As of November 29th, we have started a new liturgical year and entered the first season of the worship calen- dar: Advent. Advent – coming from the Latin ad, meaning “to,” and venire, meaning “come” – is the four-week season of preparation for Christmas, the anticipation of the coming, the arrival, the advent of the Christ child. It is a time for re- flection on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Jesus “second” coming at the end of time, and the ways that Jesus is enter- ing our world even in this moment. During this Advent, we will hear as the prophet Isaiah cries out for God to “tear open the heavens and come down” to set the world right….