The coat of arms of the Daughters of the Church stands for the wounded heart of Jesus surmounted by a cross and a flame in the form of an M, with two keys and the writings: Ex crode scisso Ecclesia Christo jugata nascitur (from the pierced Heart of Christ the Church is born, his bride). It was designed by the Foundress, Mother Maria Oliva, who presents it: "The Coat of arms was necessary in our houses to speak of the essential spirit of the Order: it indicates the three loves of the Sacred Heart: - through the cross, that is accepted fully - total love for the Father; - through the Marian flame - His love for his Mother - through the ecclesiastic keys- His love for us, who with the Pope are the Church. (FF 1965)
Thus wrote Mother Maria Oliva dreaming about the Daughters of the Church, which was not yet born, in 1934: "As branches of olive, the Daughters of the Church will be around the table of the Lord we will bless him together with the people of God pronouncing their vows in the presence of the people of God".(33f, p) This same idea is brought both in the Constitutions and in the Directory: "The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God and invites us to sit around the table of the Lord as Daughters of the Church, the body of Christ and our Mother". (Dir n .1)
Mons. S. Garofalo wrote in the Preface to the text "As shoots of olive": "The poetic text of the Bible is drawn from the Psalm 128, which, describing an ideal family that contemplates in the light and in the warmth of the faith, says of the man "blessed" is the one who walks in the ways of God: "Your children are as shoots of olive plants around your table." In the Liturgy of the Hours on the feast of Corpus Domini, the fourth antiphon of the Vespers repeats the verse of the Psalm 128 with a beautiful addition: "The children of the Church are as shoots of olive around the table of the Lord."
In the Roman liturgy, the antiphon to the third psalm of 1st Sunday expresses thus: "The children of the Church exult in their king, alleluia."
The olive is the Mediterranean tree par excellence; cultivated since ancient times in the Holy land; it is a symbol of prosperity and blessings of a peaceful life. From the " branch of olive " the dove brings to Noah a freshly plucked olive leaf which indicated the end of the downpour (Gen. 8:11), up to the "two olives” that in the apocalypse (11:4) represent the two witnesses of God who are entrusted "to prophesy" for the whole time of the persecution against the Church, the Bible often recalls the tree from the trunk and from the tormented branches of all the plants that could be the king. (Judges 9: 8). To point out His fruits of grace and glory, the Wisdom of God is compared to a beautiful olive tree growing in the fields (Sir. 24: 14) and the text is applied in the liturgy to the Mother of Jesus. And we cannot but remember with deep emotion the branches of olive waved by the crowd in Jerusalem to welcome Jesus the King of peace, the olive is a testimony of His prayers and His excruciating agony.
(cf Salvatore Garofalo, Prefazione “Come germoglio d’olivo”)
In 2017, after a long work of analysis and study of the various representations of coats of arms used over the years, a new logo of the Daughters of the Church was realized.
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