Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-12-28
MIDNIGHT MASS.
churches OF the Diocese of Wilmington Z,
Have Services New Yenr,s Eve.

churches OF tho Diocese of Wilmington To
Have Services New Ysnr,s Eve.
.. The following Decree Of the Sacred
Congregation Of Rites has been for
warded by Bishop Monaghan to tho
clergy of the Diocese of Wilmington.
by virtue of this Decree midnight
mass is permitted in all the churches
Of the world on December 3lst of this
year and also Of 1900, as special con-
secration to God of the closing of the
present century and the opening of the
twentieth century:
Rev. Dear Father: The Rt. Rev,
Bishop directs your attention to the
following Decree issued for the Uni
yersal Church at the instance Of the
Sovereign rontiif: ,ei
1T is eminently proper that those
who are about to celebrate the opening
of the Holy ! ear go fittingly pro-
claimed by our Holy Father, Pope
Leo XIII, should wake at night to pay
their homage 10 the Author of Time,
PROSTATE themselves before Ills affairs,
Join in offering the most acceptable
Host, the Lamb of God, and be present
at the Sacred Banquet, in order that
at this most opportune iuncture,
divine snccor, and grace, and mercy
may De thefeDy obtained
For now our salvation is nearer.
Behold, now is the acceptable time
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
For If the kingdom Of God, which is
meme other than the church of our own
day, IS compared to ten virgins going
forth in the silence of night to meet
the bridegroom, now OIL this solemn
and suspicious occasion it is incumbent
upon all to study more closely than
ever the import of these divine words !:
Trim your lamps; behold the BRIDE
groom cometh; go ye forth to meet him.
Moreover, as the present century ends
at midnight on the last day of Decem-
Der, next year, and the new century
then begins, it is peculiarly fitting
that solemn service of devote Thanks
giving be rendered to God fol the
blessings vouchsafed during the cen.
fury that is just closing, and that still
greater favors be implored to meet the
crying needs of the age and to begin
the new century under favorable
auspices.
Nineteen Hundred may begin auspi-
ciousiy, prosperously continue, and end
happily, through the imploring of the
| iCiNibo hoDiStanCb duti biib VI
the Only Begotten Son, our Preserver,
and so may usher in, as we fondly
cherish, the dawn of q brighter cen
tury, our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII,
graciously grants that ON the thirty
first day of December of this and the
coming year, the most August Sacra-
nlent be exposed for alteration at md
night in, MI churches and chapels
where the Blessed Eucharist is kept,
according to the prudent judgment OF
the Ordinary of the Diocese; with the
privilege of reading or singing then
and there during the Exposition one
Mass only Of the Feast of the Circum.
cision and the Octave of the Nativity
the faithful being permitted, as q
special favor, to receive Communion
during the Mass or afterwards. AL
other requirements to be duly observed.
Everything to the contrary notwith
standing. W
The 18th day of November, 1899.
| Camillus Cardinal Mazzella,
Bishop of Praeneste, Project of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites.
ElN ID. Panici, Secretary.
by order of the Rt. Rev. Bishop.
John Connolly, Chancellor.