There are actually two problems, as I see it, with Midnight Mass. The first is that it's at midnight. And the second is that it's a mass. Other than that, it sounds highly appealing to me, so I meet up with my gymnastics-mom friend Mei and her friend, and her friend's friend, to try to go to midnight mass at Notre Dame.
We are not, as you can imagine, the only ones with this idea. So the other problem with the mass is that even before the mass, it's just a mass (of people). We get there around 10:45, and the line is already very, very long with many armed police and temporary barricades. We hear the singing while waiting outside, as they project the service outside on a screen that is, of course, mass-ive. I am told by my Catholic friends that first comes the singing, then the mass will be about an hour, starting at midnight.
We are not, as you can imagine, the only ones with this idea. So the other problem with the mass is that even before the mass, it's just a mass (of people). We get there around 10:45, and the line is already very, very long with many armed police and temporary barricades. We hear the singing while waiting outside, as they project the service outside on a screen that is, of course, mass-ive. I am told by my Catholic friends that first comes the singing, then the mass will be about an hour, starting at midnight.
I am clearly in it only for the cultural aspect of the music, so once I realize that if I wait to get inside for the actual mass, I won't even get home till 1 or 1:30am, I cheerfully wave goodbye near the end of the singing, jump out of line, and go home to finish prepping for Christmas itself -- and there's a lot to prep since my sister's family is arriving on Christmas day (our very best present this year!). So I do not actually get inside Notre Dame with the masses. But, on the positive side, at least this year my hair doesn't get incinerated.
1 comment:
You wrote this with great mass-tery!
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