An ancient Advent tradition honors Mary, the Mother of God, with a special Mass that begins shortly before sunrise.
“It’s this whole idea of the daylight coming in, and Mary is the dawn bringing the light of Christ into the world,” Geraldine M. Rohling, the archivist and curator at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., told Our Sunday Visitor.
Rohling is responsible for the first Rorate (roh-RAH-tay) Mass at the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America. The Mass, which will take place Dec. 20 at 7 a.m. ET in the basilica’s Crypt Church, dates back to the eighth century. The basilica, Rohling said, hopes to livestream the Mass so that the faithful have the option to witness it remotely.
“That will be the first time that we will do a Rorate Mass [as far as I know],” Rohling said. “Hopefully it will become a regular thing here.”
The Advent tradition takes its name from the opening words of the Latin introit of the Fourth Sunday of Advent and the Advent votive Masses of the Blessed Mother, which reads, “roráte, coeli, désuper.” Those words, Rohling said, translate to mean, “drop down dew, from the heavens.”
While the first Mass of the day is traditionally celebrated after Lauds (morning prayer) or after dawn, this Mass is an exception, the basilica’s website explains. The Rorate Mass usually occurs before Lauds and before dawn.
“In the winter darkness, the faithful would walk to their churches carrying their lanterns or candles to light their way,” the website reads. “Upon their arrival, they would illuminate the church with their lanterns and candles around the altar. As Mass was celebrated, the sun rose, illuminating the interior of the church. Thus, the symbolism of ‘Mary, the Dawn’ and ‘Christ the Perfect Day.'”
In honor of that tradition, the basilica invites the faithful to bring a lantern or a candle Dec. 20.
“This is the one time when the hymn, ‘Mary the Dawn, Christ the Perfect Day,’ sums it all up, because Mass begins in the darkness and by candlelight — and as the Mass progresses and as the day progresses, light starts to filter into the church as the sun rises,” Rohling said.
The timing of the Mass and its texts make the Rorate Mass special, she said.
“People tend to get caught up in the romanticism or the allure of having Mass by candlelight — and in the land of the 24-hour generator, I can understand that,” Rohling said of the Mass. “But when this tradition actually started, that’s all you had, was candles. … That was not the extraordinary thing.”
A tie to the Annunciation
The Mass goes by a couple of other names, including the “Mass of the Angel,” because of the texts it includes, Rohling said.
“It’s the text used — the Gospel and everything — from the Annunciation Mass,” she explained. The Gospel reading, from the first chapter of Luke, recounts the moment when the angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she will conceive and bear Jesus, and she responds with her “yes.”
“If you want to be kind of symbolic or poetic about it … when [Mary] agrees to bear this child, she kind of enters her own Advent as she awaits the birth of her son,” Rohling said.
During Advent, she said, the Church looks to Mary in a special way because of the anticipation, waiting and longing for salvation.
“It is essentially Mary’s willingness to participate in this act of salvation,” she said. “That should be the focus of the day.”
A unique Mass
The Rorate Mass is also called the “Golden Mass,” Rohling said, “because of the many special things that are added.”
“During Advent, we normally do not sing or recite the Gloria at Mass, but for this Mass we do,” she specified. “During Advent, we normally wear the royal blue or the purplish-colored garments, the garments of longing — but for this Mass, we wear white.”
The Rorate Mass tradition has European roots, she said.
“It’s very Germanic. North European countries did it,” she said of its history. “You would have it in Poland, the northern countries,” where it was dark and cold during the winter months.
While speaking about various Advent traditions, including the Rorate Mass, Rohling described many of them as “practical.”
“It’s taking the practical and for one moment — for one moment — taking it out of its ordinary attire and enhancing it … so that when you go back to your daily routine, you take something else with you.”