Jesse Tree

During Advent, Christians prepare their hears for the coming of the Lord at Christmas. It’s the perfect time to reflect on how God prepared the world for the coming of Christ over 2,000 years ago. When you think about the time before Christ, many stories come to mind: Abraham numbering stars in the sky, Isaac climbing a mountain with an armful of wood, Jacob fashioning a colorful coat for his son….  All these stories and more are foreshadowing the coming of Christ and leading us from Creation to Christ.

The Jesse Tree is an Advent tradition dating from the Middle Ages that helps lead us through the Old Testament to the birth of Christ on Christmas. Each day we reflect on a different person or event from the Bible. The story is shown in an image with a Bible verse on the back, creating an ornament, and then hung on a small tree, traditionally a sapling. This is a great way to refresh your family on salvation history in a fun and simple way!

We hope you tune in daily  to hear our Advent Jesse Tree Reflections on the radio! Jesse Tree spots run twice daily between 6:55am-7am and then again around 7pm.

We have created some Jesse Tree ornaments for you to print and use or create your own! We used several sources for our ornaments, including the book, “The Jesse Tree, An Advent Devotion” by Eric & Suzan Sammons and the Catholic Culture website. You will find as you begin exploring this devotion, that there are some variations between differnt sources because the length of Advent changes each year, as well as some versions include the O'Antiphons and some do not. On Armor of God Catholic Radio, we use the version with the O'Antiphons. Singing together each night during this last week leading up to Christmas is a wonderful way to bring famlilies together and prepare our hearts to recive Baby Jesus on December 25.

A beautiful little book we enjoy for this season is "Keeping Advent and Christmastime" from Liturgy Training Publications.