Prepare your ‘house’ for the Lord!

The combination Advent-Christmas banner now on display at Loyola University’s Ignatius Chapel will change its appearance over the weeks leading up to Christ’s birth. Future embellishments to the bare banner, pictured above, will include a phase-changing moon, the Star of Bethlehem and the Holy Family. The banner will host the Three Kings on Epiphany before being replaced by the banner signifying the resumption of Ordinary Time on Jan. 11.

Story and photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald

This Advent, take a moment to look around your church for reminders of the season of preparation: the ever-brightening Advent wreath of one pink and three purple candles; your priest’s purple vestments and the purple cloths that now deck your church’s altar; or maybe your classroom has a Jesse Tree or an Advent calendar to remind you to prepare your heart for Jesus during the happy countdown to Christmas!

At Loyola University’s Ignatius Chapel, Mass congregants can look to their combination Advent-Christmas banner, set up near the altar, for help in preparing for the ultimate gift of the Christ Child.

The banner is designed in the shape of a house whose “residents” seem to be both slumbering and watchful. To remind Mass-goers to keep hope alive during the dark and wintry days of Advent, banner artists Laura Comiskey Broders and Katie Pharr Rafferty sewed their fabric house using mostly dark-hued “bricks,” but also included a few squares of orange to suggest the inextinguishable light of Christ.

As Advent progresses, the banner morphs: its fabric moon changes phases each week, steadily growing from crescent to full.

At Mass on Christmas Eve, the moon is replaced by a star, and a cut-out of the Madonna and Child is added to the banner scene.

On the feast of the Feast of the Epiphany (observed Jan. 3 in 2021), three abstract strips of silk will be added to the banner to represent the arrival of the Three Kings.

While the banner bursts with colorful symbolism, even more genius went into its design. Prayer pockets sewn into the front by the clever artists invite people to anonymously tuck in their prayer intentions. These prayers, written on tiny paper scrolls, fall into a collection pocket in the back of the banner and are ultimately used to make the “straw” for Baby Jesus’ manger in the chapel’s Nativity display.

The banner for Ordinary Time will replace the Advent-Christmas banner on Jan. 11.