One of the world’s most salient features is that there is so much trouble, but one of the world’s deepest hopes is for something better. A better life. A better place. A better world that transcends our troubles. A haven. A Heaven. A full home and a final one. The tension between these two ideas (trouble and transcendence) is the binding theme of this collection of choral works. Each piece takes up some aspect of that theme. Some describe the sorrow and tragedy of this world. Some express fear and trembling at the cost of redeeming it. Most of the works express a hope for a better world. The implications of the difference between trouble and transcendence is most deeply explored in the centerpiece of the collection, “Prayers of Kierkegaard.”