Plea for pastors not to cancel church on Christmas

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alwayswill said:
small churches have one pastor:
I have filled in for small church pastors in the past:
Pastor also have families:
I am unavailable to fill in this Christmas
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I think the confusion stems partly from the misquotes, but also in part to ideological differences. I am a devout Catholic, and my wife is from an evangelical sect of the Church of Christ. (Our marriage is convalidated). They will go to incredible lengths to make service. It is one of the most beautiful things to observe. Their strict sola scriptura makes them a part of a very small and segregated sect. They will drive 200 miles to go to a church that fits their rigid dogma every Sunday if necessary. Catholics are often criticized for not taking Mass (or services) seriously, but missing Mass is never taken lightly. So to hear that a professed man of God would choose family over the Church is what I think is hanging most people up.
 
ValleyCatholic said:
They will go to incredible lengths to make service. It is one of the most beautiful things to observe. Their strict sola scriptura makes them a part of a very small and segregated sect. They will drive 200 miles to go to a church that fits their rigid dogma every Sunday if necessary.
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The Pentecostal church my family attended had more than a few members like that. Even as a teen I was impressed by their devotion. After I became a Catholic I visited the new evangelical church my parents attended. I was (and still am) very impressed by their piety. Many people would come half an hour to an hour early to pray. They would be kneeling in their pews (facing the back of the church because of no kneelers) praying for the pastor or whoever would be preaching and for the congregation. Everyone entered quietly and started praying. No chatting at all. The social time was after the service. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that in a Catholic church. And I’ve been Catholic for 40 years now.
 
The large Methodist Church that I attend will be having four Christmas Eve services on Saturday evening and one Sunday service (Christmas Day).

I have not asked the staff why they are having just one service on Christmas Sunday because there normally are three (one is a small early one in the chapel), but I assume it is because most of our congregation will not be attending on Christmas Day. Instead, most members focus on the family-oriented aspects of the holiday, like driving to Grandma’s house and participating in gift-giving there, or serving at a homeless shelter or something similar on Christmas Day itself.

Folks at my church tend to focus a lot more on the religious aspect of Christmas on Christmas Eve and the days and weeks leading up to it, although at our house we always say a special prayer on Christmas at meal time – thanking Christ for coming into the world to be our Savior as well as thanking Him for His innumerable blessings.

If Christmas Day is not on a Sunday, do Catholics still have a Mass on Christmas Day? if so, is it considered a day of obligation even if you attended Christmas Eve? Just curious.
 
Bonnie said:
Sorry - I guess I got confused. It must have been someone else saying she was attending Christmas eve mass. For Catholics, tho, the Christmas Eve mass & Christmas day mass are equivalent - different readings, but both fulfil the obligation to attend.

Having been Protestant, I understand that it’s not a big deal to not have a service on Christmas day. It didn’t bother me then, & if I were still Protestant, it wouldn’t bother me now. I think it’s the cradle Catholics who have a hard time accepting that Protestant traditions are different from Catholic ones. 🙂
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I grew up a Protestant. We always had church on Christmas when it fell on a Sunday.
 
Tommy999 said:
If Christmas Day is not on a Sunday, do Catholics still have a Mass on Christmas Day? if so, is it considered a day of obligation even if you attended Christmas Eve? Just curious.
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Christmas Eve is a Vigil Mass for Christmas Day, just like a Vigil on Saturday night every week or the night before holy days. It fulfills the obligation.
 
Padres1969 said:
Could it be that less people attended Christmas Day services because they’re attending the Christmas Eve mass/service instead?

I’ve noticed this about my parish, which isn’t Catholic but we are obviously very liturgical. We have two Christmas Eve masses at 5pm and 10:30pm (the latter is such a high mass that it actually goes so long that it ends well after midnight on Christmas Day) and a 10am on Christmas Day. The two Christmas Eve masses are the much busier, the 10:30pm in particular is packed beyond the gills. The morning mass is very sparse by comparison. But part of why that is, is that most of the congregation has already attended Christmas mass the night before since evening and midnight mass would, in Catholic parlance, fulfill both the holy day and Sunday obligation.
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Yes, the Christmas Day Mass always seems to be a really pared down, no-music version (nicknamed “The Curmudgeon’s Mass”). I have always enjoyed Christmas Eve late Mass (used to be midnight, it’s a little earlier now so we leave at midnight). Typically I have seen the Masses for Christmas like this:
  • early Christmas Eve – family Mass (may be accompanied by children’s pageant before the Mass)
  • late Christmas Eve Mass (the liturgy wonks’ favorite–full “smells and bells”)
  • Christmas Day Mass (Curmudgeon’s Mass … people who don’t want to rejoice too much/want to avoid small children)
Yeah, that’s a bit stereotypical, but not completely off base.

As far as non-Catholic churches, I’ve never been to one that wanted to cancel Christmas completely, but I’ve heard about it in connection with the mega-Churches. Or maybe I’m just a bit of an ostrich.
 
Bonnie said:
The Pentecostal church my family attended had more than a few members like that. Even as a teen I was impressed by their devotion. After I became a Catholic I visited the new evangelical church my parents attended. I was (and still am) very impressed by their piety. Many people would come half an hour to an hour early to pray. They would be kneeling in their pews (facing the back of the church because of no kneelers) praying for the pastor or whoever would be preaching and for the congregation. Everyone entered quietly and started praying. No chatting at all. The social time was after the service. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that in a Catholic church. And I’ve been Catholic for 40 years now.
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What about the extraordinary form of the mass, I often see people there early praying, or mass on the weekdays in either form.
 
Omaestre said:
What about the extraordinary form of the mass, I often see people there early praying, or mass on the weekdays in either form.
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No extraordinary form here & weekday masses are difficult for me to get to, so I have no clue what those would be like.
 
Omaestre said:
What about the extraordinary form of the mass, I often see people there early praying, or mass on the weekdays in either form.
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Here too in the cathedral ( Killarney). always a few there at least half an hour before mass, quietly praying and I often linger.
 
alwayswill said:
Oh we do have a late night Christmas Eve service: which I will be attending:

but I don’t think you get to question my Christianity because I chose to travel 500 miles to spend Christmas day with my siblings and dying mother
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Thank you for this… and I honour you in this.

There is no way I can attend church at Christmas or indeed at other times as my immune system is down. It would be irresponsible and dangerous. And yes there ARE other ways to honour the time apart from being in Church , I have don this many years and I know my Prayer and my dedication here alone on the mountain are blessed and bless others.

Jesus knows our hearts and our needs… oh and yes I have official permission for this.

Many are the ways of Christmas…
 
Bonnie said:
I thought it amusing the first time I saw in the bulletin that Midnight Mass would be at 10 pm. After a few years of that they finally started calling it Christmas Eve Mass & now I think it’s as early as 9 pm. Not sure about this year - the time hasn’t been posted yet.
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a rose by any other name… same as dawn mass at easter!
 
phil19034 said:
Sounds like they might have corrected an error in promotion or in liturgy.

Christmas has 4 different liturgies:

Christmas Vigil Mass (anything before Midnight on the 24th)
Christmas Mass at Night (typically done at Midnight, and used anytime before dawn)
Christmas Mass at Dawn
Christmas Mass during Day

All four have different readings and the Nativity Proclamation is only performed at the Mass at Night.

There is no “midnight Mass” liturgy, so if a parish is calling a mass “midnight Mass” before midnight, they are doing one of two things:
(1) simply having a later Christmas Vigil Mass and simply calling it “midnight Mass” for whatever reason

(2) they are using the Mass at Night liturgy on the 24th with or without permission from their Bishop. *** NOTE: This Mass liturgy is supposed to be used only on the 25th, not before midnight on Christmas Eve.

Theoretically, if a parish schedules their Christmas Mass times “correctly” a person could come to Mass 4 times at Christmas and hear different readings & prayers all four times.
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That is far too complicated for small rural communities in Ireland, 😉
 
Padres1969 said:
Yeah it’s not only Catholics who can breathe easy not worrying about mass being cancelled for trivial reasons 😉
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hmm, there was a weekday in Mayo once when we all waited for Mass and the priest simply never arrived and no one knew why,
 
I can assure everyone who in County Mayo that Father Fahy will be celebrating the Sunday Christmas Day Mass.

Sunday is Not only Christmas and but also Sunday, a Holy Day of Obligation fro Catholics.
Practicing Catholic should do their very best to go.
 
Rosebud77 said:
hmm, there was a weekday in Mayo once when we all waited for Mass and the priest simply never arrived and no one knew why,
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We once had a priest who didn’t show up one day. Someone went to check on him - turned out he had overslept. Priests are all too human sometimes! 😉
 
I grew up in an independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church. Until I began visiting a Catholic church when I was in my mid-thirties, I had never once been inside a church on Christmas Day.

If Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, services were always cancelled. The church would put out an announcement that it was important for families to spend the day together.

There were no Christmas decorations or Christmas hymns the following Sunday. We had no liturgical calendar, so the Christmas season was over at the end of Christmas Day. In fact, it was quite common for people in our area to have Christmas trees out for trash pickup on the morning of December 26.
 
jediliz said:
Easter is never cancelled, why should Christmas be?
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About a 8-10 years ago I went with a friend to a Pentecostal meeting, and took a glance at the program for easter. They had one meeting on the second day of Easter, not on easter day. I was perplexed, and asked why. I was told that ‘people go skiing.’
 
Today I saw a sign outside a Calvary Chapel stating there would be no Christmas Day services. A first for me.
 
Bonnie said:
We once had a priest who didn’t show up one day. Someone went to check on him - turned out he had overslept. Priests are all too human sometimes! 😉
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Is that not the truth and that is fine. Nothing disastrous in that,
 
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