Rome (Italy). Among the proposals sent to the Central Office of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, selected two posters to graphically illustrate Strenna 2023
on the theme “LIKE YEAST IN TODAY’S HUMAN FAMILY. The lay dimension of Don Bosco’s Family.” The option is therefore renewed to animate the Salesian Family with two different images, valuing different styles and suggestions.
The first poster, the work of the Social Communication Office of “St. Anthony” Province of Portugal, expresses the industriousness and liveliness of the Salesian Family of yesterday and today, at the service of young people from all over the world. The illustration is inspired by the affection and family dimension that united Don Bosco and Mamma Margherita to the young people welcomed in the Valdocco Oratory.
In presenting the poster, the artist who created it, Nuno Quaresma, explained its details and meanings:
“It allegorically represents the humble and loving courage with which, even with limited resources, a House was built, where the filial bond with the founder, love and faith in God, mutual trust, fraternity and joy, have been fertile ground for a community that has never stopped growing. The simplicity of the food prepared, in the foreground, and the austerity of those who serve at the table, on the right of the image, evoke the miracle of the five loaves and the two fish.
In the scene, Don Bosco, Father and Teacher, guides and organizes these young people of his who are hungry and in need of a shepherd who can give them support in seeking within themselves the gift of solidarity, the loving zeal for small tasks and for shared bread, of self-awareness as good leaven, which helps to grow and makes the ‘bread of the human family’ bigger and tastier.
In the background, the clothes hanging out to dry, which blend into the landscape and the background, symbolize all those who, even if not visible, make up this large family. Light floods the image from the right side, as a reminder that everything that is profoundly human is imbued with the luminosity of the Divine”.
The poster is available in digital format in the languages most spoken in the Congregation; for editions in other languages, in the editable file.
The second poster, the work of the Spanish artist Agustín de la Torre, Salesian Cooperator and teacher, shows one hundred persons of the Salesian Family, full of details and expressions. At the center is Don Bosco, surrounded by some easily recognizable figures: Mother Mazzarello, Mamma Margherita, Domenico Savio, Fr. Michele Rua, Laura Vicuña,… the current Rector Major and the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Chiara Cazzuola, up to the most recent Salesian saint, Artemide Zatti.
“Everyone looks joyfully ahead, explains the author, and looks at the spectator who is also part of this beautiful project, of the dough that has grown through the leaven of Salesian spirituality and the Preventive System. In the colors of each one’s clothes or skin, there is also the universality of the Salesian charism, rich in diversity, positivity, creativity, and, naturally, of the Gospel”.
According to the author, all together the characters fully express the motto of the “yeast in the human family”, which has grown and continues to be nourishment for the Salesian Family today, especially when one pauses to look at the diversity of each person represented. As a strong point, there is the affectionate look at the children, adolescents, young people, adults, men and women, missionaries, and religious from all over the world who are portrayed there, accompanied by various elements that express the Salesian spirit.
Source: InfoANS
