O Holy Night! I love that song. Hello! My name is Brian Niebrugge, and I work with the Office of Stewardship and the Annual Catholic Appeal for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Our Jesse Tree reflection today focuses on the Blessed Virgin Mary and our symbol is the lily.

Isn’t it wonderful, at this time of year, to see so many images of Mary on display? I know, it is difficult sometimes to see the over-commercialization of Christmas. But isn’t it awesome to walk into a public place and hear “Ave Maria” or “Silent Night” being broadcast through the PA? Isn’t it great to see images of the Holy Family in public places of honor? I am convinced that God uses the over-commercialization of Christmas to draw more attention to his Mother and to keep the mystery of His Incarnation present to an unbelieving world.

Mary, like the lily, pure and white, is the Mother of the Church and the Mother of the world. As the Mother of God, Mary received, nurtured, and brought forth the physical body of Christ. Now, she works constantly to nurture and grow the mystical body of Christ, His Church. She is your mother, too. She loves you, and longs to bring you, adoring on bended knee, to the little manger in Bethlehem. To your Saviour. To her Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Let’s walk with Mary this Advent on the road to Bethlehem. As we prepare our homes for Christmas, let’s ask her to help us prepare our hearts, to clean them up with Reconciliation and penance, to decorate them with prayer and good deeds, so that we can make of them a fitting birthday gift to her Son.

And when the Holy Night of Christmas comes, the night of our dear Savior’s birth, let’s make sure we aren’t so busy celebrating our Lord’s birthday that we forget to spend time with Him and His mother.

Mary has a unique and special role in salvation; you do too! If you are enjoying these Jesse Tree reflections, today, right now, would be a good moment to share them with someone else. Maybe Mary is asking you to help her bring your friends and family closer to her Son this Advent.

I hope you have the merriest and most prayerful Christmas ever.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

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℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

Today we begin the fourth and final week of Advent and a very unconventional herald appears on our Jesse Tree.

John the Baptist might not have been the originator of the ugly Christmas sweater, but his camel hair clothing certainly made him an unusual-looking messenger from God. He was clearly foretold by the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).

John the Baptist taught that we all need the mercy of God that comes through repentance. In his day, John the Baptist told the Israelites that even though they were collectively the chosen people, each of them still had the individual responsibility to choose Him. In a similar way, we should not rely on our past goodness, or let our past failings define us, but resolve each day anew to make God the center of our life.

By his teaching and physical appearance, John the Baptist reminded us that the things of this world will pass away. His message should help us clear through the holiday clutter and keep our focus on our relationships with God and our brothers and sisters. Those relationships need to be constantly renewed. Holiday gatherings with far-off family members and friends are a good time to nourish those relationships, and mend ones that may be strained or broken.

Our repentance happens on a personal level, but just like being baptized in the Jordan River, it’s effects ripple outward. John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2) and “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” (Matthew 3:8). Our cooperation with God produces the good fruit John the Baptist talks about. Our lives, and those around us, are especially enriched by the twelve traditional fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Galatians 5:22-23).

During Advent, we remember Christ’s historical birth and prepare for his second coming, but Advent is also about making us ever more aware of the ways Christ comes into our lives each day, giving us the opportunity to bear good fruit.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

As we continue our advent journey anticipating the birth of Jesus focusing on different characters of the Jesse Tree, today being Nehemiah (read Nehemiah 8-9: http://usccb.org/bible/nehemiah/8), we we are shifting that focus a bit as we begin a special period in our Advent preparation known as the Octave before Christmas.

During this time we recite or chant the O Antiphons following the "Magnificat" during Vespers from December 17 through December 23. They are called the O Antiphons because each begins with the interjection, “O,” followed by a title for the Messiah given in the prophecies of Isaiah.

You may be more familiar with the metrical paraphrase version of the O antiphons that make up the very familiar Advent hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” but if we are not familiar with the actual texts of the antiphons we are missing a great deal of their meaning. While we do not have time in this brief reflection to read the Antiphons in their entirety, I encourage you to do so in your personal prayer time.

The exact origins of the O antiphons are unknown but there is reference to their use by Roman Senator and Philosopher Boethius around 500 AD. The O Antiphons were especially revered by the monks at the Benedictine Abbey of Fleury which was founded in 640. They were used in liturgical celebrations in Rome by the eighth century.

The seven titles for the Messiah given in the antiphons are:

O Sapientia or O Wisdom

O Adonai or O sacred Lord

O Radix Jesse, O Flower of Jesse’s Stem

O Clavis David, O Key of David

O Oriens, O Radiant Dawn

O Rex Gentium, O King of the Gentiles

And O Emmanuel or O God with us

Professor Robert Greenberg of the San Francisco Music Conservatory noted that the Benedictine monks arranged the antiphons in a particular order. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one - Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia - the Latin words ero cras are formed, which means, Tomorrow, I will come.

Therefore, the Messiah, whose coming we have been anticipating during this Advent season and whom we have named in these seven Messianic titles, speaks to us, Tomorrow, I will come. So the O Antiphons bring intensity to our Advent preparation and bring it to a joyful conclusion with the birth of the Jesus.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

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℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

Today, our prophetic figure is the Old Testament Prophet Habakkuk, and the symbol is the watchtower. Habakkuk lived in a dangerous time, when enemies could appear without warning to destroy the city. Jerusalem was protected by a wall, which had numerous watchtowers from which soldiers could stand watch. Habakkuk uses the image of the watchtower in his book of prophecies. In chapter 2 we read, “I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower…” But Habakkuk was not using his watchtower to search for enemies, he was watching for the coming of the Lord.

When we set a watchtower in our own souls, and wait for the Lord, we will see some challenging images, but we will also see great beauty. Habakkuk saw many things from his watchtower that called for repentance; greed, violence, and injustice, but he also saw that in the end the Lord would be triumphant; “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,” and later, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” This Advent, let us set our watch tower, and wait for the revelation of the glory of the Lord, who comes in the silence of our hearts.

Sometimes it is hard to perceive the glory of the Lord in the complications of everyday life. Habakkuk was no stranger to this problem either, and his prophecy addresses those who lose patience; “Still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.” So be of good cheer! Let us wait for the coming of the Lord with joy!

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet tells of the fall of Jerusalem and the seeming desertion of the Lord from His people. There is great sorrow, echoed in the profoundly anguished lamentations that follow: “…worn out from weeping are my eyes…let your tears flow like a torrent day and night…”

The doom and despair is overpowering. But in the middle of his book, Jeremiah’s great oracle gives us a glimpse of hope, a promise of joy ahead: “…The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts….I will be their God and they shall be my people…”

And here, in the middle of Advent, we light the pink candle on the wreath…a symbol of that rejoicing. We are so close to the fulfillment of God’s covenant, to the end of our tears. Joy is just within our reach. Not just happiness which may only linger as long as a smile…not merriness which barely outlives a party…but deep, abiding JOY! Remember what the angels sang? It wasn’t Don’t Worry, Be Happy. It wasn’t Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas. They sang JOY TO THE WORLD.

As we get nearer to Christmas, we can almost hear the faint strains of the angels’ hymn. Our anxious selves want to turn up the volume because we know what’s coming. We want the music here…now. We want to shake off this time of mourning. But Advent joy is patient. When we are truly immersed in it, there is no desire to hurry. There is instead, a longing to stay where we are, to live in the moment, believing that something concealed there will manifest itself to us soon. Anticipating His birth only renews the joy He meant us to have. The days are coming…His law is written on our hearts.

So wait…patiently…prayerfully…do not doubt. The Son of God always was and always will be. Our hearts have already chosen Advent joy. We only need to rejoice in it.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

Today our Jesse Tree reflection focuses on the calling of the prophet Isaiah and the symbol of the Burning Coal. (Isaiah 6)

Isaiah is called by God in the midst of the moral decline of Israel and Judah.

God calls him and sends him as a prophet to His people calling them to repent and turn back to God.

It’s during this calling that Isaiah is overcome with an awareness of his own sinfulness and cries out

“Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)

At that very moment, a seraph takes a burning coal from the altar of God and touches it to Isaiah’s lips so as to cleanse him from his sinfulness, and prepare him for the mission God was calling him to as His prophet.

Freed from his own sin, Isaiah goes forth to call the people to repentance. He also proclaims to them God’s promise of hope and salvation which we hear in his prophecies proclaiming the coming of Immanuel.

As we journey through this time of Advent, we too are called to hope in God’s promise of salvation. We are also called to reflect on God’s goodness and mercy and our own need for repentance.

This season offers us many opportunities for reconciliation and freedom from those things which cling, not only to our lips, but to our hearts. Throughout the Archdiocese we can find many parish penance services and extended times for confession.

There we will find Jesus, waiting with great love, tenderness, and mercy ready to forgive us and free us so that on Christmas day, as we approach the altar of God, we can say in full freedom and with great joy,

“My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)

He is Immanuel—God with us!

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

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℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

This past summer I went on my first overnight camping trip. A bunch of my friends loaded into a car and we headed for the Virginia mountainside. As we started putting things together for our tent. I was reminded of one of the passages from the Transfiguration that always perplexed me.

Jesus and a few of his closest disciples walk up a mountain. While in the heights alone with the Lord, Jesus is transfigured before them revealing all His glory. Peter—I imagine—not sure of what to say, asks Jesus if he should set up three tents for those present.

Tents were temples and tabernacles in the Old Testament which makes it seems as though, Peter deeply desired to stay—to dwell—in a tent alone with Jesus on a high mountain.

However, what Peter was about to understand is: he already had what we wait for in expectation during Advent. In Advent we await the word made flesh that will dwell among us, that will be “tabernacled” among us.

With today’s image being an empty tent, I wonder if Peter’s words could stir a desire within us to stay in the presence of the Lord. Maybe we, like Peter, spend time in front of our tabernacle and dwell with the already present God who since his birth lives among us forever.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

Advent is the season of hope.

One of the ways we grow in hope is immersing ourselves in the Scriptures' testimony of God's faithfulness.

The ornaments and symbols of the Jesse Tree remind us of this.

Today, we remember the prophet Elijah and the symbol of a stone table. As recounted in Kings, Elijah defeats the prophets of the false God Baal, and ends the drought in Samaria at the altar of the Lord.

In other words, he drives away evil and receives God's blessing from this sacred space of the altar.

The Blessed Virgin Mary affirms this idea of a sacred space by asking Juan Diego to build a "house." She speaks of a "house of worship" or a church.

In our churches, we see evil driven away, and our offerings given to God.

During advent, we ask Our Lady, the lady of the house, the Mother of the Church, to give us to her Son, and to give her Son to us.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

Today on our Jesse Tree, we are considering David as we move along our Advent journey to Christmas. You probably remember David from the story of his defeat of Goliath, the giant with a slingshot. The symbol of David is a shepherd’s crook. When I see a crook it reminds me of the long sticks or branches that my brother and I whittled at the beginning of each summer we spent in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. We used the stick for protection, to keep rattle snakes away as we went picking huckleberries.

When David was young, he used a shepherd’s “crook” for a variety of purposes as he spent years in the fields and mountains with the family sheep. As shepherd, we can imagine that surrounded by the peace and harmony of nature, David’s love for God and for his creation grew. We have clear evidence that in those years David opened his heart to the voice of God. Our proof is his poems and songs which we call the Psalms, found in the Old Testament. We are certain that Jesus learned to pray the Psalms of David like all Jewish children, from his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. In the New Testament, Saint Luke writes in his Gospel that Jesus’ last words from the Cross were “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” This prayer comes from verse 5 of Psalm 31.

Now, for more than a thousand years the followers of Christ have prayed the prayers of David to thank God, to praise him for his great goodness and to ask divine blessings upon each moment of each day. This prayer for all Catholics is called the Liturgy of the Hours, sometimes called the Breviary or the Divine Office.

The shepherd’s crook or staff has another meaning which comes from the shepherd’s responsibility to guide and care for the sheep. David received a new kind of staff (a royal scepter) when he at a very young age was chosen by God to be the next king of Israel. This and other stories of David are found in chapter 16 of the book of Samuel.

The last and perhaps most significant aspect of David’s life is one of genealogy. Well, Jesus too had ancestors. Listen to a few lines from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1: “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary….” Further in the same first chapter we read of Jesus Christ: “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff

In today's reflection we focus on the Prophet Samuel and the symbol of the crown, signifying his role in anointing a King for the Israelites.

As told in the first Book of Samuel, the Israelites ask for a king. Acting as God's agent, Samuel anoints Saul: "Then, from a flask he had with him, Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying: 'The LORD anoints you ruler over his people Israel. You are the one who will govern the LORD’s people and save them from the power of their enemies all around them.'"

But Saul makes a huge mistake. Through Samuel, God instructs him to punish the Amalekites for what they did to the Israelites, who were barred as they came from Egypt. Saul rejects God's word, and spared the Amalekites' king and the best of the fat sheep and oxen, claiming he made a sacrifice. But Samuel says to Saul, obedience to God is better than sacrifice; you have rejected God, therefore God has rejected you.

So Samuel is sent by God to search for a new king. He's instructed to go to Bethlehem, where he meets Jesse, a well-to-do farmer, and anoints his youngest son, David. The new king fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, who in 730 B.C. foretold the coming of a mysterious child who is to be born, a descendant of David, and who will continue to rule from His throne in Jerusalem.

In maintaining his zeal and obedience to the Lord, Samuel serves as source of inspiration to us in our Advent journey. Have you ever had moments in which you struggled in your faithfulness to the Lord? As we see in Samuel, his persistence pays off. And we are inspired to pick ourselves up when we fall and continue our journey in waiting for the birth of our Savior, a sign for our salvation.

Musical credit:

"O Holy Night" · Christine Westhoff · Timothy Allen

Hark

℗ 2014 Christine Westhoff