After reading (and re-reading) posts on this forum for over a year I decided that the best place for my family to be on XMas Eve in Paris was Notre Dame. We traveled an hour to get to the cathedral and then waited over an hour while the earlier Mass was going on so that we could be in for the next Mass. And then when the Mass ended NOBODY LEFT!!! NOBODY from the previous Mass left!!!! So only a handful of people (literally only a handful) of people could get in. NOBODY LEFT THE EARLIER MASS!!! Please do not make the same miserable mistake I did: Do not go to Mass at ND on XMAS Eve
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11507 posts
Shouldn't your advice be don't go to the later mass, sounds like its good enough for people to sit through twice, so I would suggest if one wants to attend the Xmas Mass they go to the earlier one!
Posted by
OP
southern Maine
19 posts
Pat, I had exactly the same thought, but what I don't understand is this: ND starts offering Masses early in the day so at what point do you arrive to get in to a six o'clock Mass? Noon? 9 am? If I am coming across as sarcastic I don't intend to. I'm truly curious to know what I did wrong and what others have done. Bonne fetes!
Chris
Posted by
Richmond, Virginia, USA
345 posts
Chris, are you saying that nobody left the earlier mass? Just wanted to make sure I understood.....
Posted by
Auburn, Alabama
1064 posts
We also encountered an endless series of masses at Notre Dame one March in the run-up to Easter a few years ago. These started at 4 or 5 p.m. My wife sat through two of them before she figured out what was happening and left. Having grown up around churches that regularly had all-day revivals, I just assumed the same was happening there. At least I was inside the building and could see what was happening instead of standing outside the whole time wondering if she was being held hostage.