How was Christmas Mass?

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I went to two. I was in charge of the Christmas Pageant at the parish where I work, so I also attended the early Mass with the children. We had 30 kids in the pageant, and it went very well - so far, we have had nothing but compliments. There were places where the timing was a little off, but the kids knew their lines, and we had lapel mics for them so that they could be heard by the congregation. They also knew exactly where to stand and sit, and how to move, and their costumes were absolutely gorgeous - our costume people really came through for us, this year.

We had a little seven year old boy as our narrator, and he read beautifully - I was very impressed at how much he practiced and how hard he worked. 🙂

After the pageant we had 15 minutes of silence before Mass, and then the Mass itself was very suitable for the children, including Father’s homily.

Later I went to Midnight Mass at my home parish, and again, it was beautiful - we had a carol singing just before Mass began. We chanted the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei in Latin, and we sang all very traditional music throughout. There was a very beautiful Siksika family sitting in front of me - they took up three pews, there were so many of them, and most of the children were so wonderfully well behaved throughout (one little boy could not help but react vocally to everything that happened; he was constantly talking, but at least he was paying attention) - it was very nice! 🙂
 
In spite of liturgical abuses

in spite of bad music

In spite of poor homilies

In spite of all the distractions

The good news is…

Jesus Christ showed up at all of these Masses–

Praise be to God!!!

Isn’t it great that He condescends to be part of our messiness?

I love being Catholic!!!
 
Brywan said:
In spite of liturgical abuses

in spite of bad music

In spite of poor homilies

In spite of all the distractions

The good news is…

Jesus Christ showed up at all of these Masses–

Praise be to God!!!

Isn’t it great that He condescends to be part of our messiness?

I love being Catholic!!!
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Amen to that 🙂

Personal rant: We have some very nice metal chalices. Couldn’t we at least use one of them at these high occasions? All seven chalices on the alter, while Waterford, were still glass. (End of rant.) Merry Christmas!!!
 
OraLabora said:
Stunningly beautiful. I showed up for midnight Mass at 10 pm with my wife; in fact we attended monastic Vigils at 10 pm, with chanted invitatory (in Latin), French plainchant psalmody (recto-tono for the psalmody of the first two nocturnes, sung for the canticles of the third nocturne), and sung readings, with chanted responsories in Latin; at midnight the Mass started with the introit “Dominus dixit”, the schola chanting it and the first psalm verse as the community processes into the sanctuary, then the entire community (and myself) joined in after the first psalm verse; Kyrie and Gloria IX were chanted, the gradual, alleluia, offertory, sanctus, Agnus Dei, and communion antiphon all in Gregorian chant. The rest was all chanted in French; the only non-chanted part was the abbot’s homily.

Everything was chanted a cappella, with an organ interlude between Vigils and the Mass, as well as an organ piece at the offertory and after the final blessing. The abbot presided, assisted by our two newly-ordained deacons (one the two chanted the Gospel), and concelebrated with the priests-monks of the community. After Mass we stepped out into the cold night (-20C) with the abbey bells pealing over the stillness of Lake Memphramagog.

For the record, the Mass was (and is always at the abbey) in the Ordinary Form.
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How dare the abbot not chant his homily! 😃

Vigils is equivalent to the Office of Readings, isn’t it? I would love to have the Office of Readings before Christmas Mass.

Sounds so lovely. Do the monks chant the chants, or is it a lay schola?
 
It was OK, but not particularly special. No incense, no festive vestments – the priest wore a beige nubby fabric crafty-looking chasuble while the deacon had a snow white dalmatic.

The choir was lovely but I could have done without the applause the priest called for before the Prayer After Communion and the spontaneous applause after the recessional hymn.

As usual at French Canadian Masses the choir took liberties with the Ordinary as directed by the stuff that comes out of Novalis and ACLEF. It’s been years since I’ve heard a legit sung Kyrie, Sanctus or Agnus Dei.

But for all that, it was Mass, I received Communion and I was surrounded by hubby, our 3 children, our son-in-law and 10 mo. old grandson, and our future daughter-in-law. What more could a woman want?
 
I went to my first midnight Mass, which was proceeded by Christmas Carols. It was beautiful 🙂
 
Made the mistake of going to the 4:00 PM Mass! Turned out to be the teeny bopper spirit Mass.

So called music was so loud I had to put my fingers in my ears and it was still too loud.

Priest said, we are running late into the next Mass, so does everyone believe in the Apostle Creed, people said yes, so he skippped it.:eek:

I held out until I received the Eucharist, and then retreated to the furtherest corner in the back of Church, and I my ears were still ringing.

I always go to midnight Mass, and next year that is where I hope to be.
 
Midnight Mass at St Mary Mother of God. Solemn High Mass.

Nice crowd, not too packed. Father Harris gave a typical Father Harris homily (good, solid homily. Most places this would be good; but definitely not a Father Daniel barnburner)

Fantastic polyphony. The prelude was a soprano singing Ave Maria with a single violin accompaniment. Sounded absolutely angelic.

Only saw a few drunks on the drive back home from Chinatown.
 
Packed! Gives a whole new meaning to there not being any room at the inn!
 
1st off … I’m sad to say that I don’t go to Church that often, I try to be a decent person and lead a honest life but i’m afraid Mass is something that I don’t do that often…

I didn’t care for Mass too much today… 2 reasons…
  1. Instead of sticking to one or other of the versions in the christmas handout booklet missle, the readings and the Gospel were done from one section, response to the psalm and other sung responses were from other alternative mass segments… instead of putting my heart into thinking about the words, I (along with many around me) were flicking through the paper books that were handed out trying to figure out what page they were singing from… If the readings were from one… surely they should have used the response to the psalm from the same… It was more like a game of confuse the congregation!
  2. Did NOT LIKE IN THE LEAST the new version of standing in the pews after receiving communion… I don’t understand why this was introduced… What I saw happening is ‘people watching’ those that were still going up to receive communion, shouldn’t we be kneeling, praying and reflecting at this point? By standing like this it is a natural distraction…
Sorry not very articulate, but I truly felt that it somehow diluted a personal connection, by having this distraction rather than kneeling, closing your eyes and praying… I also didn’t like that after the last person received communion everyone sat, I prefer to kneel and remain kneeling until the priest or Bishop sits…

I’m sure I’ll get an education from some of you here…

Thanks
 
GoldenLight said:
  1. Did NOT LIKE IN THE LEAST the new version of standing in the pews after receiving communion… I don’t understand why this was introduced… What I saw happening is you people watching those that are still going to receive communion, shouldn’t it we be kneeling and praying and reflecting at this point? By standing like this it is a natural distraction…
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If you want to kneel then you go ahead and kneel. You are perfectly free to do that. It would be nice if everyone did it, but you are perfectly able to do so.
 
GoldenLight said:
1st off … I’m sad to say that I don’t go to Church that often, I try to be a decent person and lead a honest life but i’m afraid Mass is something that I don’t do that often…

I didn’t care for Mass too much today… 2 reasons…
  1. Instead of sticking to one or other of the versions in the christmas handout booklet missle, the readings and the Gospel were done from one section, response to the psalm and other sung responses were from other alternative mass segments… instead of putting my heart into thinking about the words, I (along with many around me) were flicking through the paper books that were handed out trying to figure out what page they were singing from… If the readings were from one… surely they should have used the response to the psalm from the same… It was more like a game of confuse the congregation!
  2. Did NOT LIKE IN THE LEAST the new version of standing in the pews after receiving communion… I don’t understand why this was introduced… What I saw happening is ‘people watching’ those that were still going up to receive communion, shouldn’t we be kneeling, praying and reflecting at this point? By standing like this it is a natural distraction…
Sorry not very articulate, but I truly felt that it somehow diluted a personal connection, by having this distraction rather than kneeling, closing your eyes and praying… I also didn’t like that after the last person received communion everyone sat, I prefer to kneel and remain kneeling until the priest or Bishop sits…

I’m sure I’ll get an education from some of you here…

Thanks
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Hi! That’s how the mass has always been, whether you’ve been aware of it or not. Probably it was more evident now because of the new translations, but using the missal, section by section like that is not new if you really follow along to know what’s going on.
 
I got home a few hours ago. The Gospel was St. John 1:1-14. No incense or similar frills, but they did read the Christmas proclamation from the martyrology. I loved hearing those Christmas hymns on the organ. I had a very good Holy Communion. The sermon was on the incarnation.

I go to a reverent OF parish near my house most of the time, and so I didn’t have to deal with pretty much any liturgical abuse, except I was the only one who genuflected during the Creed.
 
OF chanted all the time by the priest, choir, and congregation. I think that the Confiteor was only prayer that was not chanted. Most of it was in Latin from the Missa Brevis by Giovanni da Palestrina. Lots of incense and as usual our pastor pulled out is biretta for the occasion. The picture of my son the altar server (there were 13 servers) with the pastor is after Mass and after the statute of the baby Jesus has been brought to the nativity set in the smaller chapel.
http://forums.catholic-questions.org/picture.php?albumid=1675&pictureid=11364
 
JGMendes4049 said:
How dare the abbot not chant his homily! 😃

Vigils is equivalent to the Office of Readings, isn’t it? I would love to have the Office of Readings before Christmas Mass.

Sounds so lovely. Do the monks chant the chants, or is it a lay schola?
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Yes Vigils is the equivalent of the Office of Readings (if you look at the GILH it says as much), except much longer. For the schema used at the abbey, it’s two nocturnes of 3 psalms each, along with a third nocturne of three OT canticles. Plus invitatory and hymn before, responsories after each reading, the Te Decet Laus after the Gospel, and the Te Deum before the collect. Invitatory, hymn, responsories, Te Decet and Te Deum all chanted in Latin.

It’s a monastic schola, the best singers from the community of about 40 monks.
 
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