For his Personal Arms, seen in the dexter impalement right side of the design, Most Reverend Robert M. Coerver, Bishop of Lubbock, adopted symbolic elements inspired in large part by his friend and architect, Andrew Bennett, all elements reflecting his life and heritage as well as his call to the fullness of the Holy Priesthood as Bishop of Lubbock.
The Arms are composed of several significant elements. Prime among them, the blue wavy bar cutting across the right half of the blazon diagonally from left to right. Representing clearly a river, this evokes the Arms of the Diocese of Dallas where the Bishop spent most of his life and ministry. The river, which is white in the Arms of Dallas, symbolizes the Trinity River which flows through the heart of the city. Here the river is blue, calling to mind not only Our Lady but also his first Pastorate at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Rockwall, Texas. Within the river rest three roses signifying not only the Most Blessed Trinity but also Saint Rita, patroness of the parish His Excellency served as Pastor until called to his new ministry in Lubbock.
On the top right hand corner of the blazon, a red Chi-Rho. Greek letters which have since antiquity represented Christ, it’s a symbol used by the Bishop as a significant charge for his priestly ordination. To the lower left on a green field, a gold carpenter’s square, signifying woodworking, which belongs to the family’s heritage on his father’s side. The green field itself represents his Irish heritage, namely his mother's side of the family.
For his Motto, Bishop Coerver adopted the Latin phrase
Suscipe Domine. Taken from the last meditation of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and forming part of what is known as his Prayer of Self-Offering, it translates, "Take Lord, receive.”
Completed with external ornaments of a gold processional Cross, standing behind the blazon, it bears the Trinitarian symbol of interlaced red knots, here symbolizing also Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas, one of the Bishop’s almae matres, on whose faculty he served for eleven years; and a pontifical hat, a galero, with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See, of March 1969.
