LOOK: Nativity by Josué Sánchez Cerrón
LISTEN: “Toda la Tierra” (All Earth Is Waiting) by Alberto Taulé, 1972 | Spanish text and music by Alberto Taulé © 1972, 1993 Centre de Pastoral Litúrgica, Barcelona, admin. OCP Publications; English translation by Gertrude C. Suppe © 1989 United Methodist Publishing House
Below are two performances of this Advent song. The first is by a man and woman from the Parroquía Divino Niño Jesús in Morelia, Mexico, and the second is by the choir Tallo De Amor, from Mexico City:
Toda la tierra espera al Salvador
y el surco abierto, la obra del Señor;
es el mundo que lucha por la libertad,
reclama justicia y busca la verdad.Dice el profeta al pueblo de Israel:
“De madre virgen ya viene Emmanuel,”
será “Dios con nosotros,” semilla será,
con él la esperanza al mundo volverá.Montes y valles habrá que preparar;
nuevos caminos temenos que trazar.
él está ya muy cerca, venidlo a encontrar,
y todas las puertas abrid de par en par.En una cueva Jesús apareció,
pero en el mundo está presente hoy.
Vive en nuestros hermanos, con ellos está;
y vuelve de nuevo a darnos libertad.ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,
and the open furrows, the sowing of the Lord.
All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty;
it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.Thus says the prophet to those of Israel:
“A virgin mother will bear Emmanuel,”
for his name is “God with us,” our brother shall be,
with him hope will blossom once more within our hearts.Mountains and valleys will have to be made plain;
open new highways, new highways for the Lord.
He is now coming closer, so come all and see,
and open the doorways as wide as wide can be.In the lowly stable the Promised One appeared,
yet, feel his presence throughout the earth today,
for he lives in all Christians and is with us now;
again, with his coming he brings us liberty.Trans. Gertrude C. Suppe
Alberto Taulé (1932–2007) from Barcelona, Spain, was a Roman Catholic priest and a composer of liturgical music who “believed that every parish should have a dynamic, evolving repertoire”—that “quality music and the regular introduction of new songs are vital to a parish’s spiritual health,” as his Catholic Online obituary reads. Working in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), which sanctioned the use of vernacular languages and musical styles in the Mass, Taulé wrote new worship songs that could be grafted into the preexisting liturgical structure, used during the entrance procession, the offertory, the Eucharist, or the closing.
In Spanish-speaking church communities around the world, “Toda la Tierra” is sometimes used as the entrance song for one of the four Advent Sundays. Since the United Methodist Church commissioned an English translation from Gertrude C. Suppe and added the song (with bilingual lyrics) to its hymnal in 1989, it has become more widely known in English-speaking communities as well.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America published a different English translation by Madeleine Forell Marshall in the 2006 edition of its hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship; hers preserves the aabb rhyme scheme of the original Spanish and begins with the line “All earth is hopeful, the Savior comes at last!”
The Spanish verb esperar means both “to wait” and “to hope” and is thus especially fitting to describe the action of the church during Advent.
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