(ANS – Roma) – The poster for the 2014 Strenna is ready and available. The theme of the Strenna was announced on 3 June last at the end of the first summer session of the General Council. The digital version in .pdf can be downloaded from the website sdb.org and the .psd can be requested through photoshop.

The Rector Major’s Strenna is given to all the members of the Salesian Family.  It is accompanied by a poster, something which has proved very successful in recent years, and much appreciated. The poster becomes almost an icon expressing in images the motto and the rich contents of the Strenna. These were published in brief at the beginning of June and they will be completed and presented in greater depth on 31 December next with the publication of the text of the Commentary on the Strenna.

This year, the Department of Social Communication asked various centres and professional graphic artists to suggest drafts for the poster. Fifteen proposed designs were received from the Provinces of Southern Italy, Piedmont and the Valle d’Aosta, the Eastern Province of the United States, Ecuador and Brazil.

The Rector Major himself took part in the choice of the graphic designs and the subsequent make-up of the poster, and he gave some suggestions as to how the message of the Strenna might be put across more directly and effectively.

The poster for the 2014 Strenna was created and realized by Fabrizio Emigli, a professional Italian graphic artist, who was author of the Strenna poster on several occasions in previous years.

The image – a photographic and graphic collage – contains the two aspects expressed in the motto of the 2014 Strenna:

• Return to Don Bosco –an idea stressed many times by Fr Pascual Chávez – to draw from his spiritual experience;
• Walk in holiness according to the specific vocation of each group of the Salesian Family.

The positioning of Don Bosco’s hands has a particular significance: the right hand is giving a blessing and reminds us that from April 2009 this relic has been on pilgrimage round the 130 countries in which the Salesians are present. The left hand is placed on his breast, indicating that Don Bosco’s mission and that of the Salesian Family is an educative and pastoral mission and an expression of Christian Charity (love) which is “a matter of the heart,” as he himself used to say.

The Department of Social Communication has availed of this opportunity to reword the English and Spanish versions of the Strenna in the light of comments made in recent weeks.

The digital version of the poster is available on sdb.org – on the section dealing with the Strenna. This will be enriched in due course with further materials. A copy will also be distributed with the summer edition of ANSfoto.

Published 13/09/2013