Attached at the following link is a PDF file of my Christmas letter to the faithful of the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw, which can be downloaded for distribution at parishes. Click here for the letter.Also watch for a video version of my Christmas message to appear both here and on the diocesan homepage, www.saginaw.org on Monday!
This is a fine letter. Its subject (Christmas) reminds me of an unrelated concern, but this is as good a place to mention it as any. It is the entrenched practice in virtually all parishes I am familiar with to ignore the titles for the 4 Christmas Masses; e.g., a 6pm Mass on Christmas Eve might use the readings and prayers from the Mass at Dawn, for example. This is an endless frustration of mine; if nothing else, I'd like to know what to expect when I go to Christmas Mass.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I bring this up, nobody else seems to think it matters. Maybe it doesn't. But if it does matter, I think the only way to fix the problem is more emphasis/enforcement from the Diocese. I think that the faithful do not get exposed to the messages contained in the Vigil Mass or Mass during the Day nearly as often as the Midnight and Dawn readings, and they also lose the benefit of the way the readings are so gracefully connected to their specified time of day; the selection from John, for example, is perfect for the atmosphere and attitude of a later morning or afternoon Mass on Christmas Day.