Jesse Tree during Mass

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Every year our Religious Ed students put on a Jesse Tree performance during Mass. It’s right after the Homily, I think. The kids each have an ornament, and they stand in front of church. They are up on a step, but not on the altar. A grown up is at the ambo describing each ornament and it’s meaning while the child holds the ornament over her/his head. Then the child takes the ornament to someone standing by the Christmas tree, which is behind the altar. That’s pretty much it. Except I think that everybody claps when it’s over.

Do you see anything wrong with this type of performance?

Thanks for your opinions.
 
:tsktsk: To put it simply… plays & hand clapping are incredibly lame. There’s not much else to it. Most churches have such awful masses anyways, so that it’s no surprise when something like this goes horribly wrong. I believe that it’s VERY inappropriate & the priests that let this sort of thing go on need to be re-schooled. Why do we seem to be blending in ever so nicely with the Protestants? If someone wants that sort of garbage, they should go somewhere else.
Write a letter to your Bishop… I would.
 
rochejaune said:
Every year our Religious Ed students put on a Jesse Tree performance during Mass. It’s right after the Homily, I think. The kids each have an ornament, and they stand in front of church. They are up on a step, but not on the altar. A grown up is at the ambo describing each ornament and it’s meaning while the child holds the ornament over her/his head. Then the child takes the ornament to someone standing by the Christmas tree, which is behind the altar. That’s pretty much it. Except I think that everybody claps when it’s over.

Do you see anything wrong with this type of performance?

Thanks for your opinions.
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I see nothing wrong with the “performance”. I do find the fact that it is inserted after the Homily, thus delaying Mass, a problem. It belongs either before Mass starts or after the final Blessing.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
I see nothing wrong with the “performance”. I do find the fact that it is inserted after the Homily, thus delaying Mass, a problem. It belongs either before Mass starts or after the final Blessing.
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I agree with Br. Rich. It sounds like a nice idea, since I think a lot of people don’t know what a Jesse Tree is or what the ornaments mean, but during the Mass seems inappropriate. Perhaps before the Mass on 1st Sunday of Advent with an insert in the bulletin for those who come in late or don’t hear all of it would be a better option.
 
it is fine until you get to the clapping part-but it is hard to restrain people from this
timing would be better before Mass begins, or after communion before the last blessing.
would be even better if priest in homily was making the connection between the OT stories symbolized by the ornaments and the readings of the day and where we are in the season

EWTN has a series on this each day in Advent
 
I think if they want to do it, put it after mass. but thats not as bad as this one church i’ve been to in lousiana. a lady has a puppet show on either bible stories or just stuff to help you be good in life during the masses. dunno if they’re letting her do it anymore though as many s get annoyed with it.
 
:banghead: Before or after Mass is one thing. It just seems that as of late the Masses have become so bad, at least around here, that adding one more corny bit of BS to it only detracts farther & farther from the holiness of the Mass. Like I said, the Masses around here are already very lackluster & don’t need any more help being cheesy & shallow- lets not sink farther into the mire.
 
reflection on the Advent scriptures is not BS nor is it shallow, quagmire, PC or any of the other epithets hurled around here. Such reflection has its place and can even in some circumstances be appropriate during Mass at the proper time and under the proper conditions.
 
I don’t see anything wrong if it is done properly.

When our kids were younger and we went to the children’s Mass, this was done after the Prayer of the Faithful as the collection was being taken. After the last ornament was put on the gifts were brought forward and Mass resumed.
 
rochejaune said:
Do you see anything wrong with this type of performance?

Thanks for your opinions.
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Yes.

A performance has absolutely NO place in the Mass. Period.

It sounds like a lovely teaching moment for everyone, but it should NOT be within the context of the Mass.

~Liza
 
lizaanne said:
Yes.

A performance has absolutely NO place in the Mass. Period.

It sounds like a lovely teaching moment for everyone, but it should NOT be within the context of the Mass.

~Liza
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That is quite true. I nearly had a coronoary last Friday evening. I gave my pastor documentation regarding the homily and why plays should not take place in lieu of the homily, and he still did it anyway. The children put on a skit reenacting the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Last year, after reading the documentation I gave him, my pastor had this presentation done before Mass began. This year, he changed it up again. I was in the kitchen helping ot get the food set up (I had gone to Mass at noon) and was going to stick my head inside the church, prior to the Mass, to see the play. Much to my chagrin, it occurred in lieu of the homily.

The Mass is the Church’s greatest prayer. We shouldn’t be inserting things into it, not even for teaching purposes. If you are going to have extra-curricular activities, the parish hall is fine for that. Yes, we need to teach the children about the seasons, but, more mportantly, we need to instruct them about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
 
We have a Jesse tree with ornaments for gifts requested by needy children. People pick an ornament and buy a gift. There is no performance and this is all very well and good – except, I think, when all the gifts are piled up on the altar. So during Mass, one is looking at brightly wrapped gifts, santa images, etc., beneath the large Crucifix with the corpus. It’s wonderful to bring gifts to children who would otherwise not have anything for Christmas; but I don’t think the gifts should be displayed on the altar.:o
 
I don’t know, except I think the priest who does decorations (bless his heart!) is responsible. He is so very sweet, I can’t say anything about his “mistakes”.🙂
 
lizaanne said:
Yes.

A performance has absolutely NO place in the Mass. Period.

It sounds like a lovely teaching moment for everyone, but it should NOT be within the context of the Mass.

~Liza
Click to expand...
it is not a performance, the congregation was wrong to clap as if it was, it was a procession, and as I say for Advent before the opening prayer or after communion would have been more appropriate but my guess is the pastor, not the catechist in charge, set the timing.
 
Yeah, it sounds lame and corny.

Maybe a good photo op for the parents? 😃
 
PuzzleAnnie,

I ask this question out of ignorance, not criticism:
reflection on the Advent scriptures is not BS nor is it shallow, quagmire, PC or any of the other epithets hurled around here.
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How does the Jesse Tree skit relate to the Advent scriptures?

Still learning,

Ruthie
 
the Jesse Tree “event” described by OP was not a skit or a performance. it was a procession in which children brought ornaments they had made, with symbols representing the various events and personages from OT stories that are key elements in salvation history, and which prefigure the coming of the Messiah. While they did this a narrator gave a short explanation of each symbol and the significance of the bible story it represents. These bible stories form the matter of the Sunday and daily readings for Advent and are drawn from Genesis of course and the key events of the patriarchs and prophets. that is what the whole thing has to do with Advent.

The Jesse Tree refers to the choosing Jesse’s youngest son David as the king of Israel and his anointing by the prophet Samuel and to the prophesy of Isaiah, a stem shall shoot from the root of Jesse (refering to the Messiah’s lineage from David’s royal line), both of which are Advent readings.

Some of the key symbols and stories are the apple for Adam and Eve, earth and sun from creation account, rainbow or ark for Noah, tablets of the law for Moses, Joseph’s coat of many colors, Jacob’s ladder, scroll for prophet Isaiah, and so forth.

Since these stories form the meat of the Advent readings the procession described fits very well into Advent liturgy, but not in a location that disrupts the Mass itself, as I say, before or part of the entrance procession would be better.
 
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