I’m sure there cannot be a Parish Priest anywhere who has been in ministry for more than a few years who has not experienced this query at least once. And while, on the face of it, it seems to be a daft question, maybe it isn’t as silly as it first sounds. I wonder how surprised many of us would be to realise that, technically, there is no such thing as ‘Midnight Mass’?
In fact, there are four Masses which can be used over Christmas Eve (not including the Mass for the day of the 24th) and Christmas Day, depending on the time. If you have a personal missal they may not all be there but we should be aware of all the options.
The Vigil Mass is used on Christmas Eve. The Gospel for this Mass comes from Matthew and is the genealogy of Jesus, up to his actual birth. During the Christmas Vigil celebration, the faithful participate in an “anticipated celebration” of the Nativity of the Lord. If you have a Mass in the afternoon or early evening of Christmas Eve then this is the Mass to use. It is still a ‘Christmas Mass’, fulfilling the obligation and is different to the Mass for Christmas Eve which is used during the day of the 24th.
Mass during the night is the Mass we often think of as ‘Midnight Mass’ though there is nothing in the rubrics that says it has to be at midnight. This has been the case since 2009. But it should be at night not in the afternoon or early evening even if it is dark at 4pm. The Gospel is the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds, telling them to visit Bethlehem.
Another lesser known Mass is the Mass at Dawn. This time the Gospel is still about the shepherds but we have Luke’s version. For obvious reasons, this Mass is sometimes known as the Shepherd’s Mass.
Finally, we have Mass during the Day. This is the Mass most of us will be familiar with if we go to church on Christmas morning, with the Gospel being the prologue from John – “In the beginning was the word”.
So what’s the history behind all of this?
The practice of celebrating Mass at midnight on Christmas Eve can be traced back nearly 1,600 years and is one of the Catholic Church’s oldest traditions. Priests were granted permission to celebrate three Masses at Christmas provided they used the correct propers for the time of day. Normally, saying three Masses were only allowed by the Pope.
The situation we have now with four Masses is a relatively recent innovation.
Evening Mass as an option was not introduced until 1953 when Pope Pius XII issued an apostolic decree allowing for evening Masses as a way of making it possible for workers who could not attend weekday morning Mass to attend in the evening instead. Incidentally, Pius XII also is responsible for another change that greatly encouraged reception of the Eucharist at Christmas and throughout the year. Christmas ‘Midnight’ Mass was very much a unique experience.
Permission for vigil Masses for Sundays or holy days of obligation, like Christmas, was not authorised until January 1970.
Times have changed very much over the last years, making it much more user-friendly for churches to have more Masses on the evening of Christmas Eve. The traditional ‘Midnight’ has also often been moved to an earlier time. For many people, this is a purely practical consideration. The age of a congregation, young and old may be a factor. Transport can play a part. Closing time at local hostelries has a bearing. How many places had to have ‘bouncers’ to look after those who had spent the evening imbibing? And, occasionally, the choir were considered if they sang at night and in the morning. It’s a lot easier to get up for 10am Mass on Christmas morning if your night Mass starts at 10pm instead of midnight. I think its worth doing in this case to make sure the Liturgy is a good as possible. And, by the way, Pope Benedict also celebrated Mass during the night starting at 10pm so as to be OK for his message to the world on Christmas morning.
Regarding readings: A rubric in the lectionary for Christmas indicates that it is permitted to choose among the readings for the three Masses for Christmas Day, depending on pastoral needs. This choice must respect the proper liturgical order of: Old Testament, psalm, epistle and Gospel.
In other words, it is OK to have the reading about the shepherds from Mass during the night at the Mass during the day, for example. You would need to have good pastoral reasons for doing so but if you have a large number of small children present on Christmas Day morning it might be an option. I would suggest, however, that this is something to be done with care and not an automatic change. It may be more suitable if you will be celebrating the Second Sunday of Christmas, which we won’t in 2022, as this uses the start of John’s Gospel again.
As leaders of music, we need to remember that, whichever Mass we use, we must be responsive to the needs of our congregations, and it is worth remembering that there will be a proportion of people at Mass on Christmas day who do not normally attend our Parish Mass. These may be visitors who are used to being in church, but they may also be people who only attend a couple of times a year. We need to make sure these people feel at home just as much as our ‘regulars’ and are able to join in singing the Mass and giving praise to God.
Music, Liturgy and ME 