Boone parish holds Advent Generations of Faith event

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
December 11, 2003

BOONE - Parishioners at Sacred Heart in Boone attended a generations of faith event on Nov. 30. The theme of the event was the Jesse Tree with focus on salvation history.

"We found there were a lot of people, who had no idea what the Jesse Tree was," said Julie Anne Bovenmyer, DRE at Sacred Heart.

Approximately 140 to 150 people gathered for the event in the Sacred Heart School to learn about the Jesse Tree and to understand their Catholic faith by investigating its history and traditions through the ancestors of Jesus.

"The Jesse Tree reference comes from Isaiah in where they talk about the Savior coming from the fruit of Jesse," said Bovenmyer. "It traces Jesus' ancestors. All the people that he had something to do with on down to Jesus and beyond. It traces Elizabeth back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon. The names that people are familiar with, we went in-depth with some of those characters."

The evening began with an opening together, and then the group was split into family sessions, adult sessions or student sessions.

"It's a good way to start off advent and to get the proper focus on what Christmas is all about," said Jody Braun, a Sacred Heart parishioner.

The adults made ornaments for the Jesse Tree to put up in the church. The family activity was to make an ornament out of a picture of their family to hang on their tree at home.

"I attended a session that basically gave the story of Mary and Joseph traveling, Elizabeth, the angel coming to Mary and things like that," said Braun. "It was good to get focused."

The different age levels studied the people of the Jesse Tree. The high school age students went on the Internet and researched the Jesse Tree. The kindergarten through fourth grade students sang stories about the Jesse Tree such as "Father Abraham."

Braun helped with two of the sessions. One with the students in which they watched a movie about Daniel and the lions den. The other was with the family group where she helped families make ornaments for the Jesse Tree.

"We all need to stay connected to our faith," said Bovenmyer. "This is a comfortable way. You are here with a group of other people your own age group, and you are exploring things together. It's like you aren't the only one who doesn't know what's going on."

The activities and coming together were a way for the Sacred Heart parishioners to share their faith and learn about their faith in the same setting. Braun commented that she learned a lot about the Jesse Tree.

"The feed back we got was positive," said Bovenmyer. "They enjoyed the activities. It was a bad Sunday because it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There were a lot of people out of town, but it still, for the turn out that we had, went really well. The people enjoyed having different things to pick from."

Adults and students of Sacred Heart are now equipped with knowledge about the Jesse Tree and will be able to use that in their faith life.