A great opportunity to post the highlights (or lowlights, if applicable) from the Mass you attended.
I recorded midnight mass from St Patricks Cathedral and also thought the music was great. It was even better at the 10:30 pm mass from the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in DC, which was carried by EWTN. Unfortunately the cable company here splits a channel between EWTN and Hallmark so at midnight the mass was cut off! I was so disappointed. I wanted to hear what that magnificent choir and orchestra sang for a recessional hymn.
The African Priest, who was kind enough to cover our 6:30 mass for our exausted Pastor, gave us the most surprising part of Christmas.
He stated that he had been on every continent in the world. He had seen it all.
"America is at war and most of you don't even realize it."
he said in a voice that rocked the Angels.
"You are being told not to say Merry Christmas. You are being told to keep Christ out of your workplace or you will lose your jobs, like the people at Home Depot. They were actually told that if you say Merry Christmas, you will be fired. Well, get fired! We need to say Merry Christmas! We need to get Christ back into our lives."
"And mark my words! I swear to you that if we don't start saying Merry Christmas, if we don't start bring Christ back where He should be, by next year you may well be saying 'Allah Akbar'!"
I nearly fell out of the pew! God Bless him!
ROFLMAO. I've heard this at my church (Children's Mass). It's as awful as he states. BTW, what is Life Teen? They've started this at my parish, but my kids are still too young.
Thanks for posting this story. I had a similar experience this year. I really don't like being away from my home parish during the holidays, or any Sunday, for that matter.
We were in Springfield, MO this year for Christmas. After our Easter experience of "liturgical dancers" during the Gloria at the parish we were married in, I decided we'd never go there again. I chose a different one for Christmas Eve Mass.
We showed up 5 minutes before Mass thinking we were 35 minutes early. Only moments before I had been so proud of myself and the hubster for being able to get our 3 kids ready and away from the in-laws! It faded quickly as we were ushered to the side chapel because there was no room to stand in the church.
We couldn't hear the priest at first but had no trouble hearing all 6 guitars gayfully playing music that didn't resemble anything recognizable. They finally hooked up a mike to the chapel so we could hear, unfortunately, it was the mike by the guitars. So every time the music kicked in, it was blaring so loudly we had to cover our ears. My son was yelling, "I can't stand this!"
I tried to help my son follow along in his MagnifiKid but they used different readings. We got the reading(can't remember which one and I don't want to look it up) of So-and-so, son of such-and-such. I cringed when they called all the children up on the alter to help the priest with his homily. It was horrible!
I missed my priest and think I'll give him a great big hug on Sunday. I know we'll get to sing the beautiful Christmas songs this weekend and I look forward to it! I wish this wasn't even an issue!
I didn't make it to Midnight Mass again this year, but when the Archbishop says it....
It's difficult to imagine why people would even find all the noise and chaos appealing. Quiet and solitude is so much better.