There is a POLL at the end!
Where will you be for Christmas this year and at which Mass do you plan to assist?
For Christmas this year, I will again be in New York City to celebrate the Miracle Near 34th Street, Solemn Midnight Mass at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan (128 W. 37th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue).
Before Mass, there will be a program of choral music, including Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium. I play that in the RADIO SABINA play list from time to time. For Mass, the choir will sing a favorite of mine de Victoria’s Missa O Magnum Mysterium. After Mass, there will be a short reception. There may even be a certain kind of coffee. I don’t know.
In case you are in the area and thinking you are not going to come, here are some brief samples of the sort of music you will be missing.
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The next morning, I will also be at Holy Innocents for the 3rd Mass for Christmas Day, I believe as the deacon.
If you are in the area, and you’re looking for a Miracle near 34th Street, come to Solemn Midnight Mass at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan!
What will you be doing?
Also… here is a little WDTPRS POLL. Give your best answer and then add a comment
According to the scedule where I am "Midnight Mass" will begin/did begin at...
- Midnight, of course! What a question! (59%, 970 Votes)
- 10 pm (or during that hour) (13%, 209 Votes)
- 11 pm (or during that hour) (11%, 186 Votes)
- 9 pm (or during that hour) (5%, 89 Votes)
- 5 pm (or during that hour) (3%, 52 Votes)
- 8 pm (or during that hour) (3%, 48 Votes)
- There won't be a 1st Mass of Christmas where I am! *sniff* (2%, 35 Votes)
- 7 pm (or during that hour) (2%, 29 Votes)
- 6 pm (or during that hour) (2%, 28 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,646
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I will be attending the 11 a.m. Mass on Christmas day in Pittsburgh, PA. I refuse to go to the 9 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve that is the “Midnight” Mass.
One might wonder why I am going to a 5 pm Mass.
Well. it’s the children’s Mass and I have five kids, none of whom are old enough to stay up until midnight, and two of whom are in the children’s choir.
Midnight (High) Mass by candlelight, Immaculate Conception Church, Omaha. Christmas music in Polish, English and Latin beginning at 11 pm. Confessions from 11:00 to 11:45.
Our son will be serving as an acolyte. We couldn’t make midnight Mass last year because of a snowstorm, so we are especially looking forward to it this year!
Midnight Mass (EF) at St. Mary Church in Morrice, MI, celebrated by Father John Bosco. He offers the EF Mass at his parish once a year, just for this occasion. We have been encouraging him to offer it more.
Now that would be something to see.
Thanks for the quick response, Father! I will be visiting New York, and I look forward to Holy Innocents at midnight and Fr. Rutler’s Church of Our Saviour on Saturday or Sunday.
Also, I’ve never wished I lived in New York, or any such place. But it’s times like this that I come awfully close.
11 pm Mass at my parish. My old parish did it at midnight (my pastor was always so proud of that fact), but I’ll take proper liturgy over a Midnight Mass actually starting at midnight. The pastor of my current parish just died on Friday, though, so it’ll be rather melancholy I expect.
I’m music director/organist for a fairly traditional Polish parish. Midnight Pasterka is a very important part of Polish tradition. Poles retain the discipline of fasting and abstinence on the day of Christmas Eve, eating only a simple breakfast, then gathering as a family for the wigilia dinner before attending midnight Mass. Wigilia is a meatless meal, always served in an odd number of courses (typically 7, including a fish course) that begins with the breaking and sharing of the op?atek (Christmas wafer). The Mass always begins with at least 45 minutes of music and kol?dy (carols), and a procession to an extremely large and ornately decorated Nativity for the enthroning and blessing of the image of Dziecko Jezusa. Most families then return to their homes and continue the celebration of the beginning of the Year of Grace and the Birth of Christ with another meal; the table groaning with meats, cheeses, sweets and liquors.
I am so very blessed and privileged to have been welcomed, humble Celt that I am (and a convert to boot!), by these noble and humble Poles.
Weso?ych ?wi?t, Bo?ego Narodzenia! (a bit early)
We’ll be at the 5 pm vigil- then a 9 in the morning and 11:30 in the morning Christmas day- We have to leave 7 in the morning because of the long distance and should be home by 6 in the evening Christmas day. I wonder what the cook will be making for Christmas dinner (oh wait- that would be me…)
I’ll be at the Midnight Mass (starting at 12:00am) at my parish. Our choir will begin singing at 11:30pm – carols, Christmas hymns, etc.
Last year our polyphony choir sang Vittoria’s Missa O Magnum Mysterium! This year we’ll be singing Vittora’s motet O Magnum Mysterium for the communion piece, and we’ll be singing a Mass written by a German priest…forgot the name…not my favorite, but it’s what the choir director picked out. :)
I absolutely LOVE Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium! I so want to sing that sometime.
Oh, that’s not fair. All of the Polish words I carefully added didn’t make the transition from preview to post! (oplatek, koledy, Wesolych Swiat and Bozego Narodzenia all have special Polish language characters. So very sorry!)
Yes, there will be a Midnight Mass at midnight. It will be preceded by, oh, I’ll just transcribe our bulletin: “4 pm (family oriented) – in both Church & Parish Center; 6 pm (youth oriented); 8 pm (Spanish)”. On the 25th, masses at 8:45, 10:30, and 12:15 (Spanish). You see, as our pastor wistfully remarked, the masses are scheduled for the 7,000 (!) who will attend for Christmas, fully 4,300 more than on the average Sunday.
I will attend the 8:45 AM, unless that will make me late for the Christmas buffet at my friend’s retirement home, in which case, midnight it is.
@Titus: St. John Bosco’s RELICS are in the Philippines nowadays. Perhaps, it is another Fr. John Bosco? Saints participate in that ineffable liturgy of the beatific vision, but I don’t think that is what @flyfree is attending, well not for this Christmas.
My plans – catch a warmer day Mass with my 4 soon to be 5 children ages 11,8,7 & 3 in the Arch. of Washington, DC. Have dinner with family and friends – honeybaked ham. Give gifts to my godchildren. Will post simple video to wish you all a Merry Christmas while wearing my Mystic Monk hoodie.
6pm. My eight year old son is serving his second (N.O.) Mass Christmas Eve for the Children’s Pageant.
I LOVE Victoria’s motet O Magnum Mysterium. I hope next year my little choir will have enough people so we can do that one.
My choir is booked 50 miles away on Christmas morning, and we have to leave town by 07:00 to get there, so I will be skipping midnight Mass this year.
Miss A., O.P.
Midnight Mass (at midnight) at Our Lady of Czestochowa in Turners Falls, MA.
God willing, I’ll be at midnight mass (OF) at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska. (Hi, Rose in NE!) The archbishop will celebrate. I don’t know what the music will be, but based on what they did for the Easter Vigil mass, it should be impressive.
Midnight Mass is in Polish at my parish. Closest I can come is 10 pm. Oh well.
cricket
Midnight Mass in-the-round (great harmonics): St Johns in McLean, Va.
m
Going out of town for midnight Mass at a gorgeous church with choir and orchestra. I have not been there but hear it is something ‘to write home about’. Beauty!
Our parish has always had Midnight Mass at 2400 until this year. The pastor said if the Holy Father can have Mass at 2200 (as last year), he can as well.
Midnight at our very own E. F. parish church for the first time — Mater Misericordiae in Phoenix. We couldn’t do midnight the last five years because we were “renting” space from the good N.O. church St. Thomas the Apostle in Phoenix, and they thought they ought to get that hour, for some reason! Tomorrow night Bishop Olmstead (the good guy about the hospital) is coming to dedicate our new church at 6:30. Everybody from the Western U.S. is invited! What a joy!!
We have midnight Mass at midnight at our parish, and an earlier Mass at 5:30 pm (that one is jammed). Since I am not a late night person at all, I will go Christmas Day at 8:00 am.
My parish is doing the Midnight Mass at 11 PM. Except for the start time it promises to be a beautiful, orthodox, say-the-black-do-the-red Mass with chant, polyphony, and traditional carols. However I will not be at my parish for Christmas. My family will be gathering to celebrate on Christmas Eve as it’s the custom to wait ’til Midnight to open the presents. I’m the only practicing Catholic in my family so getting to Mass at some point is not a priority for them. I am a hired cantor at another parish and I will be singing their 4 PM Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and the 12 noon Mass on Christmas Day. They will be having a Midnight Mass. Although I’m not a fan of the liturgies at the parish I sing at I’m grateful for the gig; without it I don’t know that my immediate family would go to Mass for Christmas at all. They will be coming to the noon Mass Christmas Day.
9pm (EF) at the EF Chaplaincy, St Kevin’s, Harrington St, Dublin; the midnight slot is taken by our OF brethern of St Kevin’s parish. DV we’ll be at the Dawn (9am) and Day (10.30am) Masses as well but those will be small child and condition of pregnant wife permitting.
Off topic but I remember some years ago serving Mass for a priest just returned from Rome for Christmas. It started at 11.30pm in a Church in the heart of medieval Dublin and at midnight all the Churches in the old city tolled their bells to acknowledge the birth of the Saviour. It was quite a racket!
In Scranton at St. Michael’s we will also have Lauridsen and Victoria for the Mass. Carols begin at 11pm, EF Mass at Midnight.
There is a beautiful Mette (Christmas Eve Mass) at the Church of St. Ulrich (Ulrichskirche) in Pinswang, Austria starting at 2300. Traditional Tirolean Christmas music will be provided by one of our local brass quartets. The restoration of the interior of this lovely Baroque jewel was completed just before first Advent Sunday (http://ausserferner.wordpress.com). If you are in the northern Tirol or nearby Bavaria on Chistmas Eve or at any other time during the weeks of Christmas you are invited to visit and attend Mass at the Ulrichskirche in Pinswang.
God willing and St. Blaise interceding, I’ll be singing in the choir for the 10:30 carols and 11 PM Mass at St. Albert the Great’s in Kettering, OH.
4:30 pm Vigil, Midnight and 9:00 am.
I would celebrate Midnight Mass if I were the only person in the church.
I will be attending the Midnight Mass in my parish which will be at 12am. Mass will be in English according to the Sunday bulletin with Quartet (Latin Chants).
I will be attending Solemn Midnight Mass (sung in Latin of course). I will be assisting the Scola as Baritone. We are doing the Messa die Pastori as composed by Pietro A. Yon. The Mass will be at St. Anthony Church Lancaster Pa. ( I was baptised and schooled there) where they have been graciously allowing us to use their beautiful church for the past 2.5 years. The nearest thing to heaven this side of heaven.
Midnight Mass and Midnight at Immaculate Conception Parish in Ravenna, Ohio (Diocese of Youngstown). Father really cares that the liturgy and environment be honoring to God and that there be no cell phones in the building none of the time! : ) This year Lord willing I will have the privilege of reading.
Holy Innocents is beautiful as is Church of Our Saviour. Wishing you, Father Z, Father Rutler, and all who gather to worship together with the reverence and awe a wonderful Christmas!
Midnight Mass beginning on the stroke of midnight (and if I know Monsignor he will have his watch set to WWV and signal “Gentlemen, start your thuribles!”) What is jocularly referred to as the “pre game show” begins at 11:30 while those who never show up any other time try to find a seat. We actually have to shoo them out of the choir loft!
The program will begin with handbells and parish choir – two selections from the bell choir – Coventry Carol and one other, can’t remember which but think it’s Joy to the World. Of course with your typical handbell setting it’s a bit of a trick to pick out the melody. Choir program is not set in stone, but it will definitely include the Victoria “O Magnum Mysterium” , possibly the Bach Christmas Cantata (the first movement) if we nail it down Wednesday night, chant “Puer Natus”, Dufay setting of “Conditor alme siderum”, Palestrina “Dies Sanctificatus”, Tavener “The Lamb” (a modern ringer!), “Coventry Carol”, a setting of the “Gaudete” from Piae Cantiones, and the Rutter “What Sweeter Music”. Mass will be the Mozart “Spaurmesse” in C major.
We’ll drag home around 2 a.m. completely exhausted after helping tear down the handbell tables . . . three of us dash from the choir pews to the handbells and back again — since we wear purple robes it’s known as the “Barney the Dinosaur Fire Drill” but it can’t be helped.
Suburbanbanshee,
Hope you’re not having throat troubles this of all weeks . . . ? I rely on Fisherman’s Friend cough lozenges and an herbal preparation called “Singer’s Saving Grace” – the real benefit of the latter is that it is 70% alcohol . . . . fortunately it’s in a 1 oz. spray bottle so nobody’s going to be set drunk by it – a little dab’ll do ya.
(I posted this reply earlier, but apparently the Polish characters gave the system fits, and is “holding” it for moderation. So, I’m reposting here without the Polish alphabet characters.)
I’m music director/organist for a fairly traditional Polish parish. Midnight Pasterka is a very important part of Polish tradition. Poles retain the discipline of fasting and abstinence on the day of Christmas Eve, eating only a simple breakfast, then gathering as a family for the wigilia dinner before attending midnight Mass. Wigilia is a meatless meal, always served in an odd number of courses (typically 7, including a fish course) that begins with the breaking and sharing of the oplatek (Christmas wafer). The Mass always begins with at least 45 minutes of music and koledy (carols), and a procession to an extremely large and ornately decorated Nativity for the enthroning and blessing of the image of Dziecko Jezusa. Most families then return to their homes and continue the celebration of the beginning of the Year of Grace and the Birth of Christ with another meal; the table groaning with meats, cheeses, sweets and liquors.
I am so very blessed and privileged to have been welcomed, humble Celt that I am (and a convert to boot!), by these noble and humble Poles.
Wesolych Swiat, Bozego Narodzenia! (a bit early)
We will probably be attending the 6pm Mass. Not exactly midnight but with two young children and the fact that our priest serves more than one parish our options are limited. We will be having an EF Mass Christmas Day, which I believe may be the first time in 40 years or more.
Midnight mass (EF) Mater Dei community at St Lawrence Chapel, Harrisburg. Mater Dei and Microtouch’s Latin Mass community are sister groups, having originally been staffed by our Chaplain for a few years.
My Mass – God willing – will be at Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, New Jersey. It’s a Tridentine Mass at 261 Cross Keys Road, Berlin New Jersey. The Low Mass is 8.30AM and the High Mass is 11.0AM. The website is http://www.mater-latin.org
I will be attending the Low Mass, so that I may have enough time to get home and eat dinner – it’s a long way from Northern Virginia to central New Jersey!
Midnight Mass with Fr. Z is very tempting, but it would require me to take an early-morning (1:42 AM– I presume the Mass would be complete in time) train from Penn Station to get home. Such trains are notorious for harboring those who have imbibed excessive quantities of alcohol and consequently become ill… we won’t get into the details. [Perhaps you could car pool with someone with a car!]
In the past, I have more than once gone to St. John the Baptist in Manhattan on Christmas morning, just because it’s not crowded. In fact, it is almost dead empty. I’m not sure exactly what I will be doing this year, but the dead empty part is appealing. I am happy to give up my seat at a suburban parish to an occasional worshipper and commute to a less-populated urban parish where my presence is more needed. I’d feel great if I could help a parish form a minyan. Once on Easter morning, I found a dying parish with only seven others attending Mass in the basement; even I was surprised.
I was actually considering the local 9 AM extraordinary form Mass, which is only an hour’s walk from home– that could be worthwhile and won’t be too crowded either, and I won’t have a problem with the calendar on that day. If I sleep later, I could also take a train to Manhattan to Holy Innocents for 10 AM Mass. We’ll see. I guess if I had my own blog, I would set up a poll and let the readers vote on where I would go. I’d have to be careful about what choices I put in the poll, though, or else I could wind up at a clown Mass somewhere.
Yes, the name threw me off too when I first met him, not only because I took the name as my Confirmation name, but I thought I was hearing things and got his name wrong. Father Bosco is an amazing priest, truly orthodox, and gives amazing homilies. We just wish he offered the Mass more than once a year.
However, kodus to our bishop who recently formed the Blessed John XXIII community – a EF exclusive diocesan parish with its own priest.
Midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. John the Beloved in McLean, VA.
St, James Anglican Catholic in Cleveland (last time, maybe, I’m going Roman) at 10:30, pregame at 10, Charpentier Messe de Minuit, Victoria O magnum mysterium, English Gregorian propers. Under the previous priest midnight was midnight, and woe if you performed anything but Advent music before the service!
Sadly there are no Midnight Masses at any of the neighbouring parishes in my area. It seems to be a “dying” tradition, even at St. Peter’s, but like many traditions, I hope it makes a return.
I recently read that it is possible (and even recommended) for Midnight Mass (OF) to be preceded by the Office of Readings (Vigils). Is this done anywhere?
Shout out to Teaguytom… Our company rebuilt your pipe organ!! I was awestruck the moment I stepped foot inside your beautiful church. Thank you MaterDei for getting our EF Mass started. Father P. showed great dedication in coming from Harrisburg to Lancaster in all kinds of foul weather that tended to make me nervous for his safety. But all went well and now we have a dedicated and enthusiastic young priest from the diocese to celebrate Holy Mass. Now if we could just start seeing your numbers… God Bless and Merry Christmas!!!
Weather permitting, I will be at the Midnight Traditional Latin High Mass at St. Catherine of Sienna, Rialto, Ca. Last year there was 1,000 attending the TLM Midnight celebration.
My alternate is Midnight Mass at St.Jude Maronite Parish in West Covina, Ca
We have a 4PM, 6PM (geared toward children), midnight is AT midnight, and 10AM. The 10AM is sadly lightly attended, but a giant mob scene for the 4PM. We will use the readings and prayers for Christmas Morning for all four masses this year since almost no one ever hears the Prologue any more.
Ten p.m. is the default “Christmas Eve” Mass time in these parts (southern Minnesota). I will probably not go to any of them since it will be too tedious. If it stops snowing and raining, the roads are clear and it is not too cold for my wife, we will drive to St Paul to St Agnes. If past experience holds true, though, the long 180-mile round trip to the capital won’t happen.
Otherwise, it will be Mass at the most quiet, least “music-ed” Mass I can find, that is, probably at seven or eight in the mornng in some rural church. I just hope everyone is too tired to sing. Given a choice between tired Christmas carols poorly sung and Pietro Yon, I would rather be at St Anthony’s with Microtouch, where I, too, was baptised — by Fr Fregapane — and schooled by the Holy Cross nuns.
Happy to report that my parish has two options for midnight Mass. Novus Ordo at the Cathedral – and the TLM offsite at a nearby Carmelite monastery. There have also been abundant opportunities for Confession this Advent season!
Midnight Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
God Bless and Merry Christmas to you as well, Microtouch. The organ turned out beautiful. I will have to come visit St Anthony’s sometime. I live in Southern York county so it’s about as far to both church’s from here.
Mass will be at St. Mary’s Church in Marshalltown, Iowa, where I am spending Christmas vacation with my family. Midnight Mass (OF) at 11, as it has been for a number of years. But given the very heavy snowfall expected around that time, this could change! We live at the bottom of a very steep hill to boot.
So we could brave it at 11, or else wait until we dig ourselves out for the 9:00 Mass next day. Or try to beat the storm and go to the 4:30 p.m. Vigil Mass.
At any rate, the groaning table of goodies will be available all evening Christmas Eve.
Luminarias in Old Town Albuquerque in the early evening and then Mass at 10:30 pm at the Shrine of St. Bernadette. Our parish, Our Lady of the Assumption, doesn’t offer a midnight Mass.
Once again my family and I will be blessed to spend Midnight Mass with the Poor Clares in Barhamsville, Virginia. A beautiful monastery set in rural Virginia. You can almost hear the Angels singing ( the Sisters are certainly Angels themselves) . The serenity and the simplicity of the Monastery easily transports you back to the First Christmas in Bethlehem when Our Lord was born in the silence of the night. I often tell Mother Abbess Christmas at the Monastery is understanding and experiencing what the Shepherds felt the night Christ was born. Midnight Mass at the Monastery is truly a gift from God!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
We begin singing hymns, for a half hour, at 11:30 pm on the 24th. Father carries in the statue of the Infant and places Him in the manger just before the midnight Mass begins (at midnight). High Mass, Kyriale IX, Credo I. Gregorian Propers; good hymns. Usually keep the lighting at bare minimum and pass out candles, and Father uses candles for the altar lighting. The organist does need electric lights in the choir loft in the back. Some strings of lights along the ceiling edges help eliminate complete blackness in the nave. Very nicely done. (Oh, and from another line of posts from today…Father will hear confessions from 11 PM to just before he begins midnight Mass.)
Father will celebrate his 2nd (low) Mass at 7 AM, and we will sing another high Mass at 9:30 a.m. for his 3rd Mass of Christmas Day. Then I’m sure the good Father will go home and rest a while : )
(I know that’s what we’ll do, my husband and I, if the little darlings will let us!)
Midnight Mass at Saint John Cantius, Chicago– doesn’t get much better! (Behave, snowflakes!)
Midnight Mass on the dot at our beloved TLM parish, then refreshments in the hall afterwards. We are lucky to be home by 3:00 AM. This Mass is always packed and then we have two others during the day.
The question “What time is Midnight Mass?” reminds me of “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb” or the Far Side cartoon of a cashier at the “Everything’s $1 Store” running a price check :-)
Yes, my church (Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Springfield, IL) has midnight Mass at midnight, and I will go if I can persuade dear daughter to stay up that late or get out of bed in time to go. Otherwise, I will wait until 9 a.m.
There are also Vigil Masses at 4 p.m and 7 p.m. Christmas Eve; however, our pastor/rector on Sunday advised anyone who doesn’t like crowds to avoid those Masses if at all possible.
Re: Christmas morning Masses being light on company
Yeah, for some reason people have seized on Midnight Mass as an identifier, and it’s even bled onto other Christmas Vigil Masses. They’ve forgotten that having different Masses on Christmas Day is so important that there’s different readings for them, and different names.
Re: throat, I’m just getting over a bout of almost-bronchitis. Feeling pretty decent, but I have to avoid a relapse.
Going back to our hometown parish where I am a guest instrumentalist with the choirs there for Christmas and Easter. I am playing at the 10pm Christmas Mass at “midnight” and at the 9am Mass on Christmas morning. Carols begin a half hour before each Mass.
We’ve got an actual midnight mass, but also two evening vigil masses and two Christmas morning masses. Until my husband converts and wants to take the whole family to Christmas morning mass, I’ll be going to the evening mass the night before.
For the joy of being surrounded by kids and grandkids and pregnant people, I will gladly give up the Midnight Mass (at Midnight, what a question!) for the vigil at 4:30. We don’t do “Children’s liturgy”, but there will be lots o’ kids; the offertory will include them bringing up wrapped presents for the baby Jesus in a living nativity.
Wish I could make it to see a solemn midnight Mass in the E.F., but I’ll be offering a N.O. midnight Mass at my parish. On Christmas afternoon I’ll be offering my first ever Christmas Mass in the E.F., but I don’t know how to do the Solemn Mass yet, so it’ll just be a Low Mass… but I hope to be ready for at least a Missa Cantata for Easter!
i had to stop reading these comments for they make me so sad.
instead of being at the midnight solemn TLM at our lady of Lourdes, I will be back up in Allentown. with my nonpracticing family, at our parish filled with bongos and guitars and tambourines and the Gloria jammed to fit to the tune of “Angels we have heard on high” [which i suppose is better than in Advent where they shove the Mass parts to conform to o come o come Emmanuel.
please say a prayer for me… it grows harder and harder to spend the greatests feasts of our Church not only in the company of bad liturgy but as the only one in the family who practices the faith. very isolating indeed
Several members of my family will be attending the family Mass at 4:30 (with children’s choir). My wife will be singing in the choir at the 10:00 PM Mass with 30 minutes of Christmas music prior. Our parish will have a Midnight Mass in Spanish for our large Hispanic population. Our entire family will be at Mass as a family at 7:30 AM on Christmas morning.
lux_perpetua, I am also disheartened as the midnight mass closest features the music director who is the Marty Haugen aficionado…did he write anything for Christmas? I’m afraid if he did that place will prominently feature it, no matter no one has ever heard of it! Meanwhile so many of my generation do not even know the words to O Come All Ye Faithful. I will remember you and your family in prayer.
Midnight Mass in Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem at 9 pm–it’s what we drew.
Will also assist at Mass on Christmas day in Jerusalem; not sure where yet
Fr. Z. will you be in the confessional during any of the Masses you are not celebrating?
I would be great to make a Christmas confession to you! [I have no control over the confession schedule where I am going to be. That is entirely the purview of the pastor.]
Which Mass am I going to? More like which one am I not going to! My husband is the organist, so he’ll be at all of them, and I sing in the choir, play in one of the bell choirs, and have been hired also to play harp. I think I don’t have to go to the 5pm Mass, but I will be there at 8pm, Midnight, and 10am. Then of course the usual Sunday schedule the next day… My husband’s parents will be with us for Christmas for the first time since we married, and they’ll hardly see him for the first three days they’re here. Such is the musician’s lot! We’re at more Masses than the priests.
I would say that we love it, but we didn’t get to pick any of the music and it really isn’t the sort of thing we’d prefer to do. Being a long time chorister and having taken a class with Morten Lauridsen, I’m a little tired of his music, but I’d much rather sing that than our choir director’s cheesy Christmas carol arrangements and the same Mass setting we’ve been singing for months.
While I put in the poll that I would be attending Midnight Mass, I will most likely be going to Vigil, Midnight, AND Christmas Morning! Due to a shortage of servers, I’ve been asked to be the thurifer for the Vigil at 6:30. I’m not getting a good response from K of C Honor Guard so I hope to head to Holy Redeemer in Andrews NC, where THE FIRST EVER CHRISTMAS TLM will be celebrated at midnight!!!! Then, after passing out from a long Friday I’ll wake up Sunday morning for Mass with my parents! I love Christmas!!!
My wife and I will be going to Midnight Mass at our normal parish. Novus Ordo mass in English. On Christmas day we will be attending the 10 AM mass at our local FSSP for a Tridentine High Mass.
Midnight TLM at midnight at St. Damien’s in Oklahoma City. This will be my very first Christmas Mass as a new Catholic this year. There was a terrible snow storm last year while I was in RCIA so I’ve not been to a Catholic Christmas Mass yet. I’m very excited. And maybe 10am OF Mass at St. John Nepomuk in Yukon as well.
No Midnight Mass for me. I’ll be going to a 12 Noon Mass Christmas Day at the TLM chapel. We only have one Mass, since the congregation is small and the priest comes from outside the area.
Oh, how I wish I had the money to go to NYC and attend Holy Innocents Church for Midnight Mass said by you, Father Z!
BIG sigh…..’fraid that will never happen….ever….
Our midnight Mass begins at 11:30 with the vigil service (Office of Readings) before Mass, which begins around midnight.
Since our parish’s last Christmas Eve Mass is at 10:00 PM, we will be going to the Midnight Mass at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, NJ. The Mass will said will said in the Ordinary Form but the Ordinary of the Mass will sung in Gregorian Chant in Latin. We went to this Mass last year and it was very beautiful. There also will be a TLM at the shrine on Christmas Day at 11:00 AM.
St. Olaf Parish (Bountiful, UT) will have Midnight Mass on December 25. The choir (of which I am a member) will have a 15 minute concert/carol sing-a-long starting at 11:30 PM. Despite suggestions from parish staff and parishioners to move it to an earlier time on December 24, our pastor, Msgr. Rudolph A. Daz, who still faithfully serves God and His Church at age 82, remains steadfast about celebrating this Mass at its traditional time.
I don’t know what Mass we plan on attending, but it probably won’t be midnight because I can’t see our toddler being anything but a distraction. Midnight Mass is at midnight in our parish, though, because our pastor doesn’t have midnight and 10 PM confused. At one parish he discovered that people liked midnight better anyway because they had time to get home (or shoe the last guests out of their homes) and get dressed before Mass. 10 was early for people who had family parties.
Fr
I’ll be in the pew joining with you in giving glory to God in Thanksgiving for the gift of the Incarnation. I may bring the camera. It should be a wonderful, miraculous night.
I will be driving in from the burbs with a small crew of believers.
Ed
The priest where I used to live used to get just exasperated when people would call and ask what time midnight mass was going to be. It was really funny, but I wonder if he knew that a lot of parishes don’t have their midnight masses at midnight. Stupid of those parishes, I know, but still, it’s true–they sometimes don’t.
Midnight Mass starting at midnight here. Every year our pastor emphasizes the time because it is one of the most common, most annoying questions he gets. I used to wonder why anyone would ask such a silly question until I heard that other parishes actually bill Masses that may have nothing to do with midnight at all as “Midnight Mass”. It’s still weird, but at least now I know that the question is not totally without merit.
My church is doing something new for Midnight Mass this year – the (astonishingly orthodox!) Novus Ordo will have the Missa Brevis by Palestrina as its Mass setting. We have a phenomenal choir.
Midnight Mass at midnight, preceded by three Christmas Eve Masses. Our first EVER Christmas Missa Cantata will be celebrated at 6:00 Christmas morning followed by two NO Masses. For the TLM my husband will serve as MC and a son will be the cross-bearer. We’ll have one cantor.
{Update to my post above at 20 December 2010 at 10:00 pm}. The “power steeering” warning light went on in the car in the evening December 23rd. There were no dealer-repair shops open on the 24th. On Christmas Eve it snowed seven inches here and a few less in the Twin Cities. The MNDOT recommended no travel. I stayed home and went to a very disappointing “midnight” Mass at 10 p.m., during which the priest who gave the sermon rambled on for 20 minutes without notes and no obvious preparation about how the Nativity was some kind of “stage play-like” thingee and how God’s’ “playfulness” in coming down to earth was something awesome or something like that that after three or four minutes made absolutely no sense and the congregation started taking turns going to the rest room…
I was traveling on Christmas (Eve) to see family so I was in the Metropolitan See of this province once again this year.
I was intending to go the the Cathedral of the Assumption at Midnight. However, due to family preferences and the snow, I ended up at St. Margaret Mary at 11:00 pm. I had for many years attended at midnight at St. Francis of Assisi.
My home parish, Holy Name of Jesus (in a different diocese) had a Christmas Eve schedule of a 4:0o pm (children friendly or something), 9:00 Spanish/Bilingual. Christmas Masses 12:00 am (with prelude starting at 11:15 pm), 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 11:30 am. The usual aftrnoon masses were removed from both the Christmas schedule along with the anticipatory masses for Sunay, thus no masses at all were held on Saturday afternoon/evening even though our usual Sunday and holy day schedules call for them. I wonder if this was to prevent double-dipping as much as it was to give the priests some rest?