The Benedict Year › Reading Backwards from the Pascha › Unit 3 · The Promise
Week 14 · 14–18 December 2026 · Advent
The shoot from the stump
Unit 3 · The Promise: A branch for Advent that plants Isaiah 11, which comes back in May at confirmation.
Session A · the reading
About 55 minutes. Open and read aloud before any framing: no introduction, no “today we’re looking at”. Scripture first, then the Father.
- Isaiah 11:1–10; Luke 1:26–56
Session B · the argument
About 35 minutes, on another day. Never both in one sitting.
What is it for?. The Spirit resting on the shoot. The text answers (Isaiah 11:2–4).
By heart. Isaiah 11:1–2.
The Tile Board
Add a card: The shoot from Jesse’s stump, with the passage and today’s date. Pencil a line to another card only if the child sees one.
Books this week
Optional: one piece of media
The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Frédéric Back’s short, thirty minutes. Watched together, with nothing said about why it was chosen; how the list was made.
Then stop. Two weeks off over Christmas, 21 December to 1 January. Take them.
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