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Follow-up question: What is your favorite Advent Song?
Um, I don’t have a favorite, and the reason I don’t think we need more Advent songs is because I’ve been listening to Filipinos sing their songs. They are reverent but maybe too peppy for some Americans. Simbang Gabi is a nine-day Filipino novena of Masses leading up to Christmas. In Virginia there were Simbang Gabi Masses around the Arlington diocese, and we were able to attend a couple. We don’t know of any near us in Pennsylvania, but Ascension parish in Queens, NY (where we’ll be going to Christmas Mass—it’s my sister-in-law’s parish), put its Simbang Gabi Masses online, so my wife and I are watching them and praying along (and my wife sings along). The songs are mostly in Tagalog, of which I know only a few words. It’s not my wife’s native language, but she can understand it. So I’m very happy with Filipino Advent music, but if somebody wants to write some good new Advent songs in English, I’ll be happy to hear them.
I’ll check it out! Thanks for sharing : )
Well, thanks for your interest. The website of Ascension Church in Elmhurst (a part of Queens) is https://ascensionparishelmhurst.org/. Thursday’s hymns (except for the recessional) were more mellow and subdued; it’s not the same choir every night. The name of the opening hymn, “Balang Araw,” means “One Day,” so I guess it is an Advent hymn. Another hymn had something to do with darkness, so it probably was an Advent hymn too. “Papuri sa Diyos” is “Glory to God” (I thought the Gloria isn’t sung in Advent, but I’ve heard it six times in 19 days of Advent; maybe I misunderstood). “Alay sa Diyos” is “Offering to God”; it was the offertory hymn. Another night this week we heard “Halina, Hesus, Halina”: “Come, Jesus, Come.” I thought the church had gotten a new sound system since we started visiting there a few years ago, but the soprano voices seem to cause some distortion.
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