If you’re ever in the mid-Michigan area on Christmas Eve, it’s now safe to say that you wouldn’t want to be anywhere other than St. Joseph’s in downtown Detroit. While in previous years, the Midnight Mass of Christmas was the Mass of G. B. Montini (in Latin and ad orientem, mind you), but starting this year, it is the Mass of All Time (M.O.A.T.). What has remained constant is the exceptional music: vocal soloists of good quality and instrumentalists from the Windsor Symphony Orhestra. Even better still, the Mass and the wonderful music are to be found in a beautiful, completely unwreckovated, historical landmark church.

This year’s Mass setting was Mozart’s Spatzenmesse. Both that and the chant propers were beautifully done. Sadly (and oddly, I thought) there was only one clergyman present (the celebrant) and thus the distribution of Communion lasted well into the small hours. Bear in mind that this is a huge church and though there could easily have been another 100 people (the side aisles were sparcely populated compared to the pews lining the main aisle), there were at least 250 people there – and this is downtown Detroit at midnight! (What I mean is, this is not the neighborhood for leisurely strolls after dark.)

On a personal note, parenthood has all but crushed authorship in my life, but I hope that this situation won’t be permanent. Still, while the duties of teaching, dissertation writing, and, in general, seeking to become a wise and educated person press, I’ve had little time for blogging. My five month old daughter did attend the Midnight Mass and slept not a wink through the whole it. We did our best to entertain and distract the people who sat at the very back of the church.