This Advent we are again offering the Saturday morning Rorate Masses by candlelight on December 9 and 16.  They begin at 6:30 a.m. and conclude as the sun begins to rise in the sky. 

A Rorate Mass is a traditional Advent devotion that gives honor to the Blessed Virgin Mary offered on Saturdays just before dawn.  In the dimly lit church, we will gather to prepare ourselves to welcome the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, who is soon to be born of the Virgin.  As the Mass progresses and the sunrise approaches, the church becomes brighter and illumined by the sun, just as our faith is illumined by Christ made present in the Eucharist.  These Rorate Masses will be celebrated Ad Orientem (toward the East).  The point of facing east is to emphasize that in the Mass we are in a sense in procession out of time and into eternity in heaven.  We are turned in expectation toward the Lord who is to come.  (Not all churches are built facing east, in which case the cross and tabernacle become “liturgical east”.)  The priest, standing in the person of Christ, leads the way, but the entire community is part of that same procession, which culminates with our reception of Holy Communion, a foretaste of the eternal joys of heaven.

If you have never been to a Rorate Mass before, we invite you to join us this Advent.