Christmas Midnight/Shepherd’s Mass Rarely at Midnight?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Our Parish (TLM) has the
  • First Mass at Midnight (Missa Dominus Dixit) - 1st Class: Mass at Midnight for the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord
  • Second Mass at Dawn (Missa Lux Fulgebit)
  • Third Mass During the Daytime (Missa Puer Natus Est)
Other Parishes in the vicinity have masses ranging from a Family Mass starting at 7pm on Christmas Eve, then 1st at midnight. The other Parish has a Vigil Family Mass at 6.30 pm and a 1st Mass at 1130 pm. All different.

Changes occurred post Vat 2, to do with signs of the times hence the changes in times in OF.
 
Peeps said:
Stores were actually closed on Christmas Eve–almost all stores and gas stations. So no pressure to run out and buy more Christmas stuff!
Click to expand...
Or to work at those stores. I’ve had jobs that required that I work until 6 or even later, on Christmas Eve.

Then home for dinner and any last minute holiday chores. I’d been at work since 7:30. And work was 45 minutes away.

SOometimes, I’d make it to midnight mass, and sometimes I wouldn’t.
 
Phemie said:
and they all celebrated Midnight Mass, immediately followed by Mass at Dawn and then got up to celebrate the Christmas Day Mass.
Click to expand...
How long was the Midnight Mass, that dawn would come so quickly?
 
TryingtoGainFaith said:
It is simply a manifestation of our priority, God vs us.
Click to expand...
This might be true if we simply skipped Mass altogether. Do people who have a tradition of attending Mass on Christmas morning prioritize God less than those who get up in the middle of the night to go to Mass and have a leisurely breakfast and opening of gifts on Christmas morning?
 
Midnight was a traditional time for this Mass. It is not mandatory. The Mass is properly called the ‘Mass during the Night’ and is one of four the Missal provides for the Lord’s Nativity. Of course, if Mass is celebrated at 4 pm on Christmas Eve the Vigil Mass should be used, which has different chants, lections and orations from the Mass during the Night.
 
Last edited:
Had a pastor at a large parish tell us, “If you have to ask “What time is Midnight Mass”, or I have to decide what time to schedule it, we both have cognition difficulties that we need your prayers for our healing!”
 
Our Christmas Divine Liturgy is at 10 pm, and there is a 1/2 hour Children’s Christmas presentation before that. Our pastor cares for another parish and they have Great Compline and Divine Liturgy earlier (I think at 7).
 
My church as all. A mass at 10am (its usual Tuesday mass) a 6pm mass which is the family mass and the midnight mass. A nearby church i was at on Saturday morning, the priest was saying that people were calling up to ask the time of the midnight mass and that it’s as it says…midnight. Now I know why, lol, I thought he’d come across a few people with memory issues.
 
Last edited:
My grandpa is a Deacon. Hel told me about one Church in the Brooklyn Diocese that had to have Midnight Mass at 8:00 p.m on Christmas Eve. The reason was because it was believed that the Church was in a location too dangerous for people to come to at midnight. I think eventually the Church either went back to midnight or did away with that Mass completely.

God bless
 
Last edited:
We have Vespers/Divine Liturgy tomorrow at 3:30, Great Compline at 9:30, and Matins and Divine Liturgy at 9:30 on Christmas Day.
 
What used to be called “Mass at Midnight” is now called “Mass during the Night”. With this new title there is a better understanding that it does not need to begin at midnight.

In the 2010 English translation of the Roman Missal there are four Masses for the Solemnity of The Nativity of the Lord. They have the titles:
At the Vigil Mass
At the Mass during the Night
At the Mass at Dawn
At the Mass during the Day

In an earlier English translation of the Roman Missal, published in 1985, (The Sacramentary, Catholic Book Publishing Company, New York) the titles are:
VIGIL MASS
MASS AT MIDNIGHT
MASS AT DAWN
MASS DURING THE DAY
 
Our diocese’s Cathedral has a Midnight Mass, and it is actually quite popular. Most other parishes in the area don’t have it, though.
 
repentant2 said:
There’s no difference between a 4:30 pm mass and a mass at midnight. Both are vigil masses.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure that is totally accurate…the mass readings for The Nativity of the Lord , whether celebrated as a Vigil Mass, Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn, Mass During the Day all have different readings.
 
Plenty of Midnight Masses at various parishes around me, but the hymns usually begin at 11, and you want to get there then to get a seat! The Mass does begin promptly at 12. I’m more of a Mass at dawn person in my old age, though, so I’m going to the 7 a.m. Mass on Christmas Day.
 
Strictly speaking, there is such a thing as Midnight Mass. In the Extraordinary Form there are only three Masses for Christmas Day: the eponymously named “Mass at Midnight”, the “Mass at Dawn”, and the “Mass during the Day”. Midnight Mass must occur at Midnight per Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani.
 
AlbertDerGrosse said:
Strictly speaking, there is such a thing as Midnight Mass. In the Extraordinary Form there are only three Masses for Christmas Day: the eponymously named “Mass at Midnight”, the “Mass at Dawn”, and the “Mass during the Day”. Midnight Mass must occur at Midnight per Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani.
Click to expand...
Is it necessary that it start at midnight or can it be occurring already when the clock strikes midnight?

Edit: I looked up what is said in the Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani and found this:
On the feast of Christmas two conventual Masses are said in choir, namely one at night and the other in the daytime.
Click to expand...
It does not indicate that the Mass must be at midnight. Am I missing something or is this a poor translation? It also doesn’t mention a Mass at dawn. Is this celebrated in the same way as the Mass during the day?
 
Last edited:
The Latin missal has always said Mass at Night. It never said Mass at Midnight. That is simply a common English-language usage.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top