Advent is my favorite liturgical season. Everything hinges on Easter, I know, for as St. Paul says, “if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain” (1 Cor 5:17) – but I do love Advent. The season of Advent, which begins the church’s liturgical year (not Jan. 1), sometimes get lost in the sprint between holidays. It seems like the Halloween and All Saints’ costumes have just gone away when Mariah Carey emerges from her summertime slumber and Christmas music, shopping and bright decorations dominate our senses until Christmas Day. One sympathizes with the Grinch – “oh the noise, noise, noise, noise!” It’s exhausting.