And so the first talk is a joy for me to be able to deliver to you.

And it's going to be entitled Guiding Star, the role of nature, reason, and prophecy, and seeking the Messiah.

And we want to prepare for the Messiah. So Advent season is a season in which we prepare for Christmas.

In fact, Christmas is so important, it gets an entire liturgical season for preparation.

So it's kind of like pre-season in sports,

where the athletes warm up and get ready

for the regular season.

And so that's what we're doing in Advent.

We're getting ready for the big event of Christmas

through the season of Advent.

And of course, Advent is four weeks long, and those four weeks

has been seen in the Catholic tradition as representing the 4,000 years of Israel from the time

of Adam to the time of Israel, all that time expecting and waiting for a Messiah to come and deliver

humanity and Israel. And so we look at that Advent season.

And so what I want to do in my talk is I'm going to approach Advent in a little bit different way than usual.

I want to focus on the story of the Magi.

Now many of you say, wait a minute, Tim, you can't talk about the Magi during Advent because the

Magi come actually at the end of the Christmas season, the Feast of the Epiphany, that 12th day

of Christmas is the official end of the 12 days of Christmas, and towards the end of the Christmas

season, really Epiphany marks that.

So how can we talk about the Magi who come after

the birth of Christ before the birth of Christ? Well, the Magi, I think, can help us in our Advent

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