Jesse Trees tell story of Jesus' family tree

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

    Jesse Trees used to be a popular Advent custom, according to Linda Brink, religious education coordinator at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Dudley. And some people are making them again – or for the first time – with their own creative touches.
    “Every church I knew was doing Jesse Trees when I first got here” about 25 years ago, Ms. Brink said. St. Anthony’s was one of those churches. Then interest in the custom waned.
    “When I revived it about three years ago, people were looking at me: ‘What’s a Jesse Tree?’” she said.
    So, what IS a Jesse Tree?
    It’s like a story, so let’s start with a story – about the Jesse Tree itself.
    “Long ago, in the Middle Ages, when many people couldn’t read, religious art helped nurture their faith,” says “Tree of Hope: Our Advent Celebration,” a Franciscan Communications and St. Anthony Messenger Press booklet. “Stained glass windows told Bible stories in bright colors.
    “A favorite subject of these windows was the ‘family tree of Jesus,’ featuring portraits of his ancestors, based on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke,” the booklet’s introduction continues. “Inspired by the prophecy of Isaiah about King David’s father, Jesse, these pictures were called Jesse Trees.”
    That comes from Isaiah 11:1: “But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”
    Several decades ago Christians “reclaimed the Jesse Tree as an Advent custom, setting up tree-shaped displays,” the booklet says. “Jesse Tree portraits were fanciful and symbolic ways of telling the stories of those who waited in faith for the Savior’s coming. … The Jesse Tree helped people focus on the process of ‘waiting in joyful hope’ for the coming of Christmas.”
    Ms. Brink said she now does a Jesse Tree project as a gathering day for St. Anthony’s religious education program, though all parishioners are welcome.
    “It’s almost intergenerational,” she said. Not many people have come in the recent past, but two or three families can fill the tree.
    At the beginning of Advent, she puts a bare branch in a flower pot in the church, and prepares paper rectangles for the decorations and a sign explaining the custom, she said. This year those interested can gather in the church hall at 11 a.m. on Dec. 1 to create or color symbols of Jesus’ ancestors on the rectangles, choosing from a list Ms. Brink offers.
    “Some of them go for their names … Aaron … Jesse,” she said. “Mary, of course, is there, and Joseph.”
    When the decorations are on the tree in the church, “the kids ... drag over their grandparents: ‘Look what I did!’”
    Students at All Saints Academy in Webster get to see their ornaments on Jesse Trees in St. Louis Church. Then  the trees are brought to classrooms.
    The school has a Jesse Tree Mass for grades 1-8 in mid-December, said Marilyn Berthiaume, who teaches religion to grades 5-8.
    In religion class, third-graders color pre-made ornaments and eighth-graders make three-dimensional ornaments, learning the story of Jesus’ ancestors.
    Mrs. Berthiaume and third-grade teacher Ann Scheffler work together on the project, which includes 28 ornaments, one for each day of Advent when the season is at its longest. Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas, no matter what day of the week Dec. 25 falls on, so the Advent Season varies in length from year to year. This year Dec. 2 is the first Sunday of Advent.
    During the Mass at St. Louis, students decorate two wooden trees made by their former head of school, David H. Grenier. While attaching the ornaments, they say the names of Jesus’ ancestors, the symbols used to represent  them and read accompanying prayers or Bible verses, Mrs. Berthiaume said. After Mass, the trees are displayed in the third-grade classroom and her religion classroom.
    Sacred Heart–St. Catherine of Sweden Parish in Worcester did a Jesse Tree project for the first time this year, according to Judy Keenan, administrator of religious education.
    “I’ve been wanting to do it for a few years,” she said. “I just thought it would be fun” for the students. “We do a family Advent project every year.”
    Other years families made Advent wreaths or Advent calendars, she said. It’s always a project to take home and use during Advent.
    This year families are to put one of the Jesse Tree symbols on their tree each day, from Dec. 1-25, and read the accompanying Scripture passage, she said.
    “They ended up putting all the ornaments on the tree” during the session at church, after they cut them out and colored them, she said. “They just wanted to see what the trees would look like with all the ornaments on them.” But they can take them off and start over at home.
    Parishioner June Sulminski made and potted the miniature trees and another parishioner, Cathy Grant, told them about Jesse Trees, Mrs. Keenan said.
     St. Anna Elementary School in Leominster has displayed another type of Jesse Tree, and will probably do so again this year, said the principal, Bobbie French. She said they put handmade cards with images on them on the lobby wall in the shape of a Christmas tree. That helps teachers teach about the symbols during Advent.