Have you ever been to Christmas Midnight Mass?
Do you know the history behind this beautiful tradition?
Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum University, acknowledges that, like many liturgical practices, the origin of the three Christmas Masses at midnight, dawn, and during the day is not totally certain.
However, the supposed origin of this tradition is interesting.
First, according to EWTN, Christmas, as a liturgical feast falling on December 25th, originated in or around the year 330.
“From Rome, the celebration of Christmas then slowly spread eastward, and little by little, was incorporated into the liturgical calendar of the principal Churches,” Father Edward McNamara explains.
Over time, it became customary for priests to celebrate three distinct Masses on Christmas: at midnight, at dawn, and during the day.
It was Pope Sixtus III who played a key part in shaping the Roman form of Midnight Mass.
The story goes that in the early fifth century, he had a small chapel built at the church of Saint Mary Major. The chapel resembled a grotto modeled after the cave in which Christ was born in Bethlehem. By the seventh century, the relics of the Holy Crib would be placed in this chapel at Saint Mary Major in Rome!
So, Pope Sixtus III, inspired by the custom of the midnight vigil held in Jerusalem, began to say Christmas Mass at midnight in that grotto-like chapel.
According to tradition, Christ was born at midnight. We are reminded of this in the Saint Andrew novena prayer:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother.
Amen.