Two Christmas Eve liturgies and now a peaceful Christmas morning

I sit at my computer at 5:45 AM on a cold clear beautiful Christmas morning.  quite frankly, I do wish I was still sleeping.  Christmas Eve I was assigned to assist our two anticipated Masses at MHT.  I always marvel at the size of the crowd for the 4 PM vigil.  This year we had somewhere between 750-800 with us to worship at this first Mass for Christmas.  It is always quite tempting to say we wish we had this many folks week after week but reality is many come to Mass infrequently but never miss Christmas.  And of course we know that many are at Mass with extended families and have arrived from all points of the compass.  I was the Deacon of the Gospel for these Masses and our Pastor decided to read the Gospel for Midnight Mass at both of our vigils(we do not have a Midnight Mass at MHT).  I love proclaiming that Gospel!  Later in the Mass we saw long, seemingly never ending lines for Holy Communion.  And as Mass was ending, I love standing outside greeting and shaking hands and wishing a Blessed Christmas to all as they leave for their various family traditions.

We repeated this again at 6 PM and still another 350-400 arrived to worship.  For us at MHT, still worshipping in a temporary worship space while our new church building awaits construction, these are heady numbers; almost 1,200 folks worshipped with us on a Tuesday afternoon, a Tuesday that indeed is Christmas Eve.  Again, I proclaimed the Gospel and assisted in distribution of Holy Communion and greeted those off into the Christmas Eve night.  And yes, as I drove home I was both satisfied, reinvigorated and tired!

I did manage to see both significant parts of Midnight Mass from Rome with Pope Francis and St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans with Archbishop Aymond.

And still here I am wide awake blogging at this early hour on Christmas Day.  So be it.  Today I anticipate a great Christmas meal, a visit from my aunt and sister, Skype with #1 grandson and an evening spent at Rayburn Prison!  It will be a full and beautiful Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas everyone!