Text by Joey Vargas
Music by Nikko Villanueva

Philippine Madrigal Singers (2020)
Mark Anthony A. Carpio, Artistic Director & Choirmaster

IN A VERY SIMILAR TIME
Translation (by Joey Vargas)

Men yielded to inviting embraces of fears for death’s coming,
that they spent their hours on sources of joys that are merely fleeting.
In their minds, this life is just but one and there can be no other
that in due time will have to end, will pass, and will be forgotten.

Blinded to the truth, they opted to set their sights on the darkness
where they allowed their eyes to get accustomed and where they, there dwelled.
Their voices are no longer familiar with hymns and songs of praise;
every melody sings of misery, every breath sighs of tears.

In a very similar time, one similar gloomy evening,
there in the Eastern night skies shone this brilliant star of Bethlehem.
In a very similar time, one similar sleeping evening,
the heavens turned very bright, and a host of angels came to sing.

Let your hearts remain expecting, always waiting for His coming;
in the midst of grief and gloom, keep vigil, always remembering:
the stars do shine brightest when night becomes bleakest and turns deepest;
the Messiah came when mankind was covered, enslaved in darkness.