The logo for the Holy Year of Mercy (CNS/Courtesy of Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization)
When I first saw the logo for the Holy Year of Mercy, I have to admit it kind of bugged me. Having stared at it on the wall of the Sanctuary of our Church for a couple weeks now, I’ve been reflecting on it more and more.
Over the last year and a half, we’ve been creating craft kits and quizzing cards developed from the sketches of our now 17 year old daughter Kelly and we just can’t hide our love for these inviting, adorable yet-kind-of-sophisticated Saints drawings featured in our 54 card deck of Super Saints and our series of 3 sets of Saint Scripts Craft Kits, as well as the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary and the 14 Stations of the Cross.
We realized that we just had to make a Kelly SaintsTM version of the Holy Year of Mercy logo.
I’ll admit…our first attempts were focused on different ways Jesus could be carrying each one of us.
In the end, we opted to copy the current configuration, humbly accepting the sheep-carrying pose that reflects best our fit. Other ways we tried to express Jesus carrying the pilgrim…put us on closer par with Jesus. It looked too friendly, even romantic.
I prefer to think of Jesus as our Shepherd, who leaves the 99 to carry the one lost little lamb on His Shoulders.
It reminds us of our vulnerability…and our need for His great Mercy in this Jubilee Year.
The Kelly SaintsTM version of the Year of Mercy logo features our classic friendly and inviting Jesus. We are represented as the pilgrim He carries…with the face of St John, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
The most drastic differences between our logo and the official one… are the less-protruding eyes and actual skin color…albeit pretty pale.
We added heart-shaped wounds on His Hands and Feet, but we stuck pretty closely to the overall configuration, layout and coloring.
The fact that Jesus and the pilgrim share an eye…seems to be a bit of a source of contention. Apparently, the creator of the image, Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik chose to merge one of Jesus’ Eyes with the man’s to show how “Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ.”
Who am I to argue with that?
Check out 6 Things You Didn’t See: The Year of Mercy Logo Explained at CatholicLink. This is an excellent summary of the symbolism, shapes, colors and configuration…and the shared eye! I just discovered this article minutes after I published this one!
Check out Pope Francis’ Prayer for the Jubilee Year of Mercy!
This new Kelly SaintsTM Year of Mercy logo has launched our newest project…a new craft kit for the Jubilee Year of Mercy! It’s going to feature Kelly SaintsTM in a whole new context with activities and crafts to help us dig deeper into the Year of Mercy!
Be among the first to find out about the release of this new craft kit! Are you subscribed?
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