Beautiful Midnight Masses!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bbigam
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Bbigam

Guest
Midnight Mass is just absolutely amazing and beautiful! This thread is to talk about your Midnight Masses - what you loved about them, what was unique or funny, etc. (Positive only, please! If you had disappointments please take them elsewhere.)

At my parish, St. Luke in Nicholasville, KY, Mass was, as Father put it, “with all the stops pulled out.” We had the Knights of Columbus, and plenty of altar servers (kids and youth) with shoulder capes they only use twice a year (Midnight Mass and 10:00 Easter Sunday). We had plenty of incense, including even at the Elevations - first time I have ever seen that at St. Luke!

The choir was at its finest yet - half an hour of carols before Mass, including the best rendition I have ever heard of “What Child Is This?” (Anyone know what this version is called, with interspersed different verses beginning with “Who is this?”) After that we started with a chanted Proclamation of the Birth of Christ. The organ sounded great, we had a trumpet for the processional and recessional, and we did the most Latin I’ve ever heard at St. Luke - Gloria (for the first time in decades, or so I hear), Sanctus, Pater Noster, Angus Dei, part of the Rite of Peace, and the final blessing. The bell in the tower pealed for a few minutes after the recessional.

We had a big beautiful nativity set up, lots of poinsettias in the windows and by the high altar and table-altar, and the high candles on the high altar were lit (again, that’s only a few times per year.) I wish I had photos!

And as always, we had Sanctus bells and communion patens in our beautiful little church with the great stained glass windows, the marble high altar with tabernacle, and the general great reverence of the priest, deacon, servers, and parishioners. And the Latin Gloria, Sanctus, and Angus Dei are becoming permanent!
 
Isn’t the Mass beautiful. I am so thankful I am Catholic—I love it! Our Mass was similiar to yours. Very beautiful.

Merry Christmas All.
 
Ours was also beautiful.

One highlight was the Christmas proclamation. Rather than the cantor singing, it was the other cantor from the choir loft, like a voice from heaven. Singing the Gloria was beautiful. Our pastor chanted the Gospel, something that happens only a couple of times a year. The choir couldn’t have been better. I was almost in tears from the beauty of the Mass.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Ours was also beautiful.

One highlight was the Christmas proclamation. Rather than the cantor singing, it was the other cantor from the choir loft, like a voice from heaven. Singing the Gloria was beautiful. Our pastor chanted the Gospel, something that happens only a couple of times a year. The choir couldn’t have been better. I was almost in tears from the beauty of the Mass.
Click to expand...
Sounds beautiful! I should note that our cantor was in the choir loft too, for the whole Mass including the proclamation. It is like voices from heaven! I remember at my very first Mass - Christmas Midnight Mass one year ago today at St. Luke - I thought it was like angels singing. I was used to Protestant choirs up front.

And… glad to hear I’m not the only one… sometimes I have tears in my eyes from the beauty of the Mass too.

By the way… if people want to talk about beautiful other Christmas Masses, I don’t mind, I’m just particularly interesting in the Midnight Mass.
 
The Nocturnal Liturgy in our little church was at 8 pm, preceeded by an abbreviated Matins.

People dribbled in, as they usually do. A couple of times someone (including the priest) turned to the wrong page…

But Fr. Brendand and I would rather have been there than St. Peter’s.

And afterwards, a nice noisy parish Christmas party!
 
I went to a beautiful midnight Mass too! 🙂 I went to a parish that’s a little further away but it’s more traditional. It’s a really beautiful church. The best part was the choir, who sang in the choir loft with the organ…they music was excellent, and some of the songs were really moving! I really liked Father’s homily too 👍
 
Christmas Eve Mass was at 5 pm in my parish and it was absolutely beautiful!!!

The children did a Christmas nativity play before Mass began and I must say my daughter did an awesome job as Mary:D

The church was the fullest I have ever seen, the decorations and the music were beautiful…we had the kids choir from our parish school singing for us.
 
We had the lessons and carols from 11:00pm until midnight. After that we had Mass. That is the time when our pastor takes the opportunity of wearing his biretta. We had a 70 people procession with Knight of Malta, Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, Knights off Columbus, Choir, 15 servers, 2 Acolytes, 2 Deacons, and 3 Priests. After that we moved in procession to the smaller chapel for the repose of the Child in the nativity set and devotion We left Church after 2:00am.The only thing that disappointed me was that practically nobody knelt during the Creed.
 
I attended Christmas Mass at noon today. To my surprise, it was not the Mass of Christmas for during the day, but the Midnight Mass, although the parish had a Midnight Mass 12 hours earlier.
Nevertheless, it was beautiful, mostly in Spanish, with a sprinkling of Latin.
It was also the anniversary of my First Communion, a very long time ago.
 
I attended mass at my church which was at five p.m. and never have I been so disgusted with people at mass in my entire life. We actually had people talking out loud during mass as if they were in a convention hall, I couldn’t even hear the priest or enjoy the music for the noise,including kids crying and screaming. Talk about rude and ignorant people. Later I attended a mass a half hour away which was done in the traditional way, incense, chant the whole nine yards, it put my church to shame. No one talking there, you could actually hear a pin drop. Also the music was awesome.🤷
 
\Talk about rude and ignorant people. Later I attended a mass a half hour away which was done in the traditional way, incense, chant the whole nine yards, it put my church to shame. No one talking there, you could actually hear a pin drop. Also the music was awesome\

How could you hear a pin drop over the music and chant?
 
Going to midnight Mass this morning was absolutely wonderful! It was an OF Mass, but the priest sang everything, which is lovely. It was so quiet and I felt so blessed to be there. I always loved midnight Mass, and I will always try to attend. It just seems like most of the people that go to midnight Mass are not there just to fulfill an obligation, but rather because they love the Lord.
 
I went to Midnight Mass at St.Sebastian in Woodside Queens. There were many servers including my friend who was an acolyte. There was great music including a song from Michael Jackson’s funeral (Soon and very Soon). After Communion the lights were turned off revealing the lights and extravagant decor around the sanctuary and church; at that point the congregation meditated on the hymn Silent Night rendered beautifully by the choir. The Mass was an hour and a half and was very good for a so called Nervous Ordo. The liturgy was carried out with full solemnity the whole nine yards. A Mass is Mass which is Christ’s Mass! Merry Christmas

On a side note I volunteered to serve at the last mass of the day in the same parish. I was thurifer and a girl was crucifer. During the offertory I prepared the incense and charcoal. When I went to the sanctuary the smoke alarm went off and the choir stopped singing and I was just standing there like an idiot:blush:; The sacristan took the thurible and then turned off the alarm after five akward minutes. Nevertheless Mass went on and it was good. Reverend Father thanked me for serving and said we all make mistakes and learn from them the mistake being made by both me and the sacristan. Has this happened to anyone before? l0l
 
I have to also say that early morning mass is also beautiful. The church is dark except for the candles and the Mass is very intimate as there is not a large crowd. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to attend. I remember when I was working I would pass my Church and wished that I could attend. I am actually glad to say I got that wish. Early morning Mass is beautiful too.
 
I’m happy to say that Father reminded us to genuflect during the Creed, and nearly everyone did from what I could tell. A fair number bow during the creed regularly anyway.

We had 9 altar servers, one priest, and one deacon - it’s not a huge parish, the sanctuary was plenty full!
 
mystified said:
I attended Christmas Mass at noon today. To my surprise, it was not the Mass of Christmas for during the day, but the Midnight Mass, although the parish had a Midnight Mass 12 hours earlier.
Click to expand...
At Christmas, the readings of one specific time, “Mass at Midnight” for example, may be used for all the Masses ‘for pastoral reasons’. I find that many priests will use the readings of the Midnight Mass for all Masses.
 
Our “Midnight” Mass was at 10 p.m. The choir sang beautifully, although they had to do it a capella since our organist is away recovering from surgery. Before Mass they sang four hymns, 2 traditional and 2 new carols. The congregation joined in lustily for the 2 traditional ones as well as for the traditional carols they sang during the Mass. The only hitch was the “O Holy Night” which the soloist started too low and that one was painful to listen to. I felt her pain as she struggled to finish it.

This Mass is more sparsely attended than the ‘family’ Mass at 6:30 p.m. and since our servers are all very young and attend the 6:30 Mass it was left to the adults to serve at this one. A man was the crucifer and served at the altar and another woman and I carried the candles.

Unfortunately, incense is not used in our parish, except at the rare funeral where no member of the family complains of being allergic to it. While I certainly know that incense can really affect people with asthma, I’m relatively certain that a percentage of those who say they are ‘allergic’ to it would also have a reaction if an empty thurible was swung. “Not liking” and “being allergic” are 2 totally different things. I’m old enough to vividly recall when incense was used often and I miss it.
 
Phemie said:
Unfortunately, incense is not used in our parish, except at the rare funeral where no member of the family complains of being allergic to it. While I certainly know that incense can really affect people with asthma, I’m relatively certain that a percentage of those who say they are ‘allergic’ to it would also have a reaction if an empty thurible was swung. “Not liking” and “being allergic” are 2 totally different things. I’m old enough to vividly recall when incense was used often and I miss it.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that. We have two deacons - one likes to use incense and the other is genuinely allergic to it. The one who likes incense is on leave for a year, so we haven’t used much incense in quite a while. But Father used plenty last night despite the deacon being there! I suppose he just had to take some medications to deal with it. When the deacon censed Father and the congregation, you could tell he wasn’t used to it, he looked a little awkward.
 
I was going to post a thread about how beautiful Midnight Mass was at my church.

At the beginning we had the Proclamation of the Birth of Christ, and the guy who read it put a lot of energy into it! He gave me chills! Then, we began singing “O Come, All Ye Faithful” for the procession, and our Pastor walks down the naive aisle with the baby Jesus piece laying on a pillow, and he processes with the other ministers to the manger and puts baby Jesus in the manger. We sang 2 verses of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and then stopped when they were doing the blessing of the Nativity scene. So, when that was done, we did the last 2 verses of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” including the Latin verse “Adeste Fideles.” At the time of the Gloria, all the lights were dimmed during the whole period. At the Gloria, they put the lights on full force. They were brighter than ever! It was really magnificent. The songs were beautiful and the homily was great. After Mass they played “Joy to the World” on the church bell carrollin and as you were leaving church it was playing outside. It was very beautiful.

I went to the 8:30 AM Mass on Christmas Day and after Mass they played “O Holy Night” on the carrollin.
 
We had 12 of our 13 seminarians serving Midnight Mass!!!

The 13th was at the parish he is working at as part of his pastoral work in the seminary.

All were so handsome and youthful (and, tall), it was inspiring to see.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top