Christmas Mass

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I went to a midnight Mass one time and by the time I got home from it, I fell asleep pretty quickly as I am not used to being up that late. I go to one that starts around 5 or 6pm on Xmas Eve instead.
 
I go to whichever Mass is closest to midnight. For the last two years we have gone to our daughter’s for Christmas (going again this year) and her parish has Mass at midnight, in French.

Sadly, it’s the only time that DD goes to Mass but for that day she packs up non-Catholic SIL, non-baptized grandson (who’ll soon be 3) and everyone attends a French Mass even if SIL doesn’t speak much French. We’ve offered to attend Mass at another parish but he says he’s getting the hang of it after 10+ years of attending “La Messe de Minuit” with DD.

The best gift they could give me for Christmas is a convalidation and a baptism but it looks like I’m going to get a book.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Since it’s in the Roman Missal it is universal. However, I believe it is done only at Midnight Mass (or the Mass During the Night) and not every parish does it.
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Thank you for that info. I checked with our parish music director this morning and he said has done it at a parish on the West Coast but doesn’t do it here because of the length. The choir here does an hour music program prior to the Midnight Mass.
 
felsguy said:
Thank you for that info. I checked with our parish music director this morning and he said has done it at a parish on the West Coast but doesn’t do it here because of the length. The choir here does an hour music program prior to the Midnight Mass.
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The length??? It’s a lot shorter than the Exsultet! and I’ll bet he wouldn’t think of leaving that out of what is probably the longest liturgy of the year.

Couldn’t they do that as the last bit of their pre-Mass program?

Sadly, I’m like you, I’ve never heard it in any of the parishes where I’ve attended my last 50 Midnight Masses.
 
Phemie said:
The length??? It’s a lot shorter than the Exsultet! and I’ll bet he wouldn’t think of leaving that out of what is probably the longest liturgy of the year.

Couldn’t they do that as the last bit of their pre-Mass program?

Sadly, I’m like you, I’ve never heard it in any of the parishes where I’ve attended my last 50 Midnight Masses.
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I’m so sorry you haven’t heard it. At the parish I go to for the midnight mass, the priest comes out and chants(? sings?) it - it is beautiful and I love it. Another reason we attend there for this particular mass.
 
Phemie said:
The length??? It’s a lot shorter than the Exsultet! and I’ll bet he wouldn’t think of leaving that out of what is probably the longest liturgy of the year.

Couldn’t they do that as the last bit of their pre-Mass program?

Sadly, I’m like you, I’ve never heard it in any of the parishes where I’ve attended my last 50 Midnight Masses.
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I’m just repeating what he said although I think he meant the length of the Mass including the pre-Mass music program. Plus you know how how hard it can be for the new guy to get a choir to change to a long standing local practice. :sad_yes:
 
You get people that have not been to Mass in a year (or since Easter) and they spill their grande cup of Starbucks on the floor.
 
dconklin said:
You get people that have not been to Mass in a year (or since Easter) and** they spill their grande cup of Starbucks on the floor.**
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Wow, have you really seen this?

I know that our ushers*, if t*hey ever saw someone bringing in a cup of coffee, would stop them.

And yes, we do get people at Mass that haven’t been in a long time.
 
maryjk said:
There used to be a great Catholic joke.

“What time does Midnight Mass start.”

Now, it isn’t so funny. Ours starts at 10PM.

If we wait until midnight, the church is almost empty. 🤷
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It still happens - we once got a call asking ‘what time is the six o’clock mass?’. Serious!! :confused:
 
One difference from a regular mass that is celebrated during Advent and a Christmas mass is the Gloria is not sung during Advent. Depending upon how it is done, it can be quite thrilling to once again hear the Gloria sung. One Christmas long ago, I can remember the church bells were rung during the singing of the Gloria. I believe I was at a midnight mass at the time.

When Lent begins, the Gloria is once again not sung. Until Easter.
 
One thing I haven’t seen in a post (sorry if I missed it) is that we genuflect during the Creed “and by the Holy Spirit was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man” ( for this Mass and the Annunciation,

We have a blessing of the creche during the early Vigil Mass
 
marytk said:
One thing I haven’t seen in a post (sorry if I missed it) is that we genuflect during the Creed “and by the Holy Spirit was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man” ( for this Mass and the Annunciation,

We have a blessing of the creche during the early Vigil Mass
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We genuflected during the creed as well but I forgot to mention that. Our blessing was of the Nativity Scene.
 
marytk said:
One thing I haven’t seen in a post (sorry if I missed it) is that we genuflect during the Creed “and by the Holy Spirit was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man” ( for this Mass and the Annunciation
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Do we? This instruction is no longer in OCP’s Today’s Missal and it was not in a hand missal I checked yesterday in a gift shop. Was the genuflection omitted as part of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal?
 
marytk said:
One thing I haven’t seen in a post (sorry if I missed it) is that we genuflect during the Creed “and by the Holy Spirit was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man” ( for this Mass and the Annunciation,
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FWIW, I noticed Cardinal George on his televised midnight Mass from Holy Name Cathedral had this part sung in Latin. It was more of a 2-minute kneel than a genuflection.
 
Christmas is one of two days where you get to see the actual size of your parish. There will always be visitors and curious non-Catholics, but the bulk of the unfamiliar faces will be Creasters, Poinsettia Lilies, Navipascuas, or whatever rude name you prefer for those who attend Mass twice a year.
Elizium23 said:
Do we? This instruction is no longer in OCP’s Today’s Missal and it was not in a hand missal I checked yesterday in a gift shop. Was the genuflection omitted as part of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal?
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The rubric is found in the Roman Missal. Please note that OCP literature should never be considered as a trustworthy liturgical guide.
 
Cavaille-Coll said:
The rubric is found in the Roman Missal. Please note that OCP literature should never be considered as a trustworthy liturgical guide.
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Actually, the rubric is not found in the Roman Missal, Third Edition. If you can find it, please do tell me the page number so that I may look it up. Because I just paged through our altar missal and found no such rubric to genuflect anymore. The instruction is exactly as stated in the OCP missallette, where it says “…all bow.”

Also, I would be interested if you related some other cases where OCP missallettes give faulty liturgical rubrics. Because much unlike their musical selections and illicit Mass settings, I have found their non-musical missallettes to be extremely accurate and comprehensive when conveying rubrics of the Roman Missal. I have found these missallettes to be an indispensable resource for the laity in the pews, when the only other source is a copyrighted multi-hundred-dollar missal locked up in the sacristy. The rubrics of the Roman Missal are not available online, and so often my only source will be a hand missal. I found the rubrics of the Easter Triduum liturgies particularly interesting, where the OCP missallette mentioned such things as the empty tabernacle prior to Mass on Holy Thursday, and all kinds of special procedures for the Easter Vigil.

So I would be very interested to hear where the OCP publication has diverged from the Roman Missal, Third Edition, in non-musical rubrics.

I would also be interested to know when the genuflection on Christmas and Annunciation was abolished. Perhaps it was in the Second Edition, which never saw an English translation here. Or perhaps it is newly abolished in the Third Edition. Does anyone have a Second Edition Latin missal to check? The genuflection certainly existed in the First Edition, English translation. Did it exist in the First Edition, Latin translation?
 
Elizium23 said:
Actually, the rubric is not found in the Roman Missal, Third Edition. If you can find it, please do tell me the page number so that I may look it up. Because I just paged through our altar missal and found no such rubric to genuflect anymore. … I would also be interested to know when the genuflection on Christmas and Annunciation was abolished…?
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GIRM 3rd edition, 2010
  1. The Symbol or Creed is sung or recited by the Priest together with the people (cf. no. 68) with everyone standing. At the words et incarnatus est, etc. (and by the Holy Spirit . . . and became man) all make a profound bow; but on the Solemnities of the Annunciation and of the Nativity of the Lord, all genuflect.
usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-4.cfm

See also:

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20030317_ordinamento-messale_en.html#II._THE_DIFFERENT_ELEMENTS_OF_THE_MASS
 
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