No midnight mass

[Dorothy]

QUICUMQUE VULT:

Does anyone have at a priest or deacon, chant the Kalends. before the start of Midnight mass? It is A tradition at my Parish, Before the start of the tridentine mass at midnight, the arch priest, comes into the darkened sanctuary, and by the light of candles he chants the kalends, Then torches are lit and a procession forms in front of the altar of the BVM. The celebrant takes an image of the Christ child, from the altar. And the torchlit procession moves through the darkened church to the Creche, where the blessing takes place. Suddenly all the church is lit and the Solemn procession begins, as the choir chants the “Adeste fidelis”. The procession comes to the Altar and the Midnight mass begins. We have many visiting priests every year, who join in the procession to add greater solemnity. They vest in Gold copes and birretas. A very moving experience.

I have never heard of this but it sounds awesome!

 

[steve99]

Some churches, particularly in towns, have several pubs nearby and late Masses have problems with drunks rolling in, or parishioners being abused by drunken revellers as they leave, especially now there are extended licencing hours. So priests have the vigil Mass early enough to avoid these problems.

 

[MikeWM]

steve99:

Some churches, particularly in towns, have several pubs nearby and late Masses have problems with drunks rolling in, or parishioners being abused by drunken revellers as they leave, especially now there are extended licencing hours. So priests have the vigil Mass early enough to avoid these problems.

Indeed. The parish in Liverpool where I was baptised and confirmed, and where I’ll be going to celebrate Christmas with my family, used to have exactly those problems. They have had midnight mass at 9pm for a number of years. Except for last year, when for some reason they had it at 7pm…[1]

My home parish here in Cambridge is having midnight mass at midnight, which would be preferable in my book, but unfortunately I won’t be here.

The positive side of midnight mass being earlier than midnight - easier to get up the following day to go to the Day mass

Mike

[1] Possibly because the parish priest covers two parishes nowadays, so probably he had to do midnight mass in both.

 

[MarthaMartha]

steve99:

Some churches, particularly in towns, have several pubs nearby and late Masses have problems with drunks rolling in, or parishioners being abused by drunken revellers as they leave, especially now there are extended licencing hours. So priests have the vigil Mass early enough to avoid these problems.

That’s precisely why my priest moved ours to 10 P.M. – too many people arrived at the midnight Mass and were so drunk, they were falling out of the pews.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

John Lilburne:

This permission is in the Lectionary itself, just before the Midnight Mass readings:

“In Masses celebrated on Christmas Day, the readings given below are used, with the option of choosing more appropriate readings from any one of the three Masses according to the pastoral needs of each celebration.”
(From Lectionary I, Study Edition, 1983, Collins Liturgical Australia, ISBN 0-00-599764-X, page 104).

Thank you i’ll grab a US lectionary and look at it.

 

[kleary]

I attend a Tridentine Mass at a local Mission Church in our diocese and our midnight Mass begins at 11:00 PM. This is because so many people from all over the tri-state area travel so far to get to this Mass. With the High Mass being over 2 hours long it is felt best to start at 11:00 so people won’t be getting home after 3:30 AM.

I was told that it is still actually Midnight Mass because the consecration will take place after Midnight.

As far as the Novus Ordo, having Midnight Mass at 10:00 or so seems wrong to do since Mass will be over before Midnight and the consecration itself will take place even before 10:30, since Midnight Mass is indeed the first Mass on Christmas day.

Ken

 

[kleary]

Dorothy:

I think that is a very good guess. We have our pastor who is near retirement, and a retired priest. And there are two masses on Sunday morning, Christmas day, and one at 5:00 PM on Saturday, Christmas Eve, geared to the children. They have opted to have a midnight mass, but I would certainly understand if they had chosen to have it at 10:00 PM instead.

I am the coordinator for the proclaimers, and I had to call a lot of them before I could find two who would be at midnight mass. Most of them said “I don’t stay up that late”.

It is a shame that people, including our clergy, think that you need a congregation to offer a Mass. The first Mass of Christmas is offered by the priest to God and no congregation is needed.

Ken

 

[Mary1973]

I thought the Mass was at Midnight so it was technically Christmas Day and before Vatican II, there was no vigil Mass. Now that we have vigil Masses, the need to wait for Midnight is not there.

I know I prefer 10PM. It was no fun getting to bed at 2AM and having to get up for 9AM Mass (sing in choir). I pitied the priest who had 7AM Mass Christmas Day.

We also have a 5:30 PM Vigil Mass for Children which I absolutely refuse to attend because it is so mobbed and irreverent.