Jesse Tree: The Fall of Jericho

Jean Fouquet, The Taking of Jericho. 

c. 1452-1460.

Joshua 1:1–11, 6:1–20 

Music: When the King Shall Come Again

Jesse Tree: The Giving of the Torah

Lorenzo Monaco, Moses. c.1408.

Exodus 19:1-20:20

Music: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (verse 3)

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: The Passover & Exodus

Francisco de Zurbarán, Agnus Dei.1635–40.

Exodus 12:1-14:31

Music: Ad Ceonam Agni Providi (English hymn: The Lamb's High Banquet We Await)

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: Joseph in Egypt

Master of the Castello Nativity, Sts Justus and Clement Multiplying the Grain of Volterra. c.1450.

Genesis 37:12-28, 41:1-40

Music: Comfort, Comfort, O My People

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: The Burning Bush

Dieric Bouts the Elder, Moses and the Burning Bush. 1465-70.

Exodus 2:1–4:20

Music: Fire of God, Undying Flame

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: Jacob's Ladder

Unknown Gothic Glass Painter, Jacob with the Tree of Jesse(Freiburg Cathedral). c.1218.

Genesis 27:41-28:22

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Music: Terribilis Est Locus Iste

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: The Sacrifice of Isaac

Titian, The Sacrifice of Isaac. 1542.

Genesis 22:1-19

Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus. Tu sucipe pro animabus illis, quaram hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam, Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.	Sacrifices and prayers of praise, Lord, we offer to You. Receive them in behalf of those souls we commemorate today. And let them, Lord, pass from death to life, which was promised to Abraham and his descendants.
-Requiem Mass Offertory

Music: Magnificat, Cristóbal de Morales (1500-1553).

Also: The God of Abraham Praise

Jesse Tree Printable Ornaments here.

Jesse Tree: The Covenant

Genesis 12:1-7, 15:1-6

He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Music: Conditor Alme Siderum (Chant, 7th cent.)

Jesse Tree: The Flood

Jacopo Bassano, The Animals Entering Noah' Ark. 1570s.

Genesis 6:11-22, 7:17-8:12, 20-9:17

"... the church is Noah's ark, moving through the stormy waters of sin, the place of safety into which sinners have been called. So the church is shelter from the storm, a boat tossing on the waves of a dysfunctional world. If we follow the church fathers in their development of this image, we will understand that this defensiveness, this over-and-against quality, serves finally a positive purpose. According to the narrative in the book of Genesis, once the flood waters receded, Noah eagerly and immediately let out the life that he had so carefully preserved. That microcosm of God's good order was not meant to hunker down permanently aboard the ark, but rather to flood out into the world and remake it." 

- Fr. Robert Barron, "Catholicism"

Music: Behold! The Baptist's Warning Sounds

Tune: SPIRES

2015 Patron Saints

Happy New Liturgical Year!  As has been our custom, the Church Ladies have compiled a list of patron saints for 2015, based on the Holy Father's Year of Consecrated Life.  You'll see some well known saints, but also saints from around the world and across history.  To use with your family or church group, simply print the image above and cut into slips for selection.  We wish you the best for the upcoming year, and regret that due to other obligations on our time, we can no longer draw saints for individuals.

On the first of January a new calendar year begins. On the first Sunday of Advent the new year of the Church begins. Therefore, the Saturday preceding the first Advent Sunday has something of the character of a New Year's Eve. One of the old customs is to choose a patron saint for the new year of the Church... We always choose them according to a special theme. One year, for instance, we had all the different Church Fathers; another year we chose only martyrs; then again, only saints of the new world....During the war we chose one saint of every country at war. 

  

After our first gathering around the Advent light, and the singing of the first Advent hymn, an air of expectancy spreads over the family group; now comes the moment when the mother goes around with a bowl in which are the little cards with the names of the new saints. Everybody draws a card... This saint will be invoked every morning after morning prayer. Everyone is supposed to look up and study the life story of his new friend, and some time during the coming year he will tell the family all about it...But the custom has become very dear to us, and every year it seems as if the family circle were enlarged by all those new brothers and sisters entering in and becoming known and loved by all.

 

(Maria Trapp, Around the Year with the Trapp Family)