Advent Tradition at St. E's

For the past several years, St. E's has placed a bare tree to the right of the sanctuary.  We call it our Jesse Tree though we do not place the normal religious symbols on the tree.  Our idea for our tree is different.  We tie leaves on the tree with the names of people we wish to pray for during Advent. Here is how we go about it.

One of our parishioners agrees to search for an appropriate tree.  It needs to be a young tree with plenty of branches that people can reach fairly easily.  However, it can't be too tall or bushy so that it looks tacky.  The tree's trunk needs to fit into a bucket of rocks that hold it in place.

Next, someone cuts out leaves from construction paper; or as we did this year, buy some garlands of Fall leaves from the craft store.  We just cut them from the garland and tied ribbon through each one and then placed a strip of adhesive tape on each leaf so that parishioners could write on it, the names of the people they were holding in prayer this Advent.

After the leaves were prepared, they were placed in a basket on a table in the rear of church so the hospitality ministers could pass them out as people arrived for Mass.  A few days before the First Sunday of Advent, the tree was set up in the sanctuary.

Last year, we used construction paper leaves that had the names of children in need of prayer written on them.  We had used the leaves in other ways during the past year so we were hesitant to discard them.  So, the old leaves were placed on the highest branches of the tree so that those children could continue to be prayed for during this Advent as well.

On the First Sunday of Advent, our priest spoke about the meaning of our tree during his homily and said he had written the names of his elderly parents on his leaf and when he ended his homily, he attached his leaf to the tree.  Our parishioners then left their pews and did the same.  The basket still has unused leaves in it so that anyone who could not attend the First Sunday will still be able to place their names on the tree when they return.

This prayer for our people has become a meaningful tradition for us here at St. Elizabeth's.



~ Bare Tree II by Norman Wyatt, Jr.