Does your parish have music before Christmas masses?

[Gertabelle]

I attend Midnight Mass at the local Trappist abbey. They have the chanted recitiation of the Divine Office before Mass.

Oooooo, that brought back memories

Back in the abbey, the sisters in the novitiate would go up and down the halls “caroling” at 11:30pm to wake the professed sisters for Midnight Mass. We practiced our hymns for the caroling a couple days before Christmas, and made sure we had a special song in German for our German-born Abbess. It was a beautiful little custom.

Of course, the lay people who came to Midnight Mass at the monastery would know nothing of this custom, but I guess the nuns did have music before the (first) Christmas mass.

Incidentally, at 11:55pm the bell was rung calling the sisters to gather in the refectory (right off the hallway to the chapel) to light the Christ candle and line up for the procession into the chapel. The lights on the tree in the refectory would be lit (for the first time), and in the glow of that light, we could see a huge plate of cookies at chocolates, as well as sodas and even a beer at every sister’s place at the refectory’s tables. It was a silent and breathlessly beautiful moment. After mass, we had recreation in the refectory, and then took our treats back to our cells, to sleep a few hours before Lauds and Mass of Christmas morning

Thanks so very, very much for your post which reminded me of two of the most beautiful and meaningful Christmas seasons of my life!

Gertie