f the
festival, that the Church sets forth in her radiant words; there is
little thought of the purely human side, the pathos of Bethlehem.

It was customary at certain places, in mediaeval times, to lay on the
altar three veils, and remove one at each nocturn of Christmas Matins.
The first was black, and symbolised the time of darkness before the
Mosaic Law; the second white, typifying, it would seem, the faith of
those who lived under that Law of partial revelation; the third red,
showing the love of Christ's bride, the Church, in the time of grace
flowing from the Incarnation.{5}

A stately ceremony took place in England in the Middle Ages at the end of
Christmas Matins--the chanting of St. Matthew's genealogy of Christ. The
deacon, in his dalmatic, with acolytes carrying tapers, with thurifer and
cross-bearer, all in albs and unicles, went in procession to the pulpit
or the rood-loft, to sing this portion of the Gospel. If the bishop were
present, he it was who chanted it, and a rich candlestick was held to
light him.[36] Then followed the chanting of the "Te Deum."{6} The
ceremony does not appear in the ordinary Roman books, but it is still
performed by the Benedictines, as one may read in the striking account of
the monastic Christmas given by Huysmans in "L'Oblat."{7}

|94| Where, as in religious communities, the offices of the Church are
performed in their full order, there follows on Matins that custom
peculiar to Christmas, the celebration of Midnight Mass. On Christmas
morning every priest is permitted to say three Masses, which should in
strictness be celebrated at midnight, at dawn, and in full daylight. Each
has its own Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, each its own Introit, Gradual,
and other anthems. In many countries the Midnight Mass is the distinctive
Christmas service, a great and unique event in the year, something which
by its strangeness gives to the feast of the Nativity a place by itself.
Few Catholic rites are more impressive than this Midnight Mass,
especially in country places; through the darkness and cold of the
winter's night, often for long distances, the faithful journey to worship
the Infant Saviour in the splendour of the lighted church. It is a
re-enactment of the visit of the shepherds to the cave at Bethlehem,
aglow with supernatural light.

Various symbolical explanations of the three Masses were given by
mediaeval writers. The midnight celebration was supposed to represent
mankind