- Feb 5, 2002
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While some children are raised on the Jesse Tree, I was an adult the first time I encountered one. In fact, I only stumbled upon it by chance while researching Advent activities for my classroom. I was immediately enamored and wondered why I had never heard of this tradition before.
Not having a book or rubric, I was left to figure it out myself. But having the boundless energy of someone in her twenties, over the course of a weekend I handmade a set of ornaments out of odds and ends from my mother-in-law’s sewing room. That December I told a Bible story from memory each morning during “circle time,” and my students took turns hanging my homemade ornaments on our classroom Christmas tree.
The Jesse Tree combines visual and storytelling elements like other family trees. Jesse Trees first appeared in the Middle Ages, a time when most people were illiterate and the invention of the printing press had not yet made Bibles readily available to Catholics in the pews. Faith was largely passed on orally. Through paintings, stained glass windows and carvings, theologians and artists worked in tandem to teach men and women of all ages the story of salvation history through the Jesse Tree. The pictures of people and the symbols used with them helped tell the Bible stories by assigning illustrations to the words. The Jesse Tree window in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in Chartres, France is a particularly famous and majestic example, but many Jesse Trees were more modest in stature in keeping with their location in a simple parish church.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Not having a book or rubric, I was left to figure it out myself. But having the boundless energy of someone in her twenties, over the course of a weekend I handmade a set of ornaments out of odds and ends from my mother-in-law’s sewing room. That December I told a Bible story from memory each morning during “circle time,” and my students took turns hanging my homemade ornaments on our classroom Christmas tree.
What is the Jesse Tree?
Put quite simply, the Jesse Tree is the family tree of Jesus. It traces the lineage of Christ all the way back to Adam and Eve. In other words, the Jesse Tree connects the dots between the Old Testament and the New. It shows us (and our children) that God has been planning since the fall of Adam and Eve to bring us back to him through the Incarnation of his Son, Jesus.The Jesse Tree combines visual and storytelling elements like other family trees. Jesse Trees first appeared in the Middle Ages, a time when most people were illiterate and the invention of the printing press had not yet made Bibles readily available to Catholics in the pews. Faith was largely passed on orally. Through paintings, stained glass windows and carvings, theologians and artists worked in tandem to teach men and women of all ages the story of salvation history through the Jesse Tree. The pictures of people and the symbols used with them helped tell the Bible stories by assigning illustrations to the words. The Jesse Tree window in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in Chartres, France is a particularly famous and majestic example, but many Jesse Trees were more modest in stature in keeping with their location in a simple parish church.
Continued below.
Discover the Jesse Tree, a hidden gem of Advent traditions
Want to make the Jesse Tree a family tradition? Colleen Pressprich walks through the different approaches to a Jesse Tree and unpacks her new book on the Advent devotion.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
