St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - Weekly Talks

The First Sunday of Advent Collect: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. The very first words of the Liturgical Year, the first Sunday of Advent, set the tone for the whole season, if not the whole year! The Prophet Isaiah sends up a guttural cry of intercession ... Tear open the heavens and come down. This captures the spirit of prayer between the first and final Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the final word as the New Testament closes in Revelation 22 ... Come, Lord Jesus! ISAIAH 64:1-9 1 Oh, that You would rend (tear open) the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence— 2