humanity of Christ through baptism.

The waters are made of mosaic fragments; they indicate the complexity and the harmony of the human and cosmic elements that are made to “groan” by the Spirit according to God’s mysterious plans (cfRom 8, 26-27) so that they may converge into the hospitable and fruitful encounter that leads to a new creation. The dove flies among the waves of history, above the waters of the deluge (cfGen 8, 8-14). The men and women, whose consecration was marked by the Gospel, have always been pilgrims among the nations; they live their various charismatic and diaconal presence like “good administrators of the multiform grace of God” (1Pt 4,10); they are marked by the Cross of Christ, even unto martyrdom; they journey through history equipped with the wisdom of the Gospel; indeed, a Church that embraces and heals all that is human in Christ.

The three stars

These stand for the identity of consecrated life as confessioTrinitatis, signumfraternitatiseservitiumcaritatis. They express the circular relationships found in the Trinitarian love, which consecrated life is called to live daily in the world.The stars also hint to the triple halo used in the Byzantine iconography to honor Mary, the Mother of God, the first Disciple of Christ and model and patron of every consecrated life.

The polyhedral globe

The small polyhedral globe symbolizes the planet with its myriad variety of nations and cultures, as explained by Pope Francis (cf EG 236). It is the breath of the Spirit that sustains it and leads it towards the future: an invitation to all consecrated persons “to become bearers of the Spirit (pneumatophoroi), authentically spiritual men and women, capable of endowing history with hidden fruitfulness” (VC 6).