Happy new liturgical year!

Today we begin the new year with my favorite liturgical season, Advent, and I love that we sang my favorite advent hymn in church:

Each winter as the year grows older we each grow older, too. The chill sets in a little colder; the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue.

When race and class cry out for treason, when sirens call for war, they overshout the voice of reason and scream til we ignore all we held dear before.

Yet I believe beyond believing that life can spring from death, that growth can flower from our grieving, that we can catch our breath and turn transfixed by faith.

So even as the sun is turning to journey to the north, the living flame, in secret burning, can kindle on the earth and bring God’s love to birth.

O Child of ecstasy and sorrows, O Prince of peace and pain, brighten today’s world by tomorrow’s, renew our lives again; Lord Jesus come and reign!</blockquote>