By Amy White
The Texas Catholic

Despite the cheery decorations and ubiquitous holiday tunes that fill the air before Christmas, the month leading to the celebration of Christ’s birth is its own separate liturgical season on the Catholic calendar: Advent—a time of spiritual preparation for the coming of the Savior.

Leading into the Advent season, Father Jason Cargo, pastor of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, has partnered with illustrator Dr. Allison Hsu to publish his first book, “Jesse Tree: A Catholic Journey for Advent,” which walks readers through each day of Advent with a Jesse Tree devotion.

“The Jesse Tree is a daily devotion during Advent, where you read a scripture verse that points towards Jesus as Messiah,” Father Cargo said. “It goes through most of the major stories of the Old Testament as it progresses towards the fulfillment of all the prophecies, which is Jesus born in Bethlehem.”

Father Cargo’s book dives into this traditional devotion by following the story of salvation history—from the root of Jesse to the birth of Jesus—with daily reflections, activities, scripture verses, and discussion questions meant to facilitate a deeper exploration of the devotion.

The roots

Father Cargo began writing “Jesse Tree: A Catholic Journey for Advent” early this year, but the roots of the project reach much further back.

In 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic that confined people to their homes, Father Cargo sought a creative way to minister to his parishioners remotely. He began creating online video reflections to share with his congregation.

In November of 2020, he wrote scripts for a series of Jesse Tree videos. Over the following years, these scripts became the basis for Father Cargo’s own personal Advent prayer and reflection, which led him to an intriguing idea: He had always wanted to write a book—Why not make one about the Jesse Tree using his video scripts as a framework?

“I began to research and look and see what was out there,” Father Cargo said. “Most of the Jesse Tree items or books were all about children, young children… There was nothing really meant for older families and for adults to be able to have a good experience of the Jesse Tree.”

He also noticed most of the sources were geared toward Protestant audiences, not Catholic ones.

“I thought how great it would be to create a devotional from a Catholic perspective for older families and adults,” Father Cargo said, “and that’s what this book is meant to provide: that Jesse Tree devotion that will feed people so that they can prepare themselves to encounter Christ at Christmas.”

Illustrating scripture

As Father Cargo began planning his book—the reflections, the action items, the discussion questions—he knew he wanted to include an additional element: art.

The priest reached out to Dr. Hsu, a St. Joseph Catholic School parent, and asked her to join the project as illustrator.

Dr. Hsu, who has previously illustrated “The Gospel of Matthew for Little Ones” and “The Gospel of Mark for Little Ones,” agreed. She began sketching pictures for the book, inspired by the scriptures for each day.

“I try to draw the main ideas and the characters as if I were reading it to one of my kids, what I would want them to focus on,” she explained. To do it right, she would read the scripture first and conduct some research on what the scenes might have looked like; then she would sketch the image with a pencil, go over it with an ink pen, and add some watercolor to bring the image to life.

The pictures that now grace the pages of the book are pleasant and simple by design, meant to bring depth to the devotion by helping readers “get situated in the setting of… that scripture,” Dr. Hsu said.

Additionally, paper ornaments at the back of the book—meant to be hung on the Jesse Tree each day at the end of the reflection—help guide the devotion as the reader’s bare Jesse Tree gradually fills with ornaments as Christmas draws near.

“It’s just a wonderful way to deeply reflect on and prepare for the big celebration on the 25th,” Dr. Hsu said.

Christine Barrantes, St. Joseph Catholic School’s library manager, agreed. Along with the other members of her Bible study, Barrantes will be utilizing Father Cargo’s Jesse Tree reflections this advent to “go deeper” in her Bible study discussions and learn “how the Old Testament predicts and sets us up for the coming of Jesus,” she said.

Barrantes shared that the Bible study members are already getting creative with their Jesse Trees. “We talked about some people just using a limb and others using a little Charlie Brown tree,” she said, “just different ways that we would use the ornaments.”

Father Cargo, who plans to gift the book to hundreds of his parishioners this month, said he hopes that readers will benefit from the devotion by gaining a greater understanding of Scripture and ultimately becoming stronger disciples of Christ.

“Jesse Tree: A Catholic Journey for Advent” is available for purchase at Amazon.

Cutline for featured image: Father Jason Cargo, pastor of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, left, holds his first published book, “Jesse Tree: A Catholic Journey for Advent,” alongside the book’s illustrator, Dr. Allison Hsu.  (AMY WHITE/The Texas Catholic)